The Art of Lead Follow-up Why You Should Avoid the Hard Sell

When it comes to following-up leads and engaging potential clients for your digital agency, there are an array of things that you should not do. It is also not unusual to be gripped by fear and insecurity when reaching out to large corporations and experienced individuals, and this alone can prevent you from building potentially lucrative client relationships  with your agency.

If you find yourself riddled with self-doubt or struggling to successfully engage potential clients, there are some steps that you can follow to overcome these challenges. These include:

1. Ask How You Can Help a Particular Client?

In truth, successful lead follow-up starts with your mentality, as you should approach any potential conversation from a single, focused mind-set.

From my own experience, the best method is to initiate conversations based on  how you can help potential clients. More specifically, consider how best you can offer value to them and their endeavours, while taking the opportunity to share snippets of your own experience and helping others to learn.

This creates a mutually beneficial relationship that is based on research, knowledge and understanding, and one that also lays the foundations for long-term collaboration.

2. Be Informal and Avoid the Hard Sell

On a similar note, it is extremely difficult to build sustainable relationships if you adopt a hard-sell mentality from the outset. While your long-term objective may well be to sell a specific service or product, you are more likely to achieve this once you have established an organic relationship with clients.

This also lends itself to an informal communication style, which puts others at ease and eliminates the temptation to engage in hard-selling.

I have also found that this helps to overcome any initial fears or inhibitions that you may have, especially when communicating with older or more experienced contacts. In the past, I have dealt with numerous clients who I feared had a better grasp of English or specific markets, and used informed but informal language to help establish a connection.

3. Be Persistent and Follow Your Instinct

With a clear mind-set and an open communication style, you will begin to see result when following-up leads. There will be times when you are still unsuccessful, however, and in these instances it is important that you remain true to yourself and proactive in the quest to engage others.

Persistence is a crucial attribute for anyone keen on following-up leads, as you must not be discouraged by failed out-reach attempts.

You should also follow your instinct when following-up leads, as this helps to overcome any fears or insecurities that may be holding you back!

So, be proactive, persistence and avoid the hard-sell, while also using research to offer value to others. Above all else, remember the importance of mentality, and follow-up all leads by thinking of how you can help individual clients.