Video: Follow-Up
Do not let your hot leads turn cold! Watch this video to learn how to properly follow up on those important bridal show leads.
Video Transcription:
You will maximize your results from a show if you follow up with the people you met. Don’t just wait for them to reach out to you, be proactive. When the show ends, that does not mean that the sales process is done. 20% of your success comes from what you do during the show, but 80% comes from the follow-up that you do after the show. It’s rare that someone will actually sign a contract and give you a deposit right there at the show, but that’s okay. Your goal is to take your prospective customer and move them into what is called “The Smaller Room.” For you, that means setting an appointment because that’s where the deals are closed and the sales are made. Will some of the appointments that you made at the show ultimately fall through? Absolutely, but by having set an appointment you know have what you want: a reason to follow up. You’re no longer a telephone solicitor, you’re someone they met at the show. You have the chance to open a dialogue with the prospective customer and their implicit permission to follow up. Takedown the follow-up information from the hottest prospects you meet. Follow up with those hot leads immediately by email, text, and phone. The longer you wait, the greater the likelihood that they will become good customers of your competition. Now a hot lead generated from a show is a hot lead for two reasons. First: they’ve connected with you, they’ve shown some interest, they want to continue the conversation, they like you. But second: they’re a hot lead and they showed that interest because that thing you sell is at the top of their to-do list. This means that they are likely talking to your competitors at the same time. By following up, you are demonstrating you are interested in working with them, many of your competitors might not do that.
Now a few days after the show, you’ll get that big list of all of the attendees. These leads are not as valuable as the ones you’ve collected at the show, but a follow-up to this larger list can yield results. There are some proven strategies for using a post-show list and I’ll go over those in detail in our marketing to a list video, but here are some quick tips.
Take a picture of your booth. Having you in that picture is even better, and use that when you follow up. It sparks their memory and they’ll know who they’re talking to.
When following up to that big list of attendees, don’t start your follow-up with “It was nice to meet you at the show” if you aren’t positive you actually met them at the show. You didn’t meet everybody. Instead of following up to that list all at once, time your follow up to the couples buying timeline. Thanks to the wedding magazines and websites most couples follow a fairly uniform timeline when planning a wedding. Some decisions are made early on, some are made closer to the wedding. Determine where your type of business falls on that timeline and schedule your follow-up accordingly. If your typical first contact with a prospective customer happens six months before the wedding, then each month follow up with just those people on the list with wedding dates six or seven months into the future. How long should you follow up? As long as it takes. Keep following up until they buy from you or they tell you to stop following up. Very few wedding professionals follow up at all.
