Are you struggling to find the time to follow up with leads and/or clients? Be honest! It is so easy to get caught up with sales, marketing, and serving clients that many entrepreneurs forget to follow-up with leads. While important, it is such an easy thing to fall by the wayside if you’re doing it all yourself or having your team do it all manually.

This is one of the number one reasons clients come to us – they need help with their follow-up. If you’re like most businesses, you are losing major money in your lack of follow up. Here’s the top 5 ways you are likely flushing money down the toilet:

1. Not following up on referrals

A huge part of growing your business is utilizing referrals from colleagues, clients, and friends. You already have an advantage since they are finding you from a known source rather than a cold lead like one who found you through a google search. However, if you don’t follow-up with the referrals, you’ll never get the chance to make it to the next level and close the business. Not to mention, you risk damaging the relationship from the person who sent the referral in the first place!

2. Not capturing contact info from visitors

Getting the traffic to your website is only the first step. If you’re not capturing visitors’ info, then you’re not capitalizing on that traffic. You need to engage your audience with your initial material and use follow-ups to continue the relationship. This applies to trade shows or events as well! Every person you touch is a potential lead but if you don’t follow-up, the relationship is much more likely to fizzle than grow.

3. Not following up with new leads who were interested in your products but didn’t buy right away

You’ve probably heard the statistic before that it takes at least 5-12 touches before most people will purchase a product. So what happens when you’re not following up on new leads after the first email or two? Probably nothing! If you don’t utilize a follow-up sequence, then you are losing out on a majority of those sales.

4. Not instantly following up with and welcoming new customers to the family

When someone purchases a product or service no matter how small, they want to receive something acknowledging that purchase. If they’re not receiving anything from you, they’re more likely to reconsider and possibly regret the purchase. This should be done immediately following the purchase so they know you are excited to be working with them. Start that relationship off on the right foot!

5. Not following up and rescuing lost customers

This is a big one that so many business owners overlook! What happens when a client’s credit card gets declined? If you’re not following up, probably nothing. You lose the sale because the client was unable to complete their transaction and either gets frustrated or forgets to come back another time. But, if you utilize follow-up on any attempted transactions then you provide another chance to keep the customer relationship strong. Plus, you establish goodwill with the client and show that you are aware of their issue.

So, what’s holding you back from improving your follow-up? Comment below or on our Facebook page.

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