The Fortune is in the Follow-Up Systems

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:02]everyone and welcome back to Sell More Academy, the mastermind for more sales.

[00:00:08]My name is Ben McGary and for the last two decades, I've spent nearly every day trying to figure out how to sell more stuff. I've been in the trenches selling my own products and services for years.

[00:00:21]I built teams, companies, and systems that sell from Main Street, smalltown USA, all the way to Wall Street. And I've been fortunate enough to coach and consult for countless others worldwide, all in totaling over $150 million in sales. During that time, it has become painfully obvious that the marketplace is and always will be loud and noisy.

[00:00:48]Content creators and social media gurus are incentivized to promote clickbait tactics and short-sighted strategies that often cause more harm than good.

[00:00:59]And with the rate of techn technology advancing, it seems like everyone has all the tools at their fingertips these days. Yet, nobody really knows how to put it all together. Plus, what worked yesterday might not work today and will almost certainly be different again by tomorrow. And that's precisely why I started Selmore Academy, to build a community and a set of resources to help you stay ahead of the curve, to help cut through the noise and make sense of the next best step. At Somewhere Academy, we focus on what we consider to be the five pillars of modern business success. AI, branding, marketing, sales, and systems.

[00:01:41]And we bring this to you through a powerful combination of a vibrant mastermind community where you can connect with and learn from fellow high achievers and experts in the field. Live master classes just like this one where we dive deep into the strategies and tactics of each pillar covering one per day. A curated collection of resources including free tools that we're building to help you sell more effectively.

[00:02:07]and access to our sell more directory, connecting you with the prevetted providers and solutions that you'll need whenever it's time to either outsource or just find the right tool for the job.

[00:02:20]Our goal here is to provide you with everything that you need to not only stay informed and competitive, but to sell a lot more stuff. And that brings us to today's master class where we're going to dive deep into systems and specifically we're talking about follow-up systems. And we're calling today's master class the fortune is in the followup. But it's really it's in the follow-up system. And here's the truth. Most salespeople actually, they're pretty good at the first conversation, maybe the pitch, maybe even good at demos or the initial calls.

[00:03:02]And that part usually gets done. What kills deals is everything that happens afterward, or maybe more accurately, what doesn't happen afterward.

[00:03:16]Studies consistently show that 80% of sales require at least five follow-up touch points to close.

[00:03:26]Yet, nearly half of all reps quit after just one single attempt.

[00:03:32]That's not a pipeline problem. You don't need more leads. That's a follow-up problem, a systems problem. So, today we're going to fix that. We're going to talk about what a real follow-up system looks like, not just send a check-in email. We're talking about the right context, the right cadence, and the right copy. And then we're going to talk about how to automate the whole thing so it runs without you having to even think about it. By the end of today's session, you'll have a clear framework to build a follow-up system that actually converts.

[00:04:12]So, let's get into it.

[00:04:16]Today's session is one that I've actually been wanting to do for a while because it hits on something that costs salespeople and and businesses a massive amount of money each year. Not because they don't know how to sell, not because they don't know their product, but because they don't have a system to follow up.

[00:04:38]As I said, we're here to fix that today.

[00:04:41]We want to focus on how to design and build a high converting follow-up machine.

[00:04:46]But let's start with the problem that got us here. The average salesperson makes one, maybe two follow-up attempts and then moves on.

[00:04:58]Meanwhile, the data tells us that most deals close somewhere between the fifth and the 12th touch point.

[00:05:09]That gap between where most reps stop and where deals actually convert, that's where your revenue is hiding.

[00:05:19]That's your opportunity for growth.

[00:05:23]We call this that followup gap. And today we're going to focus on creating a bridge to go over that gap.

[00:05:31]Ultimately, what we're trying to avoid is leaving money on the table. We want to make sure that we are always focused on conversion instead of generating.

[00:05:44]Meaning, we're not always looking to generate more leads. We want to convert the leads that we have. And this provides a huge competitive edge because if nobody else is following up past the first or second opport or first or second follow-up, that leaves opportunity for you to step in. So this is what we're going to go through. As I said, we're going to create a bridge that covers that gap.

[00:06:10]So today's mission is to build that follow-up playbook.

[00:06:14]And I want to ground this in reality before we really get into the how here.

[00:06:21]These are not madeup stats.

[00:06:24]This is what the research actually shows.

[00:06:28]44% of salespeople quit after just one follow-up. Just one.

[00:06:36]Meanwhile, 80%, as we said, 80% of sales require five or more touch points.

[00:06:44]You do the math here. If you're stopping at one or two, you're clearly leaving the m majority of your opportunities on the table.

[00:06:55]That's your potential revenue lost, going nowhere. And here's the kicker.

[00:07:00]The reps who follow up consistently, they're not necessarily better salespeople.

[00:07:07]They just have better systems. And so, if you want to move from the bottom of the board to the top of the board, it might just be a system issue.

[00:07:15]So, we're going to look at the power of strategic followup. We're going to look at the three C's, context, cadence, and copy. We're going to look at design and how to work backwards from our outcome.

[00:07:28]Then, we're going to look at automating so that we can scale personalized outreach. And then, we're going to look at a blueprint to implement your follow-up system.

[00:07:38]So, let's start by talking about what is a follow-up system because this is kind of interesting. the number of touch points to close a deal has been climbing.

[00:07:49]So, as we said, that number 80% say 5 to 12. Well, that number used to be around five. Now, it's actually closer to the 8 to 12. And some studies indicate that it's even more because people are inundated all the time with marketing, with advertising, with salespeople trying to sell them something. And so that means that it's going to take more effort, more consistency than it did in the past. That's just the new reality.

[00:08:17]And so rather than trying to chase this around and constantly remember where everybody is in your pipeline and who you need to follow up with and having sticky notes all over your computer or notebooks full of scribbles, let's talk about a system. So, a system here is going to be a structured multi-channel approach designed to nurture prospects from interested to committed. Notice we're saying multi-channel approach. So, it's not simply just email. Although we will talk a lot about email through today's class. This applies everywhere.

[00:08:51]And so, ultimately, we want to find them where they are at the right time. And that's a lot of what we'll get into here. It is not just sending a few random check-in emails. That's not it.

[00:09:04]Um what our goal is is to guide and educate and persuade over time.

[00:09:11]Building that trust word that everybody wants. We disagree with but that's what everyone's looking for. Really what we're after here is credibility and authority. And that's what we're trying to establish.

[00:09:23]This adapts to the prospect's behavior.

[00:09:27]That's the type of system that you want to build. So, it changes the message based on the actions that they've taken or where they are in the process as opposed to blanket messages that apply to everyone and really apply to no one.

[00:09:42]This also leverages that multi-channel approach that I spoke about earlier. So, email, SMS, social, wherever you need to go to cut through the noise. That's what a full follow-up system means is being everywhere that you need to be.

[00:09:56]And so as as buyers are busier, as their inboxes are more crowded, there's there's just so much more going on. The bar for staying top of mind is just much higher than it's ever been. And that's really not a reason to give up, but it is a reason to build something that's much smarter than you've ever built in the past.

[00:10:22]Well, let's talk about the importance of this because today's today's buyer, their attention is fragmented and it has been for quite some time, but it's never been this bad. They're getting hit from every single direction. Chances are, if they're reading an email from you, they probably have LinkedIn pulled up.

[00:10:42]They've got their phone in their hand.

[00:10:44]Social media is playing in the background. There's ads on the TV.

[00:10:48]Somebody's at the door trying to sell them a vacuum cleaner. there's a lot going on. And so if everybody is competing for the same slice of attention, and that's an important little note that we say, um, not not every bit of competition is direct competition, meaning they're in your market, they're in your business, they're in your niche, whatever the case may be. Some of it's indirect, and meaning that we're all fighting for a finite number of dollars or a finite amount of attention that our buyers have. And so we're competing against all kinds of things that fall in there.

[00:11:22]Literally, if I'm selling a widget, I'm also up against a movie, right? Maybe maybe them buying this widget means that they can't spend that time and money on a movie that they wanted to go watch with their family. So, there's a lot going on here past just um you know, the initial initial product or the initial outreach. We're trying to figure out what are their trade-offs. And so again, we we understand that attention is limited, that time is limited. And so the reps who win, who consistently lead sales teams or consistently at the top of the board, they aren't necessarily with the ones that have the best product. And this is kind of an interesting uh phenomenon that takes place. The best product rarely ever wins. The best price rarely ever wins.

[00:12:13]It's some combination of the two. When you go to the store, you're rarely looking for the cheapest possible thing.

[00:12:21]You're also probably not going to buy the most expensive. The majority of us fall somewhere in between based on how we value what we're looking at. And so, the same thing applies here. The people who show up consistently in the right place with the right message win more deals than those who don't. Consistency will beat your brilliance and your creativity every single time. The biggest brands in the world have been doing this for a while, right? It's very rare for somebody to become um now there could be viral sensations and this and that. I'm not saying that. saying to be a big brand, to be one of the big great great brands, great companies that exist, you got to do things a little bit different. It takes a long time to build this. And so remember that consistency will beat your creativity. It will beat your brilliance every single time. And so while their attention spans are speed are are shrinking, while competition is increasing, while your prospects are overwhelmed, the worst thing that you can do is send bad follow-up. It will shut them down.

[00:13:36]It will alienate them. It will repel them. As we talk about in just about every master class, once they detect that sales process, they will reject that sales process. We all do it. And so what we want to do is shift over instead of noise, we want signal. Signal cuts through the noise. We want good followup that differentiates you. And we're going to talk about what good follow-up means.

[00:14:02]We want to build the trust that they're looking for, which really we know to mean credibility, authority. Um we want to show truth as opposed to what they're looking for. But we need to understand that's what they're searching for. And so we bring them in with a certain perception and then we say, "Hey, you don't need to trust us. Let us just show you it's that simple. And the way that we're going to follow up is going to do that. It's going to move us away from trust and into uh truth. However, it will still accomplish the exact same goal for the prospect. All right, let's take a look a look at these stats again because they're they're kind of shocking. It they really show how massive the disconnect is between what's required and what people actually do.

[00:14:44]And this is, as I said, the huge opportunity for you and your teams. So, think about this. 80% follow 80% of deals require at least five follow-ups.

[00:14:54]And if the average follow-up is only going to make one, two, or three contacts, then the gap is there. And that's where really most people are failing. They're worried about their job. They're thinking that sales isn't for them. Um the price is wrong, the product's wrong, the competition's too hard, something like that. When really all they need to do is be more consistent. We've talked about why follow-up matters more than ever. So, let's look at the some of the other numbers other than just the 80% that help to prove it. Um, as we mentioned, 44% of people quit after just one follow-up. We have eight average touch points that are needed. Although stats are showing that that is increasing more and more. Um, as I mentioned, it used to be five. At one point, it was three times as people needed to see your stuff. But as we become more and more fractionated, we need to be reminded.

[00:15:43]And we need to be reminded in intelligent and creative, not creative, intelligent and consist consistent ways.

[00:15:50]Uh so the kicker here is that all you have to do to beat most reps, most competition is just make the extra contacts. It's that simple. You don't even have to be great at it. You will land 2.7 more meetings than average reps simply by following up more intelligently. So, if the numbers are this clear, then where is this disconnect? Why do people stop following up? Well, it's because they don't know how. It's because every time they reach out to somebody, they hear the exact same feedback. They think that they're bothering or pestering somebody because they're not bringing any new value. So, let's talk about what that looks like.

[00:16:35]First off, we know that our prospects need more touch points. The old rules are kind of dead, so to speak. the magic number is escalating. And so what we want to do is not necessarily send more followup for volume's sake. It's not we're not following up just to follow up. It's about staying top of mind and about building momentum over time. And we just looked at those stats on how many touch points are needed. But let me try to make the case for systems before we dive in here. Think about the best salesperson that you've ever seen.

[00:17:13]Maybe that's you.

[00:17:15]What separates the best from everyone else. It's usually not talent.

[00:17:21]It's consistency. It's a system that will make you consistent by default.

[00:17:26]Now, some of us have our own systems that we run. We run SOPs of this is how I prepare for every meeting. This is how I handle every meeting. This is how I follow up for every meeting. You know, and and some of us have those. However, even if you are the best in the world, the best that's ever done it, you're going to have bad days and you're going to have busy days.

[00:17:50]And by building a system, they never know. They always get your best. They always get your most thoughtful, wellprepared presentation because you've built a system that delivers it at exactly the right time.

[00:18:08]a system removes that human error, the oh, I forgot, I'll get to him tomorrow, the I'll get to it later, the um the the person messaging back in, how do I move forward? What do I do from here? Those are sometimes the worst messages that you could receive. It means that by building a system, it means that your follow-up happens on sunny and rainy days. And I think that's really important.

[00:18:35]The power of building this process is that you only have to do it once. Now, of course, you're going to come back and check on it every time that you uh see something needs to be changed or uh maybe quarterly, monthly, whatever cadence fits you, but essentially the core part of the process is you build it and then let it go. And that's kind of a wonderful thing. So, imagine that you were going to teach your specific unique follow-up process to a new person coming in. It would take a lot of time and they would fumble around until it gets just right. And then even once they get it just right, you can't fully walk away because they're human and they could have a bad day. Maybe they just got evicted. Maybe uh they've got um maybe they've got a bad bit of food in their stomach and it's messing with them, right? Like there are so many things that could cause us to change the way that we process and uh information and make decisions. So we want to be sure that we take all of that out that we eliminate all of those variables that we can and we want to use a system to deliver the messages that we want the perfect messages at the perfect time to the perfect people. And so this kind of escalation, this need for more more intelligent touch touch points really kind of brings us to the challenge which again I've brought up fractionated already but it's so important to understand how fractionated we really are because it's often it's it's often taught that we could just go find our audience anywhere. But that's not really the case anymore. And that's why a wellexecuted follow-up system will meet them where they are regardless of the channel. We're not about being pushy and trying to drag them to us. It's about going to them and being helpful and relevant. And that's what makes things work. Maybe the two biggest terms that we need to remember when it comes to followup would be relevance and timeliness. Is this a relevant message and is it timely? And those two don't always go together. Don't assume that because one the other when usually they can be seen as very different.

[00:20:55]We've established that more touch points are needed. I think that should be clear by now. But let's think about where they are and what kind of touch points we might need. So let's say they're on LinkedIn. Now, that may be a credibility type post where we're talking about um you know the uh I mean a message where we're talking about what other people are saying because that's that's what LinkedIn is. It's it's all about validation from others, right? And so we could use that to our advantage.

[00:21:31]Um on the phone, you know, it could be a very different kind of conversation.

[00:21:35]We're not calling to say, "Hey, I'm just checking in." Matter of fact, I have on good authority that just checking in is already dead. We'll talk about that in a bit. But what we want to do is we want to talk about what moves the situation forward, what helps them make better decisions, whether that's with you or without you. And ultimately, that's what we want to do. We want to as sales people with our follow-up in businesses with our follow-up, we do not want to move somebody to the end. We want to move somebody to the next step. whatever that next step is. That puts them in control. That puts things on their terms instead of on ours. And that helps us because of the the style that we're using and the the methods that we're using here. It helps us to almost automatically stand out from all that noise that they get in their inbox, on their timelines, wherever it is that you're messaging them. They're getting flooded with stuff. And so this is going to help you stand out because instead of talking about you, you're talking about them. It changes from product centric to people centric to customer centric. And that's that's going to shift everything.

[00:22:42]And so let's take a look at the framework that we use to help cut through this noise and what I recommend that everybody uses. We've actually talked about the three C's framework in other contexts because it applies in multiple areas, but this is what you this is what we would recommend that you use for mastering your followup, for making sure that you get it right. So, the first is context.

[00:23:11]Context means that we know where they are and what they need. We're not assuming. We're not making guesses. We know their process so well that we know where they are, how they got here, and what they need next. That is that is massive. If you don't have context, then don't send a message. Period. I like write that down as a rule if you need to. If you don't have context, you do not have a reason to reach out.

[00:23:40]Context tells you exactly what to do.

[00:23:44]It's telling you what you need to send, what they need to do, how they could learn more, how they could be better prepared.

[00:23:52]Context is intelligence, right? A lot of times we're worried about automation because what if it's going to make us look dumb? Well, usually what we mean by that is what if it doesn't have the intelligence? What if it doesn't have the context that it needs to say the right thing at the right time? That's how we change it. We focus on context first.

[00:24:16]The next is cadence. So first we have our context. What what is the situation?

[00:24:24]Cadence is how frequently are we reaching out? It says when do we talk to them? When do we follow up? Now think about this. There are a lot of rules and we're going to talk about some methods to kind of frontload your followup. But there are a lot of rules from a lot of content creators and gurus that tell you all about the different cadence you should be using.

[00:24:48]But isn't that cadence in a box kind of like the noise we're talking about here?

[00:24:55]That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for because we've used context intelligent follow-up. And so the cadence for somebody who has maybe booked a call with us is going to be different from somebody who simply clicked on an ad and entered in some information for a lead magnet.

[00:25:15]Th those are different, right? A repeat customer has a different follow-up cadence because their context is different, right? a partner or uh stakeholders, they have a different follow-up cadence than a sale does. And so understanding when we should reach out is very important but impossible to do if you don't have context. So we start with context, then we move to cadence. And then the final thing that we're going to focus on is the copy, the words. What do we say? What are what are we trying to get across here? If we can get all three of these right, then we're we're on to something. The problem is most people start with the copy and then they focus on the cadence and then they go to context. Well, that's just backwards.

[00:26:07]There's no possible way that you're going to consistently get that right if you go backwards. So remember, we go context, cadence, and then copy.

[00:26:17]Context, cadence, copy. That's our goal.

[00:26:20]And so let's think about how how do we actually use these three C's.

[00:26:29]What what is the process for using these and and how do we go about it? Well, let's take a look at context first since context is everything. This is about really kind of two things. It's about empathy and strategy.

[00:26:48]Empathy and strategy. And then from there, what we're going to do is we're we're kind of working backward. And this is going to be a bit of a theme here, but we're going to work backward. So, what's their big outcome? What is the goal that they're trying to accomplish?

[00:27:01]Right? What would make them a perfect candidate for my product?

[00:27:06]And then from there, from that point, we want to work backward and say, what are those little micro outcomes? What are the milestones along the way that lead up to that?

[00:27:18]If somebody just downloaded our lead magnet, they're probably not ready for a sales call. They need education. They need to see some value.

[00:27:28]And then maybe they're ready for a call.

[00:27:32]If uh someone requested a demo, well, they're further along. They're ready for a very different conversation than the person who hasn't even booked yet. And so I want to pause for one second because I know we're talking about follow-up, but we've already talked a little bit about advertising in previous master classes. And so context is important for advertising as well. Um when those leads are, you know, when you're grabbing those leads and bringing them into your system, the context there is key. Uh and we've talked about this in the difference between interest and intent, right? Interest is usually like social media. I'm interested in basketball. So, next thing I know, I see basketball ads over here with intent.

[00:28:16]I'm searching for something like haircut near me. I'm ready to get a haircut or I'm considering getting a haircut. So, I'm further along the process and the context of that matters because it's going to change how frequently we reach out and what we say at that time. So, we want to make sure that we understand where they are in that process.

[00:28:36]Um, context is really about understanding where they are and where we are, right?

[00:28:42]It's it's kind of both sides of it because that's the only way that we can make that communication make sense. So before any before you do anything, there's really like four main questions that you need to be able to answer.

[00:28:56]Where are they in my pipeline?

[00:29:00]Where are they in their decision process? Where are they in their buyer's journey?

[00:29:07]What was the last action that they took?

[00:29:11]And what is the next logical step? If you can answer those four questions, your follow-up is not going to feel generic. It's going to feel contextual.

[00:29:26]And that's good because generic follow-up often gets annoyed. It's annoyed, ignored because it's annoying.

[00:29:34]And so let's take a look at what context kind of looks like in action here because it's not about being robotic.

[00:29:42]And hopefully you understand it's not about sending those generic annoying messages. It's about tailoring your outreach so that it feels relevant and helpful to that prospect at that time.

[00:29:57]It's not just a promotional message that's constantly hitting the same thing. Do you want a deal? You want a discount? You need a coupon. like that's not where we're at. When somebody downloads your guide on, let's just say five ways to increase sales, it would be crazy to immediately pitch them on a $5,000 course.

[00:30:16]But if we instead send them a followup with some related resources, that may make sense. Show them that you understand where they are and what they need. And then when the time is right, you move them forward. Well, when is the time right, Ben?

[00:30:36]It's right when it's right for them. You will need them next month as bad as you need them this month. But it's important that they move forward when the time is right for them. And that is what contextual followup looks like in practice.

[00:30:51]It's specific to relevant and timely information. it's far far far more likely to get a response. I think that that should be pretty obvious. If I send a generic message that doesn't apply to the stage you're in, it's probably going to confuse you. I mean, we've had it happen where somebody's booked a demo and the next thing you know, they get a message and says, "Hey, don't forget to book your demo." And now they're just confused. They think we don't know what we're doing. Right? We can blame it on systems all we want, but truthfully, we should have fixed our system first. And so, that's what we're after here. We want to make sure it's timely and relevant and that we get responses.

[00:31:28]Again, the outcome is important. We want to start at the end of that outcome and then work our way backward. Right? Ask yourself those four questions. Then we can move to the second C, which is cadence. And cadence is the rhythm of the followup. How frequently, how often, through which channels, and for how long do we follow up with them? The golden rule here is to genu generally depending on your product and service. If you have specific questions, ask me directly or or come to the community for it. But typically, you want to frontload your effort. And what we mean by that is that the interest, their intent is highest right after they've taken an action, particularly their initial action. So that's when you would want to be more aggressive. Day one, maybe you hit them with a phone call and an email. Um, day three or day two, you know, you hit them with another email. Day four, you hit them with another one. Day seven, maybe you hit them with a LinkedIn engagement.

[00:32:31]Day 14, you try another call. And so, the more that you condense that down, the more likely you are to capture them while they're still in their shopping phase, while they're still highly interested, and before they've gotten into a ton of competition. That's an important thing um that was really drilled into me very early in my sales career is that you have to stop shoppers. That's very important. So by um by missing the boat here or not having the proper cadence or having our cadence too spread out, we leave opportunity for them to go search. And so if they put in a lead with me, it's safe for me to assume they probably put in at least three other leads. Well, if those people are frontloading their follow-up, then they hear from them a lot more. If they took my normal month worth of follow-up and condensed it down to just one week, I'm going to just fall by the wayside. It's doesn't really matter anymore what I'm sending, right?

[00:33:26]So, we have to understand that cadence is extremely important and frontloading may not be right for you, but you have to understand what your client needs, what you need, and then also what your competition is doing so you can understand what's going on in your client's inbox. Um, regardless of where that is. Like I said, I'm talking about email a lot, but it could be anywhere.

[00:33:45]It could be your call logs on your phone. And so, um, the cadence here is not random. It should be very intentional. Don't just pick things out of out of the air. Um, you really want to look at your audience. Study them.

[00:33:58]Find forums where they talk to one another. Figure out how long it takes for people to move through a sales process and what are those critical components, those milestones or micro outcomes that need to happen along the way.

[00:34:11]And once you kind of have the cadence down, the nice thing is you really just um you just adjust when things aren't right. That's it. So again, it's something that you can kind of set and almost forget. Almost forget. Now, there's always times where systems mess up and things like that. I get it. Fine.

[00:34:33]And your process should also be an an iterative one. It should evolve with each customer, with each deal, all of that. And so you may need to come back and adjust your cadence at times, but roughly it's going to be relatively the same. Okay, so let's talk about cadence and action. Get an idea of what it kind of looks like. Again, we match our frequency to the intent of our prospect.

[00:34:54]And the brand and sales cycle total is what dictates that exact cadence. But this will give you kind of a little bit of a starting point to to say maybe if you have nothing, you have no research, you don't have anything, this is something that you can use and then adjust from here. So try it, see if it works, measure your results. Always measure what matters and then adjust accordingly. And so they should give you, like I said, a good starting spot, something that's consistent. Um, consistent but not constant. Consistent follow-up, not constant follow-up.

[00:35:27]That's important. And we want to make sure that um, you know, for the high intent prospects, we're moving quickly.

[00:35:32]So we've frontloaded this. And then for the warm prospects, we're um we're really we're nurturing them as opposed to keeping the momentum going. We're just kind of nurturing them. We're providing value. We're building that familiarity. And um then when we get to the cold prospects, we're patient. We're staying top of mind. We're waiting for the right moment. And if we follow a system like this where it's like day one, day two, day three, day five, or day one, day four, day 10, day 30, what we're ultimately doing is we're trying to maximize our return on investment for every action that we've taken. So oftent times we just try to optimize for like my lead cost to my conversion rate, but what about your follow-ups? There's a a return on investment for every follow-up that you send out. That's why marketers are tracking open rates and click-through rates and conversion rates because every single message that gets sent has an ROI attached to it.

[00:36:32]Sometimes it's negative, sometimes it's flat. And ideally, particularly after this class, yours have each single one has a high ROI. That's what we're looking for here. And so the cadence is how you ensure that. Simple. Okay. So, let's talk about where we actually put the message. We know that we need context. So, we need to do some research. We need to understand who we're talking to. Then we need to make sure that we reach out to them at the right time and we're consistent but not constant. And now we need to know what to say, right? All right, I got a schedule. I know I need to talk to this person. What do I say to them now? Well, that's where copy comes in. And this is where things really start to fall apart for a lot of folks. And I know that AI has made it better for some, but remember that AI is trained on our past materials. Not necessarily our personal past materials, but it's large language models are trained on large data sets of language. And so it's going to see a lot of just checking in, just circling back, just following up. So be very careful about those. The the one phrase that is usually the killer for follow-up is just checking in. That's the one that it repels people. It is off-putting to so many, but you think it sounds good when you're writing it. Like, let me just make a little soft little starter here.

[00:38:00]And it kills you. It's um kind of a signal of the death of your followup. I mean, really, once you send it, it's it's a selfish thing, right? It's not it's not talking about them. is talking about you just following up to see if you're going to buy from me yet. You haven't bought from me yet. Would you buy from me now? Like it's just not a valuable exchange that's coming through.

[00:38:21]And so, um, we want to make sure that we're always focused on the prospect. And then we add value, right? This adds zero value to say that every follow-up should have three things in in in place. And the first is a reason for reaching out.

[00:38:36]Well, our context is going to do that.

[00:38:38]So, we should have a reason for reaching out. We should tell them, "Hey, I'm reaching out because of this." Um, we should have a piece of value, something that helps to move this one step forward. Not all the way to the end, not to book a call, not for your free consultation or your free widget, but one step forward in their process, whatever that might be. Maybe that next step is maybe they're all the way at the end and the next step is to get on a qualification call with you or it is to make a download. Fine. But for most of us, that's not the case, particularly early in our process. The patience of your process is huge here, too, because that's going to dictate your copy, what you're going to say. It's very easy to be aggressive. You can go hire a copywriter and they're going to tell you, "Oh, we need to hit them hard and this and that." That's because they're contract and they're going to bounce out. They're not part of your company.

[00:39:26]So, they don't care about all the 97% of people that don't take action. They only care about the 3% that do and they get paid on. So, be careful with the copy.

[00:39:35]It's how you represent yourself. How you follow up is an indication of what it's going to be like to be a customer of yours. And so, think about this. If you're a business owner and your sales team is out there sending bad follow-up, you're telling people what your fulfillment team is going to do. That's what it looks like, right? I'm just going to follow along and pester you until you do what I want. And so, we got to be very careful with our copy. So, remember, we want to add um a reason for reaching out. We want to have a piece of value. And then we want to have a clear ask. Now, that CTA does not always have to be driving them to the next step. It could be something as simple as, um, hey, I saw this article about manufacturing and how tariffs are affecting it. Uh, I just I wasn't quite sure. Does this even matter for you guys down there in Texas or is this kind of just news that that scares people? That question is going to make them click on the link and then respond to me and answer, right? And so, that opens the conversation up and now I have the opportunity to move them to the next step. Right? If it doesn't matter to them, they'll move on. But if it does, then it's going to resonate deeply because I'm not saying, "Hey, will you will you please buy from me today?"

[00:40:42]Instead, I'm saying, "Hey, would this does this matter to you? Is this helpful to you? Because I just saw it and I was thinking of you. I was thinking of you is so much better than virtually all of the types of follow-up that we've ever sent." And so, we want to be sure that we have those three things in place, right? A clear reason for reaching out, a piece of value, and a clear ask.

[00:41:02]That's it. Three simple sentences could do way more than three paragraphs. And that's an important piece when we're talking about copy. Copy should be as short as needed to get the point across.

[00:41:20]Now, there's plenty of people that will tell you that short copy outperforms long copy, and it's just false. The truth of the matter is people will read what interests them. Okay?

[00:41:33]The hard thing is to to get people to figure out what interests them. And so if you focus on a three sentence email, it's very very easy for them to discern whether I I'm interested and I need to take action or not. If you send a long one, it's not to say that people won't read it. Obviously, a long one can allow you to put in more detail and context and could really help to solidify your sale or move them forward or even help educate and deliver uh what it is they need. But but but but remember that we have to set aside time to do that. So I'm a reader. I think anybody that's watched the master class knows this. I love to read, but I still have to set aside time for it. So if you send me a full page as opposed to three sentences, I may not be able to skim it and read it right now. I'm going to have to put it on to my weekend reading. And so if you need a response from me, then I have to get to when it's convenient. God, let's hope that nothing comes up this weekend because now it's going to move to the next weekend, right? So just understand who your client is and how long your copy should be is almost like an accordion. If you could take those three sentences and do it, then don't use 30 sentences. There's no reason to do that.

[00:42:40]But be willing to stretch it when needed, not with fluff, but with more detail. So that's how we go from a three sentence email to maybe a full landing page that we sent. And maybe the the link in the email is to just go read the landing page, right? All right. So, we just need to understand that we're trying to communicate and then we could provide something else. We could send them somewhere else. That's what the call to action is for. And so, let's look at some real comparison here of some good copy versus bad copy. The bad copy is, you know, we I'm kind of beating a dead horse here, but it sounds like, hey, I'm just following up. Do you have 15 minutes to chat? Okay. Well, let's think about that. It's selfish.

[00:43:20]It's about you, not about me. Um, it's guilt tripping, right? Hey, you haven't moved forward yet, so why not? It provides no value. It doesn't move me forward whatsoever.

[00:43:35]And then another thing that's not listed here is it just moves me to a step that I'm not ready for. Period. Do I have 15 minutes to chat? Why? We're already chatting right here. You already have a communication method moving forward right here. Why do we need to get onto a call? That's just not contextually intelligent.

[00:43:53]So the value ad could be something as simple as, "Hey, saw your team launched the master class. Thought this checklist might help. Is this worth a quick look for you?"

[00:44:03]Contextual trigger. Something happened that made this happen. It makes sense.

[00:44:08]I'm not just reaching out out of the blue. I'm not just trying to sell you something. There's immediate value because I'm saying, "Hey, I think this might help you or I saw you did this. It made me think of this." And then there's a very low friction CTA. It allows them to move forward with their process, not our sales process. So, it moves them forward in their buyer's process, not our sales process. The byproduct of them moving forward is it actually moves them forward in our sales process later for us. So, it's kind of a beautiful thing.

[00:44:36]Now, obviously, we want to not just copy and paste this. We want to connect with their needs, not our agenda. And that's really what we're trying to illustrate here is the fact that this is about them, not about you and your sales numbers or your sales manager breathing down your neck or the fact that you need to make payroll this month. None of that matters to that person. All they care about is what's in it for me. What do I get? Why do I care? Why are you sending me this message? Right? And so we want to make sure that um you know that all of our messaging is focused on the best copy we can write. And I'm just telling you right now that you're not going to get that out of AI. You're just not. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't use it. But it does mean that what comes out of there is not going to be as intelligent as if you go through and edit it yourself. Now, this isn't an AI conversation or anything like that, but since we're talking about copy, I will be very clear. I think it is fantastic to use AI for copywriting.

[00:45:43]However, I think it is imperative that your first draft, maybe that's your prompt, is as long and detailed as possible. Not saying go research this and then put this together, blah blah blah blah. If you ever looked at some of the prompts that we use, they're not 500 characters. They're not a thousand characters. They're 16, 20,000 character prompts. We write a book, literally like a short story that we put in first and then we let it iterate. So, we take our work and work on it, not AI work, and then work on it. So, the first thing is always the human. Then you can plug the AI in just like you would do to a junior copywriter. You would have them, if you've never worked with a copywriting team, this is how it works. Your senior is usually going to pick the direction.

[00:46:34]The junior is going to go do all the work. They're going to bring it back to the senior or to the copy chief and they're going to edit it for the final.

[00:46:41]Now, think about that. Most people are either using AI for the first version or they're using AI final at the final version to say, "Oh, I just put it in to clean things up." That's when it strips out everything that you are and makes it sound like every other piece of AI, which means it's no longer valuable copy. If people immediately detect it and are turned off by it, they're not going to read it. So, it's not valuable. That's what's crazy. So, we need to be very careful that yes, use AI. AI will make your copy better. I guarantee it will make your copy better if you do what I just said. First draft is you. Final version is you. That's it.

[00:47:26]Okay. So, um I can tell you this. Um I had a few years ago I had a cleaning company that was sending out a text followup to their previous customers.

[00:47:40]And um they went from literally getting marked spam and they were about to be shut off from the platform that they were sending because their unsubscribe rate was so high. They came to me, we rewrote their copy based on the context that was going on and um we we sent out 100 messages and they booked and sold 10 of them. So 10% immediately like within minutes of sending it. So they went from being blocked and risking being able to communicate with their audience altogether to 10 signups within literally within like two hours of sending out the messaging.

[00:48:18]All from changing the the copy. All from not saying things like, "Hey, just circling back. It's springtime. Do you need a clean?" And sending something that was more relevant and timely to them at that particular stage. Now, I'm not going to get into what it was because it was a private client, but you can see these results play out all the time. The only bad thing is oftent times the the content creators and the gurus, they don't share the copy that failed.

[00:48:42]They don't show you the one that they spent thousands of dollars on and nobody clicked on it. And so you kind of have to do some of that stuff on your own to make those comparisons.

[00:48:52]Okay? So you're not going to be writing fresh copy for every single person.

[00:48:56]You're going to use the power of automation. Right? That's how we're going to scale this. This is when it really starts to pay off and you stop being kind of stuck to your computer or your device always sending follow-up messages. We want to take our three C's and make them scalable. So, without automation, I mean, this is just hard, right? We're talking about a high a lot of highle conceptual strategy and some very technical tactics that need to be hit, some check boxes that have to be there for this to work. And so, that's a big cognitive load. You want to just focus on talking to people. You want to focus on doing your demonstrations, your pitches. You want to focus on optimizing your business and looking for other ways that you can put systems in. You don't want to focus on, did I follow up with the person that I had a really good conversation with? Did I follow up with that person that said they were going to get started, but it's been a week. That should all all run on automation for you because that makes it sustainable. It means you build the sequence once and at most you come check it or make edits, but you don't have to rebuild it. You set the triggers. Triggers, meaning what causes somebody to come into this? What is that contextual trigger that we need?

[00:50:03]And then you set some actions. It's that simple. Obviously, we've gone through automation master classes, so you can go back through those and and understand that's the technical aspect of it.

[00:50:13]That's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is the fact that this makes you consistent, which gets you more deals. It provides infinite scale, meaning you can do more without more input because the system is going to do more for you. And it gets you freedom. It means you're not stuck to your computer constantly doing research and followup or your device, whatever it is. Maybe you work from your phone on a boat. Fine. You're still not stuck at that point. So, that's the power. That's what we're looking for.

[00:50:40]And a very simple simple uh layout here you can see is something like new lead, send email one. Did they click it? If they did, notify the sales team. The sales team has a different conversation than if they didn't. One of my favorite automations that I've ever set up was a um an open email notification that went out and it was just as simple as I saw them open my email. I would trigger a phone call that would go out and the phone call would just say something like, "Hey, you know, I was just thinking about you and I wondered maybe if if maybe I didn't answer all of your questions last time, so I was working on some FAQs to send over, but I thought, hey, why don't I just call you and see what questions do you have?"

[00:51:21]That is a contextual thing. You know what they're going to say almost 100% of the time? I'll go ahead and safely say 95% of the time, I was just reading your email. That's crazy. So now I'm in front of your your face and I'm on the phone with you. That's that's seems like the right time to show up, right? The intent's probably high, the interest is probably high. Their attention is locked in. I could really kind of own it and make sure they don't click to another tab or go to the next email or whatever the case. I get on the phone with them right now. So, that's what uh contextual trigger looks like. They took an action.

[00:51:55]Let me get on the phone. Um if they didn't click on it, maybe I want to nurture to make sure they come back.

[00:52:00]Hey, you got you you asked for this um you asked for this information and and you never got it. I want to make sure that you get it. So, here it is again.

[00:52:07]Right? And so, that's a different style of follow-up depending on what path they went down. And that's what we're trying to do. We want to design our system in a way that the workflow triggers our automated uh automate our actions based on behaviors. And so the engine of the the system is always going to be the trigger. We've talked about uh automation in other master classes like I said. So understand that the trigger is the key. It is the starting spot. It is the firing gun that kicks things off and it is how we need to think about this entire process. So, it could be something like a new lead fills out a form. That's a trigger. A prospect visits your pricing page. That's could be a trigger. A deal goes quiet for seven days, that's a stale trigger. Um, a meeting no-show, that's a trigger that kicks things off. Every single one of these are moments for that opportunity to be converted.

[00:53:09]there possibilities for you to send the right message at the right time. The key though is to map all of those triggers out before you need them, before you build anything. Knowing what you want to happen and when you want it to happen will make your systems incredibly powerful and make sure that your infrastructure actually lasts.

[00:53:33]So, let's take a look at the follow-up playbook here. Building your system doesn't really have to be complicated.

[00:53:40]It's five super simple steps. First thing we are going to audit your pipeline and find out where your leads are falling off. Next thing that we're going to do is to map the ideal journey.

[00:53:52]So the perfect journey and define the touch points. When do I need to reach out in this perfect journey? Then we want to create the assets. We want to get all the ingredients together before we start cooking.

[00:54:05]We want to make sure that we have the emails, the scripts, the value pieces, the landing pages, whatever.

[00:54:11]Then we want to go build the tech, right? So, we have to make sure we have some kind of a pipeline or some kind of a blueprint. We're going to map it out.

[00:54:19]Then, we want to get all of our ingredients ready. Then, we're going to go actually cook. That's when we're going to put it all together. We're going to build the tech in your CRM, whatever it is you're using. And then, the final step, measure and refine.

[00:54:31]You've heard me say it a thousand times already throughout our master classes.

[00:54:35]Measure what matters. So if conversion matters to you, then follow-up matters to you. So you should measure it. And you should measure each step of the way.

[00:54:42]Don't listen to those people that are telling you not to track open rates, not to track click rates, all of that. I'm telling you, track what matters. Measure what matters. And so h how does a subject line matter? It tells you whether or not they're opening, right?

[00:54:57]They're they open based on your subject line. That's what they open based on until they get to know you. Maybe they they have a relationship and they'll just open. That's fine. That's a different context.

[00:55:08]But we want to be very careful that our subject line is working. And so the people that are out there telling you to turn it off, first off, they're cold emailers. They spam for a living. I love cold email. It is spam. It's 100% spam.

[00:55:20]But it's that that's not who we should be getting our advice from. So make sure that you measure what actually matters in your organization. and that is whether or not people even read your messages. It's hard to tell if your copy is off of your body copy of your message if nobody even opened your message. So, we want to make sure again again again I'll beat a dead horse on this forever for as long as sell more academy lasts, which is going to be forever. Measure what matters. Build your system, run it, see what's working, and then improve it.

[00:55:54]done and and in progress is better than perfect. So, get this live as quickly as you can. Okay, a couple actionable takeaways that you can implement now and uh take forward with you. You know, these clearly are not hypothetical numbers. If you go do any bit of research, you're you're going to find them pretty much right away. Companies that implement structured follow-up systems see real measurable results, things that they can quantify. HubSpot data shows that nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases. Do you want to make more money?

[00:56:30]Follow up. Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases. That's huge. What would that mean for your bottom line?

[00:56:39]Inside sales research found that responding to a lead within five minutes makes you 100 times more likely to connect.

[00:56:51]not 100%.

[00:56:52]100 times more likely to connect. The ROI on a good follow-up system is is maybe one of the highest possible in sales. It's not a nice to have anymore.

[00:57:08]It's a necessity. It's a revenue lever that should be treated as such. Here's what I want you to do this week.

[00:57:18]Audit your last 20 leads. Find the drop off point.

[00:57:23]Some of them sold, I hope. Evaluate those as well. What process did they go through? What did your best customer need to know before they were convinced to do business with you?

[00:57:37]And then the the next thing is you want to build one just golden sequence. one sequence that really your your most important lead source goes through. So, not everything. We're not trying to funnel all of our follow-up into one spot. I want you to look at what is your what's your golden lead source. Where is the primary spot that you have consistent leads coming in. Okay, that right there is what you want to build a system for, a sequence for first. Just one thing at a time. You can always come and add other sequences for other other um uh triggers later. So audit our first 20, figure out where they dropped off or what they needed along the way. Build one golden sequence for your most important source. And then you want to build three valuable assets that you could use in your follow-up. I always recommend some kind of a checklist, some kind of a check, a case study, and some kind of a how-to. So a checklist tells me if I have everything in order. The case study proves the use case. It's not always about me. It's not about hey I did this and they increased. It's about them. So and so implemented this and then saw this outcome from it. Ideally that is something that they could see in themselves. So I was working with a roofing company and this is what they did and what happened. I thought it might be relevant for you because you are also a roofer a roofer or you're in solar and they seem very similar, right?

[00:59:11]So, we want to be careful about that.

[00:59:13]Um, and then to have the how-to guide, well, that's a future facing thing. So, if the checklist is kind of a past facing thing to make sure that I have everything that I need, well, then we want to have the how-to guide so that we can help prepare and educate and teach them for what's coming. And that's really about understanding where they are in the process. If they need education, then we're moving them forward, right? If we're um if we are providing a checklist, what we're doing is we're relieving the uh burden of of did I miss something? Did I forget to do something? Did are there holes in our process? So, we're relieving that so they can move forward with us. So, um and then the case study is really about imagination. It's it's about saying, "Oh, well, if it worked for them, it could work for me." and I can start to imagine how that might actually work for me, how it would play out on a day-to-day. So these are these are very very important. And then the the final thing is I want you to automate the first 72 hours of this process. Just the first 72 hours. Make three touch points there that you're going to send out. So um obviously you want to make sure that they are contextual, right? That they're not just blasted out there. But I want you to take those three assets and I want you to find a way to put those three assets going out to them in the first 72 hours of them taking an action.

[01:00:30]So maybe your the the golden source that you chose to write a sequence for is Facebook leads. Perfect. All Facebook leads are going to go through this for the first 72 hours. That's going to take care of the time where they're primarily shopping and get you the best, you know, while while their uh the best chance while their intent and their interest is really high still. So, we want to be sure that this moves without us lifting a single finger. And that's the game. We want to start there. Um, I've I've said this before. Whenever we start thinking about systems, it can be overwhelming.

[01:01:03]Um, and you know, the the old idiom says, you know, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I heard another great one this morning. Don't try to boil the ocean, right? We're not after impossible tasks. What we want to do is pick one small thing and work on that and then next we'll go grab another one and another one and another one and before you know it your entire systems will be set up and they'll be set up intelligently with context. They'll be set up properly with the right cadence and because you have those two things your copy is going to be wonderful and so you should see a much higher conversion rate. But you got to start somewhere. So pick that most important one and start there. build the foundation and then expand onward.

[01:01:46]Okay, so here's the bottom line and we are going to wrap up. I hope that it's clear now that that it's not just a cliche. The fortune really is in the followup, not in getting more leads, not in a better pitch, not in a new website.

[01:02:03]It's in the consistent, systematic follow-up that most of your competition just isn't doing.

[01:02:11]You now have a framework. You have the three C's. You understand triggers. You know the playbook.

[01:02:19]Really, the only thing left for you to do is to go build your system. There's money in your pipeline.

[01:02:25]You just have to go get it. This system that you build will help you do that automatically, naturally, easily. All the things that we we dream about when we lay in bed at night, right? I wish people would just sign up. this is how we get there. So again, I encourage you, pick that one, follow the follow the audit instructions, build your golden sequence, and really focus on the customer instead of you. Don't focus on your sales process. Focus on their buying process. And then if you have questions or comments, concerns, or you just want to push back, you think I'm wrong about any of this, great. Let me know in the comments below the video. Or if you're already a member of our mastermind, let's talk about it in there. you're going to see the fortune is in the follow-up as a topic that's already being uh had in there. Please jump in, share your thoughts, your feedback, challenge us, ask for help.

[01:03:19]That's what we're here for. That's it everybody. That wraps up another week of Selmore Academy. I hope that this is helpful. I hope that you all have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend.

[01:03:30]And I hope that you all go out and sell more.