Help! I'm Terrible at Follow Up!

[James Danchus]

BP,

I really need some coaching on Follow Up. I just can't get the mind set nailed down in a way that makes sense to me. 

Every time I pick up the phone to call someone who reacted to one of my mailers, It doesn't feel right. I feel like I'm calling these people (1x a month) and essentially saying "Are you ready to sell your house to me yet?" There has to be a better way of looking at it than this.

How do you guys do it?     

[Andrew Johnson]

James Danchus Take this as feedback from someone who has managed teams with heavy phone work:
1.) Set a goal of dials per day. In the beginning it's hard to say "productive conversations" because you're not there. Call it "30 dials" a day to start with.
2.) Decide to do 10 calls at 9 a.m. and 10 calls at 1:00 p.m. Based near the start of your day and after lunch.
3.) Odds are most people won't answer and (in my experience) in takes about 2.5 minutes to dial, ring to voicemail, for you to leave a voicemail, and hit send.
4.) Consequently, if you turn off email and all other distractions it will take you about 30 minutes.
5.) If it takes longer then you've had a conversation, which is the whole point.
6.) You do it at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m to start so you have zero excuses you can make up for yourself. Less about the "most productive time" and more about hitting activity thresholds.
7.) You now only have 10 calls to scatter throughout the day (easy).
8.) Hit your goal for 1 week and then increase it by one new outbound call a day. It's only an additional 2.5 minutes so it's simple.
9.) Once you establish the "muscle memory" you can pick different one-hour blocks and test for efficacy.
Hope this helps.