Following-up with Prospective Clients and Marketing Contacts

Consultant's Corner

A successful marketing campaign requires strategic follow-up procedures. Many small business owners will be interested in your services and will call you for more information, but will not purchase during the initial point of contact. Use the following guidelines to maximize the value of each contact from a prospective client:

Use a contact management or database software solution to note the details of each conversation with a prospective client and to schedule times to touch base.
Get complete contact information during the initial conversation with a prospective client. Make sure you have the client's full name, business name and phone number at the beginning of the conversation. If the prospect gets distracted and ends the call abruptly, or if you get disconnected for any reason, you will have at least enough information for a follow-up call. At some point in the conversation, offer to mail information on your services (e.g., brochures or a follow-up letter) and obtain a mailing address. As soon as you have the mailing address, ask the client if they have an email address and offer to email the information to them. Many small business owners are inundated with direct mail and email marketing and are very protective of their contact information. Gathering contact information gradually throughout the conversation, and offering to send valuable materials to the prospect, will encourage the client to provide you the information you need.
Send a monthly newsletter. You can create a simple newsletter each month with information on small business management, QuickBooks tips, new information from Intuit (e.g., changes made to QuickBooks with the latest release or new solutions developed or acquired by Intuit), tax alerts, etc. We recommend emailing the newsletter because doing so will save time and reduce administrative costs. Include links in the newsletter to sites of possible interest to small business owners, like press releases from Intuit, frequently asked questions on the QuickBooks website, online magazine articles, etc. Build as much value as possible into the newsletter to encourage your clients and prospects to both read it regularly and to forward it to others.
Send emails to the prospects regularly. In the email, re-state your understanding of their need and list the services you provide to meet that need. Encourage them to read the email by keeping it short and to the point and include a link to your website where they can read about your services in more detail. If possible, include their first name in both the text and the memo field to differentiate the follow-up emails from emailed newsletters or broadcast email marketing.
Follow-up with existing clients once each quarter to offer additional services. Classify your existing QuickBooks clients according to the type of services performed and tailor follow-up mail or email accordingly.
Add the prospect to your mailing list so they will receive any direct mail advertising you send.