"The fortune is in the follow-up"

“The Fortune is in the follow-up” written by Willy Nelson Jr.

This is a topic that I believe is vital to anyone interested in growing a dynasty for their family. I think you hear often that “The Fortune is in the follow-up” but sometimes I think its one of the most missed components of growing a substantial residual income.

I believe that this single component separates those that are professional in their industry and those that are inexperienced or unsuccessful. I believe its very important to set up a method of tracking for good follow-up. So in this post I am going to talk about the importance of good follow-up, different ways to stay in touch (follow-up), and finally why the follow up separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls!

So lets get right into it, why is follow-up so important? In my career I have learned that with consistent follow up key business partners have joined me. I have also learned that when I forget to follow up with people it will cost me an enrollment. I will give you a few examples of what I am talking about when it comes consistent follow up. During my early years in Network Marketing I always thought that follow up was creating a pestering in me or I was annoying my prospect. When I embraced the fact that I was not pestering or annoying anyone, my business took off!

I have found that the majority of leaders that come into your business don’t join after the first conversation. Typically I have found that it could take years of follow up before they actually join. So if it takes years of follow up with someone for them to join, then I would say its vital to the success of your business! I believe that if you were to interview top earners in the industry you would hear that follow up would be their most valued component to growing their business. My friends and business partners Chris and CeCe owners of http://6figureformula.com have had the chance to sit down with many top leaders in the industry and ask those tough questions.

Here a just a few examples of good follow up paying off:

I had some good friends in another company that were leaders there. I always kept a good relationship with them and never said a bad thing about their company. We would share ideas with things that were working as well as things were not. One day I woke up and got an email from MLM Watchdog that their company closed its doors after the FDA stepped in and confiscated a lot of their products (millions of dollars worth). I decided to drive out to their place to see how they were doing. They were getting calls from lots of MLM company’s and leaders all over the industry. I got them on the phone with my upline as well as the company President. A few weeks later they joined me. They went on to become one of my top leaders in the second company.

Another great example of follow up is Terrilee Jenks. She is my enroller today in FreeLife. So you are probably thinking what are you talking about follow up Willy? I spoke with Terrilee about once a month for almost three years during the time I was in the middle company. Terrilee was a sharp business woman and I thought I would love for her to be my business partner. So I had her on my follow up list and faithfully touched base. I would call and see how she was doing in her business. We would share ideas with each other. She even met up with me and went on a road trip to the convention of the middle company. She went and realized I was drinking the kool-aid. She saw things about that middle company that I did not as she evaluated it. The day I decided that I was ready to move on from the company Terrilee was there. It was all about timing!

Next lets talk about ways to stay in touch. I am only gonna share with you ideas that I actually use to keep in touch. I think it is very important to be genuine in your follow up. I make phone calls once a month to leaders and friends in the industry to simply stay in touch. I call them usually about mid month right after the paychecks come out from their respective company. I chose to call then because a leader works hard the first half of the month enrolling for themselves and the last half of the month working for the enrollments of their team. They continue to work hard and then the check arrives in the mail and the disappointment sets in. I email them regularly letting them know exciting things happening at my company. If there is a new product, a country launch, or a great promotion I am dropping them an email sharing my excitement. I drop postcards in the mail from “The beaches of the World” sharing my success which gives my friends and prospects hope that success can be theirs too! Finally I drop birthday cards in the mail or at the very least drop them an e-card!

Finally lets talk about how “The Fortune is in the Follow-up” separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. The professional networker understands and embraces follow up. They understand that the majority of networkers do NOT follow up! With the consistent follow up the professional networker will enroll the people that the unsuccessful or inexperienced networkers leave in the dust. Many times the inexperienced networker will make one or maybe two phone calls to a prospect and at the first thought of the word “NO”, they run. With the average number of follow ups needed to enroll someone being between 7 and 11 times, two times just does not cut it. As you spend time with the professional networker you will learn that their biggest leaders took many years of follow up. Just think that if you gave up on a prospect just before their company goes down, that’s someone that is going to join with another leader.

I believe that the “Follow-up” component makes or breaks leaders in the Network Marketing industry!

I hope that this post helped you in some small way!

Onward and Upward

Willy Nelson Jr.