Automate Your Relationships and Close Business Faster

Networking is the name of the game in today’s economy. Get your name “out there” and try to acquire new business. It is no longer just about advertising and marketing, it is about the in-person meetings and developing relationships.

“The fortune is in the follow-up” has never been truer, or more time consuming. Time and time again at networking events I hear conversations about "touch points" and how many it would take to gain enough trust for someone to decide to do business with you. The general consensus was seven, but at one event I heard Seth Godin say it takes nine.

Unless you have fully staffed sales and marketing departments, this can be a very daunting task. Luckily, technology can take care of some of these tasks, leaving you more time for the other ones.

Autoresponders are the"magic" touch

Autoresponders are personalized, pre-designed (by you) email message(s), scheduled to be sent at intervals of time that are related to a specific date. What date? The short answer is a meaningful one. The long answer is, any date that can be designated as a starting point. It could be the date you were introduced, the date of an incoming email, the date of a one-on-one luncheon, or any other date that can be built upon with an email touch point.

For example, when you enter the name of a person you met at a networking event into your database, it can trigger the pre-designed email message, or a series of email messages resulting in several more touch points:

"Sam, it was a pleasure..." - sent the next day.

"Sam, have you heard about these other networking groups..." - sent in 14 days "Sam, here is an interesting link..." - sent in 28 days "Sam, I wanted you to know about…" - sent in 40 days

Stay involved by scheduling more personal touch-points in the middle of the autoresponses,, such as a phone call to arrange an in-person meeting.

This whole process results in 7 touch-points in 30 days.

1. Initial meeting

2. Autoresponder follow-up email

3. Autoresponder 2nd email

4. Autoresponder 3rd email

5. Phone call

6. Autoresponder 4th email

7. In person meeting

8. Personal email

9. Phone call

...and abracadabra...four of the touch-points were automated.

And this process is automatically repeated for every name you enter into the database, based on the date it is entered. The results are on any given day you may have many emails being sent without you even being in your office, at your computer, or, dare I say it, monitoring your smartphone.

Where to find your magic wand

Here’s the good news, autoresponders are plentiful. Let’s start with Microsoft Outlook. Everyone is familiar with the “I’m on vacation until…” autoresponder, but you can set rules that will send emails based on the messages that are being received. This works really well with web forms or if you can request specific subject lines. For example, you can have a free offer on your website if they send an email with a specified subject line.

Other autoresponder options include many customer relationship management (CRM) programs (local and on the cloud!), email marketing service providers (ESP) like Constant Contact, and there are even websites that just offer autoresponders.

Of course you don’t want the use of autoresponders to create more work so you spend even more time on your follow-ups. Look for this feature in the tools you already use, and if you decide to register for an independent autoresponder service, make sure you can easily upload contacts so that you don’t have to do any double entry!

And don’t limit your autoresponder creative thinking to just your leads. This is a great tool for staying in touch with all your current clients too. Even if you send a regular email marketing newsletter you can still supplement your communications with a personal autoresponder email. Consider sending special offers, event invitations, or VIP announcements that come from you, rather than your email marketing service provider. Rather than the date you enter their name in the system, you would setup criteria based on either a date or data in a specified field, to trigger the sequence.