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The Magic of Following up and Following Through with Coaching Clients

April 24, 2018 by Kristen Moran

This is a guest post by Sherrell Storr. Want to contribute? Check out the 2018 publishing calendar.

In a world of chaos and in the business arena of demands and deadlines, so many people are busy doing nothing. It is very easy to fall into this cycle if you are not completing tasks. Whether you are a life, career or business coach, if you discover the magic of following up and following through, you will definitely be more productive and reap greater rewards for your coaching business.

Some of the main benefits of following up and following through are building trust, having less hassle recruiting clients, better management and greater profits.

What it means to follow up and follow through

Before looking at the benefits of following up and following through, let’s establish what it even means to follow up and follow through. For a very long time I would encourage my clients to follow up. I would help them to discover how much greater and rewarding business would be if they did. The process involved creating a follow-up system for themselves or their organizations that would allow them to strategically track follow-ups with everyone they were in contact with professionally. It consisted of following up with people who have made inquiries, past clients, prospects that did not engage; simply anyone, outside of those who they would have already established as not being their ideal client(s).

To strategically follow up means you have pre-established or researched to determine the most effective way or medium of following up with each person or company, be that via telephone, in person or by email or even text message.

In following up, you establish if past clients were satisfied and how you can currently help, if you are performing effectively with existing clients and whether or not the position has changed for prospective clients who did not engage and how you may now assist.

When you follow up, in most cases, you establish that the person or company needs something else or needs more time. Whatever it is, this is where follow through comes in. For a long time I thought following up alone was the magic but so often we erase our efforts of following up by not following through. Nothing annoys or says unprofessional more than someone who follows up with you, makes a promise and you never hear back from them. It almost makes you wish they did not follow up to begin with.

The item or service that must be delivered also goes in your follow up planner and the cycle begins again. When you have built this cycle, system and culture into your coaching business, the true magic begins.

Build trust

When you follow up and follow through you build trust because people know that they can rely on you. Prospective clients who may not have engaged your service begin to second guess their decision, because they realize you are trustworthy and seemingly dependable, even though they are not a client. That trust is what makes your clients confident in working with you. They know that because you follow through they can trust you to manage their needs without them having to run after you to deliver.

Stay engaged

Following up and following through makes it less of a hassle to find new clients because your existing clients continue to engage your services because you stay engaged with them, which in and of itself is a reminder that you are there for them. The coaches that get the business are the ones that are constantly in your face, making it hard to forget them. When you think of a need, right then and there they show up with a follow up. Those satisfied clients also become ambassadors and confidently refer you to other people.

The prospects that are referred by your existing client are also less hassle to close because they come in believing you can deliver. Oftentimes businesses miss the opportunity to create loyal ambassadors through their clients because they are not following up and following through and every day there is a competitor that is willing to go the extra mile to gain that client’s trust and win them over. While on the other hand you may be busy trying to gain more clients or new clients, when in actuality if you gain a new client a day and lose an existing one, you are failing and not growing.

Create a system

If you establish an effective follow-up system it will improve the overall efficiency of your organization, because it takes a system to do it right and the fact that you are following up and following through means that you and likely your team, if you have one has to be doing something right, in order to manage the following-up cycle. There is no doubt that it takes effort and some precision to follow up and follow through and once you are making it happen, other areas must be efficient as well. You not only have to manage the contacts but the delivery of what you promise and start the cycle all over again; while also being aware of your timelines from contact to delivery.

If you are doing all of the above, you are guaranteed greater profits for your coaching business. Those greater profits come from repeat customers, referrals and new customers who can see that your reputation supersedes you. One of the things I encourage my clients to do each year is to start their year with following up. Go through emails and messages from the year before and contact each one and offer them a solution based on the rapport that you may have had or can ascertain from your research. This has never happened and not resulted in more business. It is the simple proverb of wanting more when you are not able to manage less. Grow as your demand grows and offer effective follow up and follow through because it is indeed magic.

About Sherrell Storr    

Sherrell Storr was born and raised on the island of Grand Bahama. From homeless and broken to an international brand, she is committed to strategic entrepreneurship, and intentional living .  She has two amazing daughters. Connect with Sherrell through her website, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter 

 

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