Do you want to grow your business? Are you feeling like you hit a plateau and want to add more people to your network? Do you want to build trust with your network so you can strengthen your relationships with them? Is your dream to lead a successful and thriving network marketing business? If you answered “yes” to any of these, it’s critical that you do one thing: follow up.

Following up is vital to building trust with everyone in your network. The more trust you have, the stronger your relationship will be. When you have strong relationships with the people in your network, they’re more likely to become advocates for your business. And, when you have strong advocates on your side, it’s much easier to ask them to introduce you to other great people like them. The more people they introduce you to, the more people you can add to your network to serve. And that’s how you build a successful and thriving network marketing business.

Why following up is essential to your network marketing business

Even though network marketers know they need to follow up with their networks, they often don’t. They may not make it a priority and, as a result, forget to do it. Or, they’re just too nervous to do it. They don’t want to feel like a bother or a nuisance to the people in their networks.

What they may not realize is that following up is THE most powerful thing you can do to grow your business because more than 80% of sales happen between the 7th and 10th follow up. That’s right – you’ll have to follow up at least 7 times in order to draw in a new customer or team member. Considering many people may not follow up more than twice – max – this may come as a surprise. It’ll come as a shock for those who don’t even follow up at all. 

How many of us are quick to stop following up with someone once, twice, or even three times? After all, we may fear feeling rejected after putting so much time into following up. So, we tend to call it quits after a few follow-ups. Sometimes, we tell ourselves that we’ll just follow up another time, but we continue to put it off again and again. 

Although it’s never too late to follow up with people, it’s most effective to be consistent and follow up when you say you will. Consistency is part of building trust. Your network has to learn to rely on you and to do that you have to earn their trust. The more they trust you, the better your relationship with them. As a result, they’ll seek you out when they have questions or want advice about your products, business, or industry, or when they’re looking for a connection to someone else in your network. Relationships are built on trust and to grow your business, it’s essential to lean into those relationships. Serve your network and you’ll be sure to build a business you love. 

Who to follow up with

In short, everyone. Every single person in your network is someone to follow up with. From your biggest advocates to the new people you’ve added to your network – follow up with everyone. This allows you to build and maintain relationships with everyone in your network. 

Your biggest advocates

You’ll want to follow up with and reach out to your top advocates more often. They’re the ones who drive your business by singing your praises and introducing you to people they know. 

New prospects

Once you’ve been given an introduction, it’s essential to begin building that relationship. You don’t want them to fall through the cracks. Connect with them as soon as you can and be sure to follow up with them if they express interest. Although they may commit right away, most people need some time to think about it first. With each follow-up, they’ll begin to trust you and understand that you have their best interests at heart.

People who you’ve said you’d follow up with 

Your word is gold. When you promise to follow up with someone, do it. Especially if they had a question or expressed some interest in your products or services or are interested in the opportunity you’ve offered. Often network marketers forget to follow up and as a result, they may lose business or a potential team member. When you follow up, it not only shows you want to help and serve, it also shows you care about them. We want to work with people we know who care about us. By following through on following up, it becomes an act of love and service. 

How often should you follow up

In the past, many network marketers relied on index cards, notebooks, and spreadsheets to figure out when to follow up with their networks. These systems were complicated and still had a wide margin of error. It was all too easy to lose a card or miss a page or forget to set an appointment to follow up.

Luckily, we developed Teamzy. Just upload your network and sort them. Each day the Teamzy Dashboard will create a list of people to contact. Work through your list and contact everyone based on how you’ve sorted them. The Teamzy Dashboard makes it so much easier to build your business. All you have to do is sign in and get to work. You can also set your own follow-ups to ensure that no one falls through the cracks. This is useful when you want to follow up with them sooner than expected. For example, if they reach out with a question or advice, you’ll want to get back to them within a few days.  

How to encourage your team to follow-up

As your team’s leader, they’ll follow your lead. If you’re following up with your customers, prospects, and distributors, they will too. So what’s holding them back?

They don’t know how

Perhaps they’re new to network marketing and don’t know it’s important to do. Or, they’ve been involved in network marketing for a while but have built the negative habits of traditional sales. Remember, in traditional sales, it’s normal to move on if a customer doesn’t purchase or a prospect doesn’t join your team right away. Although they may not tell you that they’re not following up, you’ll likely figure it out when they say there’s no one left for them to contact. Networks are endless and to tap into them, the follow-up has to become a normal part of a Power Hour. 

Model the behavior you want to see

Although your team may hear you when you mention the importance of following up, they have to see and experience it in order for it to sink in. How often do you hear leaders saying great things, but they don’t practice what they preach? Your team wants to know that you practice what you preach; that way, they know it works. 

There are many ways to do this. 

Be transparent

Share with your team your experiences with following up, the good and the bad. In fact, some of your team members may have joined you because you followed up with them consistently! However, it’s also important to share the times when things didn’t go to plan. Not every follow-up will lead to a sale. However, the point is to keep at it in order to build the relationship. You never know, those folks may turn into huge advocates who introduce you to tons of new people, even if they don’t buy or join your team. 

Show them how

If you want them to follow up, follow up with them. If they have a question or comment about something, be sure to loop back with them to follow up. Even if you’re still working on an answer, giving them an update will let them know you care. If you’re comfortable, you could also consider having a new network marketer shadow you so they create the habit. 

Help them stay accountable

When you connect with your team, ask them who they followed up with that week. Then ask who they plan to follow up with. If they say they haven’t followed up with anyone, ask why not. It could be that they really didn’t have anyone to follow up with. Or, it could be that they were too nervous to follow up or just didn’t know what to say. In all of these situations, you can help them through the process, and then follow up with them to make sure they get it done. 

Never miss a follow up again

Teamzy helps you remember all of your follow-ups. Simply schedule it in and you’ll never let anyone fall through the cracks. Click here to learn more.