Seriously, have you? You’ve heard it so many times from us – Following up is an act of love. It’s so vital to your business as well as each of the relationships you’re cultivating. After all, the follow up is just honoring the commitment you made to help someone – and what’s better than that?

So, you know you need to follow up and check in with your network. However, if you’re like many network marketers, you don’t do it as often as you should or you put it off to another day.

Why don’t we follow up?

Most people use one of the following two excuses for not following up.

#1 “I’m just too busy!”

Of course, you’re busy. Many successful people are busy. Mark Cuban is busy, as is Oprah. Life pulls everyone in different directions, especially when they have a ton of things to do, and especially when they’re trying to run a business. BUT, the most successful people don’t let their busy-ness get in the way of their business.

You are a business owner. You have a business to run and lead generating activities to do each and every day, no matter what. Luckily, Teamzy CRM can help you keep it all together so you can connect with everyone you need to connect with daily, all in less than an hour.

What do you need to get done today? Review your to-do list and circle your top two priorities for the day (hint: one of them is making your network’s day, which includes following up). Then, focus on those two things. Once those are done, pinpoint the next two things, then work down the list.

So many people get overwhelmed by the tasks they need to complete every day. Some days feel more overwhelming than others (you know those days when it seems there’s a new fire springing up everywhere you turn). On those days, it’s easy to let those fires dictate how you spend your entire day. However, at some point, you have to take control. By pinpointing your top two priorities, you can take back a portion of your day and exert control over your time. It doesn’t matter what else you do that day – as long as you get those done, you’re good. If you get nothing else done on your to-do list, so be it, because you completed the two biggest tasks.

Pro Tip: Select your top two priorities each day (hint – one should be your Power Hour) to prevent overwhelm and get more done.

#2 “But, what do I say?”

This may be the biggest struggle network marketers have in their businesses; they become consumed with wondering what to say. They become stuck in the cycle of analysis paralysis.

It’s likely happened to all of us at some point. We sit in front of our tablets, laptops or phones, finger above the keyboard about to type a message to someone in our networks and we pause. We pull our finger away. Maybe we stare out the window or watch a bit of television or break up an argument between our kids. Then, we sit back down and repeat the process all over again. We make excuses, “Oh, I just don’t know what to say” or “I’m just not in the right mood to craft a witty or clever message right now.”

We got into this business to help people – our favorite people – and improve their lives in any way we can. If we’ve been network marketers for a while and we used to abide by the go-for-no system, we may feel paranoid that we’re coming off wrong; after all, we don’t want our network to feel as if we’re only getting in touch to make a sale. So we over-analyze every single thing – the words we use, the tone we hope to convey, how the message could be construed by the person who receives it and even the emojis we plan to use. We want our message to be clear, concise, witty, and loving – basically, absolutely perfect.

Unfortunately, instead of getting the perfect message, we get absolutely nothing. Do we craft that perfect message? Nope. Instead of typing it out, we say nothing at all. We postpone the message and say we’ll do it later. Do you know what “later” often becomes? Never.

Pro Tip: Use the scripts in Teamzy to help you start the conversation if you’re feeling tongue-tied.

I don’t know why they bought from someone else?

How many times have you felt hurt and betrayed because someone from your network purchased products or services from someone else? It feels awful, doesn’t it? You feel hurt and betrayed because our family members and friends buy from other people instead of us. Now, I can’t guarantee the outcome would’ve been different, but I’m sure if you had sent that email to check in or follow up, they would have at least considered buying from you. They’d for sure know that you had their best interests at heart and they would happily refer you to other people, even if they were interested in buying themselves right now.

Pro Tip: Follow up, follow up, follow up! Yes, it’s that important!

How to work past the excuses and follow up

The good news is, you can move past these excuses and make following up part of your daily business routine (as it should be).

Have a system

If you don’t have a system to follow, now is the perfect time to get one. Without a system, you’ll waste so much time wondering where you to start, instead of doing the activities you need to do to make your business a success. Teamzy relies on the tenets of relationship marketing to guide users through their days. No more wasting time trying to find contact information or sorting (and re-sorting) your to-do list to figure out what to tackle next – Teamzy has it all listed for you on your Dashboard. You’ll have more time to spend following up with customers, prospects and distributors – no more “I’m too busy” excuses!

Make following up part of your daily schedule

Teamzy gives you a system to follow, but if you don’t make it part of your day, you’ll never see results. Make it part of your day. Write it on your calendar or in your planner. Set a reminder on your phone so you won’t forget to log in and work on your business. Remember, you don’t have to spend all day on your business; you can touch base with everyone you need to for the day in an hour or less – that’s it!

Stick to the script

Teamzy has a list of scripts to use when you want to check in and follow up with your network. We have scripts to use for potential and current customers as well as prospective and current distributors. The best part about using the scripts is you can copy/paste them (changing the name, of course) into the message box or use them as a starting point to craft your own messages. The scripts help you get comfortable with connecting with your network.

Following up is an act of love

If you want to succeed in your business, you have to follow up. But, don’t think of following up as something you HAVE to do; think of it as an act of love. It’s something you have the opportunity to do in order to make someone’s day. It’s not an obligation, it’s an opportunity to serve your network and help them reach their goals. You love them so much that you want to follow up with them to find out how you can serve them further. What’s better than that? Isn’t that why you got into business to begin with – to help and serve the people you care about?

Need more help following up or starting the conversation?

Master your conversational skills! Our members always ask us for tips to help them transition the conversation to talking about their businesses in the most non-salesy way possible. So, we created a training about it – The Art of Creating Conversations that Convert. This 7-lesson training course offers tips and strategies to help you overcome the most common conversation challenges you face. For a limited time, we’re offering a discount on the training to people who have taken Elite Business Bootcamp. Click here to learn more.