As a home business owner we secretly all wish that we had enough people every single day coming to US asking about our products or wanting to get started in their own home business like this:
…however most people have never had someone show them step by step how to actually go about doing this the RIGHT way so that it actually works!
In today’s post here’s what you’re going to learn:
- Why it’s humanly IMPOSSIBLE to follow up with everyone manually
- My SECRET to automating almost 90% of the follow up process
- How to convert your leads into customers while you sleep
- Putting it all together and making it work for your business
You’re going to really LOVE how awesome this will work for your business, especially if you have a team of 50 or more people because this will allow you to follow up with all of your new leads automatically, ensuring that no one slips through the cracks and that you are only spending your time with people that are really serious about getting started.
Ready? Let’s go…
Why it’s IMPOSSIBLE to follow up with everyone manually
Whether you’d like to admit it or not, if we’re all real honest here the only thing worst than have to manually prospect every soul that breathes (here’s a way out of that) is having to chase people down and try to work around their schedules in hopes of someday maybe closing them into your business opportunity or getting them to test drive the products.
Worse than that (my six figure earners here will agree) is that when you actually get good at it, manually following up with your potential customers has got to be one of the most unproductive things on the face of the planet ranking right up there with watching TV and working for an employer.
Ouch.
It had to be said, but you know it’s true isn’t it?
Let’s do the math here…
If you do things the old-school (belly to belly) way where YOU are meeting with people in local coffee shops, or manually picking up the phone and answering objections or texting your prospects link upon link upon link back and forth, the average person actually needs to see your presentation between 3-15 times before they make a buying decision.
Low balling it and going with and average of three touches per prospect amounts to 3 phone calls (we’ll say 10 mins each) + 3 presentations (30 mins each via coffeeshop or 90 mins if home/hotel meeting) for a total of 120 to 300 minutes per newly acquired product user or business builder.
Now 2 to 4 hours per new sign up may not sound all that bad, but what type of commission are you actually earning per sale?
For me, in my first business I earned about $50 upfront ($4 residual) for every $200 “start kit” that was sold.
That means that if my goal was to earn $2,000 next month I’d need to spend 80 to 160 HOURS just in the follow up process which remember here, we’re low-balling it because truth is, I was investing about 40-50 hours a week and only signing up a handful of new clients every month.
How to automate almost 90% of the follow up
What I’m about to show you in this video below is how you can still have a great follow up process (arguably even better than what you’re doing now) where you’ve only got to do the work once and nobody gets left behind or slips through the cracks.
I’ve discovered a way to automate my follow up process, triple my results and actually escape from the ‘ol “ball & chain” of being tied to my phone from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep because I am now using a very powerful tool to do all of the heavy lifting for me, check it out:
Not only does this work WAY better for me, it frees up the 80-160+ hours a month that I would normally have to spend manually following up, closing and doing 3 way calls just to struggle to get a decent residual income coming in every month, I am able to rest with peace of mind at night because I know that every single on of my prospects is being taken care of and looked after as they continue to learn more about what I do and how they too can do this.
The “hands-free” laptop lifestyle that this provides is a HUGE selling point for new business builders as well (which is one of the reasons I believe that my results tripled so quickly when I started using this tool.)
Yes Jacob! This sounds awesome, how do I set it up?
Great question. In this next section I’m going to walk you through how to get your aweber account set up, working and ready for you to start sending leads to something called a capture page as well as how to create new message sequences with some tips on what really works well for me and my business. Sound good?
Cool. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Getting Started
Ok, the first thing you’ll need to do is create your aweber account. I’ve secured a special rate for my readers, here is a link you can use to get a discount off your first month.
Depending on the package you select, I may receive a small kick back as a thank you for using their services so I wanted to personally thank you in advance as this helps me keep many of my blog posts like this one readily available to you (for FREE) so that you can learn the skills you need to grow your business without me having to charge you an arm and a leg for training.
Enter in your information and click on “start my free trial” to process your order and activate your brand spankin’ new aweber account. After you’ve successfully logged in you may need to verify your email and then we can proceed to crating your first subscriber list.
How do I create a new list?
After you’ve activated your aweber account, you’ll need to create your first subscriber list. This is where you’ll be able to set up your follow up sequences and customize your email follow up messages as well.
Click on “manage lists” in the top right of the screen and create a new list. On the next page it’ll ask you for information on your business details and where your emails will be coming from in case any of your subscribers want to get in contact with you.
I always use my personal name in the “company name” area and for now you can leave the company website area blank. Later, we’ll create something called a capture page where people can request more information about your business and we’ll enter that URL here.
Enter your full name for the sender name and use whatever email you are going to be using for communication with your subscribers. All replies will come to this email you enter and although it says not to use free emails you totally can. I’ve used my personal gmail account email for 5+ years and have never had any issues.
The final thing we have to do is name your list and then type in a quick description of what your newsletter will be about. In this example, I used a “weight loss tips” type of subscriber list but you can theme it whatever you want based on who your target audience (ideal customer actually is).
Hit “approve message and create list” and voila! You’ve created your first subscriber list.
How do I create a capture page?
A lead capture page (sometimes called a landing page or squeeze page) is simply a page where someone can request more information about the business or about the products.
Make sure your current list is set to whatever you named your new list and the click on “sign up forms” to create your first web form. On the next page you’ll be able to select “create new sign up form” and you’ll be taken to a page where you can design your form, check it out:
There is a lot of debate in regards to how a lead capture page should be designed and some people spend literally thousands of dollars on professionally designed squeeze pages and templates, however, because of how you’re generating leads for the business, I’ve found that (until you’re making at least $30,000 a month or more with your business) building your lead capture form like how I showed you in the video above will work just fine.
Next, I’m going to show you how to created an automated follow up sequence so that every single subscriber you acquire will be properly followed up with WITHOUT you haveing to ever pick up the phone or manually chase them down again. Ready?
Awesome, here we go…
Step 2: Following Up
Following up is so HUGE to your success in business. If you’re anything like I was, it was hard to stay consistent with the follow up process, especially for my new people who were absolutely horrible at it. We’d have people slipping through the cracks or never getting called back and I felt like at times all I was doing was plugging holes in a sinking ship that was slowly overtaking every aspect of my life.
How do I create a new follow up message?
In this next section I’m going to show you how to create your follow up messages and how to sequence them out so that your potential customers or business builders are constantly learning more about the business, getting information on the products and ultimately deciding if they want to get more involved as a product user or business builder.
To create your first follow up message, click on “messages” and then hover over the “create a message” button to select the HTML editor on the the right hand side of your screen.
Once inside the editor, you’ll want to add a catchy subject line (remember to keep it on topic) that your subscribers actually want to open and see what you’ve got to say. In the example video above I talked about providing a weight-loss guide – something that helps ladies slim down their waist and target the tummy fat.
A great subject line for this example could be something like “Day 1 – How to target that tummy and shed the pounds” or another great one “Thanks for subscribing! Here’s how to lose your first 3 pounds”… again, we are keeping on topic and congruent with whatever we promised our leads they would receive once they became a subscriber to our email list.
After you’ve got the subject line squared away, fill in the body of the email (I’ll give you some hints and examples later in this post) and click on the button that says “save & exit” in the lower right hand side of your computer screen.
Hover over the blue “send options” button and click on “add to follow up series” once you see the drop down menu to add your new messages to your email sequence.
If it’s your first message simply click “add to follow up series” and you’re done! Congrats, you’ve created your very first email for your subscribers. For every message you create afterward, you will be asked how far you want them to be spaced apart from each other. I always set mine to one day apart.
A good goal for you would be to write one new email each day and add it to your follow up sequence until you’ve 10-30 emails written.
Most people will make a decision to take more action (whether it’s becoming a product user or business builder) within their first 30 days or so, so the more emails you decide to write the better. Let’s talk about what to say in your emails.
What should I say in my emails?
Think of your emails like a pair of roller skates. Roller skates can get someone from point A to point B much faster than simply walking BUT… only if someone is moving their feet!
What helps get your lead’s “feet” moving is your daily posts on your social media channels so without consistently creating posts that inspire, challenge and motivate people to take action (more on that in a moment too) on a daily basis, simply sending emails without any “social proof” doesn’t automatically mean daily customers. Make sense?
It’s important to understand that concept moving forward.
So, now that we know you need to be both posting daily AND sending emails to your subscribers for this to work well, let’s actually talk about what to say in your emails.
Below I am going to dissect a sample email I typed up following our example of our subscribers wanting to “lose weight”. You will of course change the topic to whatever you feel fits best with the products you promote. Let’s get started…
I typically start almost all of my emails with a short “hi” or “hey, remember me” kind of introduction. it doesn’t need to be a long drawn out process, a simple “Hi it’s Sally” will suffice.
The second thing you want to do is get good at asking a “painful” question as close to the beginning of your email as you can. We don’t want to be mean here, but we do want it to sting a little or at least make your leads think about why they actually gave you their email in the first place.
Before we share a testimonial or link to a business presentation with them in the email, it can be a good idea to either reiterate why they’re on our list again or what they can expect to get out reading and paying attention to this email we just sent them.
In this example I’m sharing a link to a testimonial video from a made up person called “Bobby-Jo”. Notice that I am not making any outrageous income claims (i.e. “you’ll make a million bucks by doing nothing”) or trying to hype up our pretend weight loss product by making crazy product claims (i.e.”you’ll lose 20 lbs and look like a supermodel”). Instead I simply share and edify someone’s story and share a link to learn more.
Here’s WHAT TO SHARE IN YOUR EMAILS that will help you in building up your email following and help convert your leads into customers on autopilot:
THINGS THAT WILL HELP YOU GET MORE CUSTOMERS
- share product testimonials (photos/videos)
- share team success photos/videos
- share tips related to the product
- link to your related social media posts
THINGS THAT WILL DRIVE AWAY CUSTOMERS
- outrageous income claims
- asking people if they want to “join”
- promising results without having to work
- telling them it’s easy
- offering to pay their way in
The biggest thing to remember here is that you are building a relationship with a REAL person on the other end of the computer so make sure that you are always REAL with people and don’t pretend to be something that you’re not.
Step 3: Closing
When you’re following up this way and automating the information that is getting sent to your leads and prospects the neat thing is that you’ll typically only have to talk to or connect with people that are actually serious about trying the products or becoming a business builder.
In the next section we’re going to cover something called a “call to action” in greater detail however you want to make sure that you’ve always got one in every message you send. Here’s how to wrap up your emails:
Always add your name at the end of your emails and put a call to action (CTA) somewhere in the message as well. A call to action is what tells your readers how to take their next step when they’re ready to either become a product user or start their own home business.
When they reply “Yes” to your email or call/text you, you would then get them in front of a presentation if needed and walk them through the getting started process.
The “Secret Sauce” that will make this work for you
By now, if you’ve been paying attention and have read through this entire tutorial you’ll have learned just about everything you need to take a lead of yours and follow up with them almost completely “hands free” so that they can learn more about the product and your business without you having to be tied to your phone 24/7 freeing you up to work with only the serious folks.
There is just one more VERY important thing I think that is important to wrap your head around and it’s this: how do we get our leads to opt-in to our capture page to learn more?
That’s a great question, and it’s what we’re going to cover in this next section. Here’s a snapshot of the entire process below, take a look:
At first glance this may seem a little cryptic so let’s talk about why this works so well and how to make sure that you are seeing results from the leads you are generating using our super effective lead-getting formula that I taught you how to implement in my previous post.
The basic premise is that we want to be pointing all of our lead generation efforts to our lead capture page (landing page) that we created in the second section of this post.
Once your lead enters their email and becomes a subscriber to your list, your email sequences will be sent out to them and when they decide to reply “Yes” to your email or they call/text you at the number you provide, this is when you’ll walk them through their next steps and sign them up either as a product user or business builder. Make sense?
What should I say in my craigslist ads?
For craigslist, your call to action needs to either be that someone picks up the phone and calls you so that they can leave a voicemail with their contact information or to simply reply via email so that you can get them additional information.
Once someone either leaves you a voicemail with their contact info or sends you an email via craigslist’s email relay, your next step is to direct them to your landing page URL so that thye can subscribe and get more information. Remember, you sign up form needs to be congruent with whatever your ad copy was for your craigslist ad.
For instagram, what should my CTA be in my posts?
With instagram, you’re going to want to direct people to the link that you put in your bio so that they can visit your landing page and become a subscriber like I did here:
Remember to make sure that whatever landing page you are putting in your bio lines up with the “theme” of your daily posts and that it makes sense to people who are looking to become a subscriber.
If your instagram posts are always about healthy living, you’d want to send someone to a landing page that is along the same theme. Sending them to a “pet grooming” landing page wouldn’t make sense, and you’d get very few subscribers.
What about my facebook CTAs?
Facebook is similar, however your goal here with our call to action is to encourage people to either comment on your post or PM you so that you can send them a link to your landing page.
Just like instagram and craigslist concurrency is the key here. If you’re posting about losing weight, send them to a landing page that is about losing weight. If your post is about “Brian” from your team who paid off his mortgage with the profits from his home business, sending your leads to a landing page that had the headline of “FREE VIDEO: How to Brian Paid Off His Mortgage In Less Than 3 Years With Our System” would be a smart move.
The neat thing is that with what you learned in section two of this post, you can literally create and many different landing pages (sign up forms) as you’d like to, and even have them point to the same list!
What do I say to my new sign ups?
Now that you’ve learned how to generate daily leads and you’re now working on automating your follow up process, a common question I get is “Jacob, how do you train your new people? What is your getting started process?”.
My answer to that is of course a simple one, and if you’ll allow me, I’d like to show you how to get your new members up and into profit quickly in my next post, click the green button to continue to my next post and learn how today:
If you’ve found this post helpful, please leave me a great comment below and continue to the next page where I’m going to teach you how to get your new members started right and how to properly train them WITHOUT every having to pick up the phone!
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