Why are Marketers So Bad at Followup?
I meet a fair amount of fellow marketers and I have found out something interesting about them. They are shockingly bad at followup. They go to networking events and give out/collect business cards. But they rarely will ever follow up with you after that initial encounter. If you follow up by sending them an email, 9 out of 10 will not respond. If you call them, they often won’t answer and most likely they won’t return your call.
I’ve called marketers for the express purpose of giving them work, never to receive a return phone call. I’ve emailed (and emailed) CMOs and never received any response. Then a month later I get a call from their technical staff who want to piggyback on our proposal (because they can’t win without us).
When I call the technical staff, do they return my call? Yes. Do they return every one of my emails? Yes.
I often find it much easier to get a hold of the firm’s Principal than to get a hold of its CMO or Marketing Director.
If you are that one marketer out of every ten that follows up after a meeting; the one out of every ten that returns phone calls; the one out of every ten that returns an email; my guess is you are worlds above most marketers in terms of performance.
For people who stress the importance of relationships, marketers often forget that relationships are in a constant state of decay. If you don’t nurture them, they will die on the vine.
