The Waiting Game

0:00Hello, this is Mark Satterfield and welcome to the Velvet Rope Playbook. Tonight's chapter, The Waiting Game. How to follow up in a way that makes prospects want to keep hearing from you. The email arrived at 9.17 on a Tuesday morning. Laura, we've decided to hold off for now. We really like what you've shown us, but the timing just isn't right. Let's stay in touch. Laura Bennett reads it twice. Laura is 51, owns a boutique firm that designs and manages private wine cellars for serious collectors. She starts the business almost 20 years ago after working for a specialty wine importer in San Francisco.

0:40Today, her clients have homes in places like Napa, Scottsdale, and Palm Beach, and a typical project can easily run well into the six figures. The email is from Michael and Ann Carlisle. They're building a second home outside of Santa Barbara, and Laura has spent the past month discussing a cellar that would hold roughly 3 ,000 bottles. It's a very nice project, except now it isn't a project at all. The architect is behind schedule, construction costs are higher than expected, and wants to reconsider part of the lower level. The Carlisles aren't saying no to Laura, they're just saying not now.

1:19And this is where an enormous amount of potential business gets lost. There are prospects who aren't interested in you, fine. There are prospects who are ready to hire you, even better. But there's a third group that may be considerably more valuable than most businesses realize, people who are interested but aren't ready yet. They've downloaded something, had a conversation with you, requested information, asked about your fees, maybe they've even received a proposal. There's genuine interest, but something hasn't lined up yet. Timing, money, another decision, a spouse, a business partner, a construction project, a liquidity event, an existing contract, or perhaps the problem simply hasn't become important enough yet.

2:03And most businesses have one of two responses. They either disappear completely or start sending emails that say, just checking in to see if anything has changed. Neither is particularly helpful. Laura initially does the second. Three weeks after Michael's email, she writes, just wanted to check in and see how things are progressing. Michael responds politely. Six weeks later, I wanted to circle back regarding the wine cellar. Another pleasant response. Then two months later, just touching base. Nothing. Laura is beginning to sound like someone checking whether a table has opened up at a restaurant.

2:41The problem isn't that she's following up too often. She's following up without bringing anything new to the conversation. So here's the first thing I do with prospects who are interested but not yet ready. Stop thinking about follow-up as asking whether they're ready yet. Instead, ask, what could I send this person that would make hearing from me useful? That changes everything. A few weeks later, Laura comes across an article about a problem increasingly affecting serious wine collectors, insurance policies that haven't kept pace with the rising value of their collections. She remembers that Michael mentioned several older Bordeaux purchases.

3:22She sends him the article with three sentences. Michael, I remember our conversation about some of the older bottles in your collection. This made me wonder whether your insurance valuations have kept pace with the market. You may already have this covered, but I thought it was worth sending along. No pitch. No, are you ready to move forward? No link to Laura's calendar. Michael responds that afternoon. Interesting. I hadn't thought about that. That's follow-up. Here's something very practical you can do. Create five or six pieces of content specifically for people who already know who you are but aren't ready to buy.

4:01Not generic newsletters. Think about the questions someone asks between becoming interested and making a decision. Now, for Laura, those might be five mistakes collectors make when designing a seller. What should be decided before the architect finalizes the plans? How much room should you allow for the collection to grow? When does a wine collection require specialized insurance? What happens when humidity control fails? How should valuable bottles be cataloged before a move? Now Laura doesn't have to invent a reason to contact Michael every six weeks. She already has one. And notice what those pieces are doing.

4:41They're not simply keeping Laura's name in front of him. They're making her more valuable while he waits. That's a very different kind of follow-up. There's another category of follow-up I particularly like for expensive services, a short story or case study. Suppose Laura sends Michael a story about another client who originally planned a 1 ,500 bottle seller. Laura looks at the client's buying history and recommends designing for 2 ,500 bottles. Three years later, they need almost every bit of that capacity. The story isn't, look how wonderful Laura is. The story demonstrates how Laura thinks.

5:20That's important because affluent prospects aren't simply buying information. They can usually find the information themselves. They're buying judgment. So ask yourself, what story could I send that allows a prospect to see a decision I made that someone less experienced might not have made? That's far more persuasive than another email explaining your credentials. There's one more thing Laura begins to do differently. She starts taking better notes. Not simply name, phone number, and proposal amount. She writes down what is happening in the prospect's world. Michael's construction schedule. Anne's concern about the lower level.

5:57The architect's expected completion date. Their existing collection. Now her follow-up can be connected to their situation rather than her sales pipeline. If someone tells you we're selling our company and probably won't do anything until that's completed, you have useful information. If they say we're waiting until our daughter finishes college, that's useful. If they say we're going to revisit this after we buy the property, that's useful. Your CRMs shouldn't merely tell you when to follow up. It should remind you why they weren't ready. And sometimes, leave them alone. This is equally important.

6:35Not every prospect needs another email next Thursday. Affluent prospects in particular often have long decision cycles because their decisions are substantial. Give people room. The objective isn't to remain constantly visible. It's to remain appropriately visible. There is a difference. If every communication contains a subtle request for a decision, eventually the prospect learns that hearing from you creates an obligation. That's precisely what you don't want. You want them thinking, whenever Laura sends me something, it's usually worth looking at. That's a pretty powerful position to occupy.

7:11Almost nine months passed after Michael tells Laura they're putting the seller on hold. Then her phone rings. It's Michael. The lower level has finally been redesigned. The architect is ready. Construction is moving again. And Michael says something Laura remembers. You've been so helpful through this whole process. Ann and I don't really see any reason to talk to anyone else. Think about that. Laura has been marketing to him for nine months, but Michael doesn't feel marketed to. He feels help. And that's the distinction I'd like you to remember. When somebody's interested but not yet ready, don't keep asking whether they're ready.

7:47Send them an idea, a useful article, a short case study, an observation, something connected to what they told you, something that helps them make a better decision. Your job during the waiting period isn't to keep reminding them that you want their business, it's to keep giving them reasons to eventually want yours. And if you'd like more ideas for creating a marketing system that attracts and converts affluent clients without requiring you to spend your entire life marketing, visit GetWealthyClients.com. When you're there, you'll find information about my books, programs, and even information about how to work with me personally.

8:24That's GetWealthyClients.com. And if you found today's episode useful, please subscribe to the Velvet Rope Playbook and pass it along to someone who might find it useful as well. You don't need to make a big production out of it. Just say, but you might find this useful. That's how most good ideas and most good introductions tend to travel. This is Mark Satterfield. Thanks for listening to this chapter of the Velvet Rope Playbook. I'll be back at you soon with something new, but until then, bye for now.