I love that phrase because it’s so true. We’ve all met people who say they’ll do certain things but then never do them, and that reflects really badly on your perception of them and thus their credibility.
Someone said something to me a little while back that I have remembered ever since. I was having a meeting with an accountant. This was only the 2nd time I had ever met them, the first being at a business show. We had spoken for about 10 mins at the show and agreed it would be worth catching up for a proper chat. I followed that conversation up by email and we agreed a date to meet up. The meeting went well and as a result the accountant agreed to offer my services to their client base. I thanked her but felt compelled to ask “Why particularly my services as you must come across a lot of business development specialists?”. What has stayed with me since was her reply “that’s easy…you are the only one that has ever followed-up with me!”
Obviously I was pleased to hear that but I was also genuinely shocked. Are people truly that bad at following up? Are you?
Following through with your actions is an absolutely fundamental requirement of running a successful business. This stretches across every element of your business and if you aren’t following through you’ll find you are leaving “money on the table.” This means that you are failing to fully exploit the opportunities that you have been presented with.
I see this a lot at networking events. You can have numerous good conversations at events but unless you take action on them outside of the event they are unlikely to turn into anything substantive. When you see a prospect and send in a proposal, if you don’t follow up on it you may never get the work (you probably haven’t followed up on it because you have decided they would contact you if they needed your products/services, but the reality is more likely to be they have been really busy, or they never noticed it had arrived in their inbox!). If you have a great idea but don’t take action to progress it, it will never turn into cash in the bank.
The list could go on and on. If you are the type of person that doesn’t tend to follow through you are not doing yourself or your business justice! If you are thinking “that’s all very well but I just don’t have the time”, then just ask yourself this “…what was the point of putting the effort into going to the meeting/writing the proposal/having the idea if you aren’t going to finish it off and convert it into cash in the bank?” That’s like doing 80% of the hard work but not doing the final 20%. What is the point in that?!
This week’s challenge is to write a list of “things” you have put effort into but not pushed over the finish line. What conversations have you failed to follow up on? Don’t expect the other person to do it! What proposals need follow up? What ideas have you had that haven’t made it on to a piece of paper? Write that list now and take action!