Episode 76: The Importance Of Client Follow Up With Celeste Walmsley

Celeste Walmsley from Modern Marketing Advantage is an expert in social media marketing specializing on Facebook to get you in touch with new clients, keep you in touch with your old, and keep you top of mind.  She helps solopreneurs, ages 40-65+ harness the power of marketing, on a small budget, to grow their businesses successfully. Client Follow Up: Do you ever have questions for a client, or potential client, but are nervous about doing a client follow up? Or, do you feel like you are trying to hard to "sell" to a client? Celeste Walmsley, an expert in social media marketing, understands, which is why Bella sat down with her to discuss the ins and outs of follow up. Here Is What We Talk About: Celeste & Bella explore all aspects of following up including: How often should pet sitters follow up? What should pet sitting business owners say when following up? How can they sound like they're not "selling"? What effects will a business owner experience when they follow up? How can pet sitters effectively collect information during consultations to set themselves up for successful follow up? Special Gift: As a special gift to our audience, Celeste is offering $50 off her Follow Up Kit. Email Bella to claim this deal! Leave a Review Transcript: Bella:This is episode 76 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I'm here with Celeste Walmsley. She is a social media marketing expert focusing on Facebook to get you in touch with new clients, help you retouch your old clients, and to keep you top of mind. She helps solopreneurs specifically between the ages of 40 and 65 harness the power of social marketing on a small budget to grow their business successfully. And on a side personal note, I am a little bit under the weather and that's why you're going to hear my voice today. Bella:Celeste, welcome to the show. Celeste:Hi everybody. Thank you. Bella:Thank you for being here. Why don't you fill in the gaps there for me and explain how you became such a niche social media marketing expert? Celeste:Sure. I've been involved in social media for probably over 20 years and it started with my singing career with MySpace, if anybody remembers that platform. It just kind of came naturally to me. A few years ago, I found that small business owners were finding it a necessity to be on Facebook. What I was finding is I was attracting the 40 to 65-year-olds because they either didn't know how to use it and wanted coaching or they knew they needed it but didn’t want to do it themselves. I just found that that age group was the demographic that needed guidance. The ones that do it themselves are usually the millennials and younger ones. I found I just attracted that type of clientele. I have a lot of patience when I teach, so I can teach someone something very new to them in bite sizes so that they can really embrace it and feel comfortable with the new technology. Bella:I love that. That's fantastic. So transitioning into follow-up, which is what we're actually talking about today. I know that a lot of pet sitters are really wary against follow-up because we've all been on the receiving end of that follow-up call that’s just like, “Come on, leave me alone.” So why don't you walk us through first on how often we should follow up? Celeste:There’s sort of a rule of thumb in regards to when you've actually been in touch with a person initially. Obviously touch base with them. If they've specified a certain time that they want you to follow up—like, “Call me in a week” or “Call me in two weeks”—do that. But rule of thumb is about once a month that you would want to touch base with someone. But you have to be careful to not be selling every time. A really great way to follow up with someone is actually to never really do sales during those calls. I know it sounds kind of weird—then how do I close business? You need to establish a professional relationship with that client. Usually what happens if you have a really good consultation with them is you find out their needs, and it’s the needs that you're following up on. So, you know, if their dog has special requirements for medication or a special walk or a really long walk, you can look at the services that you provide. Maybe you specialize as a particular dog walker who does big dogs that need to run. You can touch base with them in regards to their needs and just see how they’re doing. Someone might say, “Well, my nephew's in town and he's going to be walking the dog for this month, but next month I'm going to need someone.” Give them a call and just say, “How was the walk with your nephew? Did the dog love him?” If they say, “Yeah, he took him to this trail,” then you can respond, “Great! Well, I'm ready to walk your dog again.” So there are natural ways to not sell but to close the deal. Each phone call, you should get a new tidbit because that will guide you for the next follow-up. Write things down so you're not just asking the same thing every time. Bella:I love that. So what I hear, Celeste, is that what you're saying is build a relationship and get to know their needs and wants. Follow up on those, not just “Do you need my service?” Something I encourage a lot of pet sitters to do is use the incredible tools out there like Google Drive. I encourage them all to have a form they use internally—who called, what they said, their needs, notes, and dates of service. When you hit submit, it goes into a spreadsheet, which helps with follow-up. I originally did it because I wanted to know what our close rate was. Eventually, when I handed it over to a sales manager, I wanted to know if they were still closing the same number of people without talking to them about every call. With this follow-up, it could be really awesome because you're putting those notes in. What I like to do at the end of the month is color-code it: green for landed clients, red for no, yellow for warm leads. I would love it if people listening tried something like this and adopted what Celeste said about follow-up. Maybe it was that dog with a lot of energy—follow up and say, “Hey, I was wondering if Fido still has a lot of energy. I saw this cool article you might like.” You can even schedule those emails using Boomerang so you don’t forget. Celeste:You can. I know for myself, when I do a personal follow-up, I have a better closing rate than the automated ones. Now, if they’ve got a huge business and they have to automate, make the email as personal and targeted as possible. Have segmented lists like one for high-energy dogs, one for seniors, and so on. You can send value-added emails that give something for free just to keep you top of mind. Bella:What I mean by automated is Boomerang—you’re still typing a personal email, it just sends later so you don’t forget. I agree—don’t send blanket emails. Let’s talk about what to say and what not to say in follow-ups. Celeste:People buy from who they like, know, and trust. If they haven’t had the opportunity to really get to know you, it’s good to have a little tidbit about yourself. Maybe a video of you walking dogs, a blooper, or something showing your expertise. Another idea—if they have a hyper dog or destructive pet, show how your service helped. For example, “Chico was chewing the couch, but after daily walks, he stopped.” Include personal touches so they get to know you. Ask about their pets, mention specifics you remember, and invite replies. Encourage two-way conversations so they share updates—that gives you new follow-up material. Bella:Awesome. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I want to talk about sales in general—specifically how many times someone actually has to follow up until they get a “yes.” Celeste:Yes! Bella:We'll be right back after this. (Ad segment omitted per instruction — no edits made to content.) Bella:I'm back with Celeste, and we're talking all about follow-up and how you could be leaving money on the table by taking the first “no.” Celeste, how many times does a person have to follow up before they get that yes? Celeste:That’s a great question. About 75% of business owners only do two or three follow-ups. It actually takes eight to twelve times before a person will either use your services or respond to your ad. Most people don’t have enough quality interactions to sustain that many follow-ups. It’s really about relationship building. Switch your mindset—get to know your clients so you can help them. Ask questions that show genuine interest, not just “Are you ready to buy?” Each conversation adds new insight that leads to the sale. Bella:That’s great—eight to twelve times to make a sale. Let’s switch gears to Facebook ads and retargeting. For example, pet sitters struggle with hiring. If you just boost a post without retargeting or collecting an audience, you’re leaving money on the table. On Facebook, when you collect an audience of people who clicked your ad—like “Stay-at-home moms in Scottsdale wanting to earn $1,500 a month walking dogs”—you can retarget them later. So Celeste, explain how this kind of follow-up works. Celeste:There are a couple of things with Facebook. If you do an ad that guides people to your website, you can set up a retargeting ad. You know when you look at dog booties on Amazon and suddenly see them everywhere? That’s retargeting. The ad follows people who visited your site for up to 90 days. That’s eight to twelve touch points! Combine that with collecting emails on your landing page—those are gold. You can keep in touch with those leads through value emails until they’re ready to buy. Bella:Exactly! I’ve seen that in my own business.