Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Entrepreneur podcast where I, Caitlin Fritz help you reach your entrepreneurial potential. Together we can build your dream social impact business so that you can leave a legacy beyond your nine-to-five. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. My name's Caitlin Fritz. I'm an award winning entrepreneur, enterprise educator, and business coach who supported over 650 founders globally through their work. build, grow, and scale their impact led business. And I am thrilled to be peeling back the curtain of what entrepreneurship is like for our startups, solopreneurs, and small businesses. So today I want to dive into something that has been on my mind and has been brought up to me in a couple recent conversations, which is how do I follow up with someone? And it took me a minute because I think there is an art and a science to following up. There are some things that you can do that are within your control to be professional and engaging. and not annoying. So I want to share with you five of my favorite tips to really decipher the art of the follow up. So these tips are really recommended for people who have reached out to someone via email, whether it's a cold or warm lead. So you've submitted an email to someone and you've heard crickets. Now, this is where our tips come in. So, first tip, uh, I got it from, you know that movie, Be Kind, Rewind? I'm gonna say, Be Kind, Rewind. So, people are incredibly busy. You yourself are probably incredibly busy. There's 400 things going in and out of our inbox. every day. There is nothing rude or inconsiderate about sending a reminder email. So what I like to do is, depending on the context and the time span of when you want this lead or conversation to convert, remind someone maybe three days after you send it, just as a kind little nudge. Then even a week after you send it, and then I would wait three or four days and send another reminder email. After three reminder emails, I would drop it. Um, obviously that person does not have the bandwidth or the space, but I do think someone turned to me the other day and said, three reminder emails, and I was like, hey, I am the person who needs at least one reminder email. So three reminder emails. totally not out of the realm of normal. So tip number one, be kind, remind. The second tip I have is make their lives easier. easy. Some of the worst things I see when it comes to emails and cold outreach and warm outreach is they want a conversation, they want to have a meeting with you, but there's no booking link, no way to action on this email, then send another email. And that's just a lot of back and forth. So make their lives easy by having all of your links present. So having a really strong email footer with your LinkedIn, your website, all of those kit and caboodle, but also having your action links very clear and prominent. So whether that's your Calendly link to book a call, your purchase now link, Make it obvious and easy for whoever is engaging in your email outreach. That also just leaves a really good taste in people's mouths because it shows professionalism, it shows you thought about them, and I personally, I don't have any data to back this up, but I find it easier to engage when there are action items rather than another email. The third tip when it comes to the art of the follow up is Keep track to keep in touch. This is something I learned, oh, probably about a year into my entrepreneurship journey. Have a resource bank of individuals you're reaching out to. You don't need to do a full CRM. But sometimes we forget who we even reach out to. This is both personal and professional to be honest, whether that's an Excel, an error table, or even if you want to do a CRM, go for it, I'm not going to stop you. But it's a way for you to keep track of, oh, I've invited I need these six people to be on my podcast, and I've only heard back from two, or oh, these four charities are interested in a potential partnership, but I need to send them another reminder email at the end of this month. By having a really simple tracking system, you'll be able to, A, remember when you send your emails and your reminders, and B, know who they are and know when to keep in touch. If you are offering value to, uh, one charity, you can always go back and re engage an individual on that list who maybe ghosted you, maybe didn't reply, um, and, and spark that conversation with a case study or your current partnerships. And that really. bleeds into my tip number four, which is follow up with value. This goes into the, please don't be annoying. So for example, um, maybe you have pitched to be a speaker, to be at a conference, to have a potential partnership. And the individual got back saying not the right time, not the right space. We'll think about you. next year. This is where you can follow up with value. So for example, you would log that on your tracker sheet, like, hey, you know what? This partnership with this business is not right now. But maybe when you do have a case study, a testimonial, some really exciting news, you can drop them another email, drop them a line, Share with them your PDF case study, your exciting news, a video, something that's really relevant and tangible for them, so that you can stay top of mind when those opportunities and partnerships occur. So for example, in my previous EdTech business, we reached out to a ton of museums. I mean, a lot. But Whenever we signed or had a really successful partnership with let's say a art museum, I would go back and personally email museums that are similar to that art museum and say, Hey, you know, we did this work for XYZ client, here's what they've said. Here's a case study about it. We thought this would be a value to you and your audience. Boom. That's another way to reignite the follow up. Now tip number five. is realize it takes time. I honestly think there are unofficial timelines in every industry and sector and making those sales and closing those deals and being part of whatever event or partnership you want to be part of takes time. So plan your outreach well in advance So that you can bake in the follow ups into your system and your process. So, for example, if I am looking for a podcast guest in June, I would be reaching out now in April, similar things with your business. So just as a quick reminder, the five tips we talked about today in the art of the follow up. Number one, be kind, remind. Number two, make the receiver's life easy. Number three, keep track to keep in touch. Number four, follow up with value. And number five, realize that the process of Takes time. Those are my quick tips for the art of the follow up. But I'd love to hear, you know, what do you do to re engage and to follow up with potential clients and customers? I love hearing behind the scenes takes on real entrepreneurs doing it themselves. So if there's any questions you want answered on the podcast, Drop me a line, my link's in the show note, and if you're like me, and suddenly woke up and realized it is quarter two in the business year. insane. I feel like yesterday was January. I have a few fun and free ways to get involved and get inspired for Q2. First, this Friday, I will be having a YouTube live all about goal setting in Q2. So you can get inspired, engage, reignite that spark because my New Year's HoodSpa has really fizzled out over this cold, dark winter. And the second way to get involved is the Spring Clean Your Business Challenge. It is April, the blooms are blossoming, we got cherry blossoms, it's absolutely beautiful. And now is the time to really refresh and spring clean your business processes. So I will be sharing all All my tips and tricks on Instagram and those on the newsletter will get behind the scene takes on how I implement this in my business and additional resources for you to get organized this spring. Every tip I'm giving you, I'm doing myself. So guilty as charged. That's it for today's episode of everyday entrepreneurship. I have really appreciated your time today, and I look forward to speaking with you next week. So until next time, guys, this is everyday entrepreneurship. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. To stay tuned and most up-to-date, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow me Caitlin Fritz on Instagram. And if you have any questions about building your business with Impact, drop me an email with the link in the show notes.