Did you know that 80% of all sales are made after the 5th contact?

The biggest mistake we make is not following up with our clients regularly. We not only lose the chance to offer other services and products, we lose the chance for satisfied clients' referrals.

Building your practice needs consistent bi-monthly follow-ups.

If you think this takes too much time, follow my lead and delegate some of it where you will spend only 6-8 hours a week. Remember, only marketing and promotion builds income and business, the rest are expenses.

Here's the ten ways to follow-up with coaching clients:

1. Keep track of every one who contacts you, in person or by email about coaching.

Treat email addresses like gold. These are already qualified, targeted future clients. Copy and paste their email note, date, and question into Textpad or notepad under the name "potential clients."  Print it out and keep in a hard file named the same.  

2. Don't throw away email addresses.

When someone connects with you, copy and paste their address into your computer folder called "eLists." Place the address where you think it belongs. Name one file "potential clients." If they are past clients, create another list and call it "past clients." If present clients, make a file for them too. Categorized into groups, you can personalize your note to each one. Every month you'll want contact one of these groups and offer them something special.

3. Keep track of your ezine subscribers' emails separately.

While you may use a company to send out your ezine, you may also want to have that list handy in your own office. My assistant uses www.textpad.com shareware program to manage all of my different email lists. Since I only send out my ezine on book coaching and business tip monthly, I follow-up in between with a thank you or special offer. It takes less than 3 minutes to send out.

4. Choose the appropriate follow-up message for each group.

For your monthly ezine, you may want to send out a mini "marketing survey." You ask 4-8 questions. For any who take the time to respond, you offer them a fre.e eBook or report.
In one follow-up I asked, "What are the 3 top questions you want answered about writing and publishing a book?"  My subscribers knew I was thinking about them and appreciated it by signing up for the follow-up small cost book coaching marathon teleclass.

People love freebies, so when your follow-up offers a free tip or question and answer, our potential clients will see your value.

5. Leverage big results from just a little effort.

Don't waste any information that helps you promote. After you get responses to your mini survey, use them again and again. After you answer the questions, keep them in a folder called Q and A. Create a new web site link and post them as new content for your hungry web site visitors.

When other professionals ask me for an interview for their ezines and sites, I get them via email, answer them and get promoted by others through their ezines and Web sites.

At the same time, I divide these interviews into articles under 1000 words and submit them to opt-in ezines looking for free content.

From just one ezine interview, several high power professionals called me to order books first, then to become business clients.

Follow-up means giving to your potential clients. When you give, many will give back. They will pass your freebie on to their associates and friends and even keep the information in a file.

Don't think you are bothering your contacts. If they don't want your news, they can opt-out. Thank you's and free gifts keep your name in front of your buyers. It tells them you appreciate them and let's them know what new things you can offer them. Follow-up is good business.

Part two of this article is available at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-139.shtml.