How NOT to Follow Up with a Web Site Visitor

I got a call on my cell phone today. I’m still not sure who it was, but she said I had visited her web site. Probably so - I visit a lot of web sites.

There were so many ways she blew this follow up call, I’m just going to bullet list them for you:

• She didn’t tell me the name of her web site so I could orient myself
• She didn’t give a reason for her call
• She didn’t ask if I had time to talk - I didn’t
• She jumped in with a bunch of questions I had no reason to answer
• When I said I didn’t have time to talk because I was on my way into a meeting, she continued the conversation
• When I repeated for the third time (I was about to hang up), she just apologized for bothering me, but she didn’t try to set up a more convenient time for us to talk

What is sad is that we might have developed a relationship if she had handled it differently. I’m always looking for people to network with and I’m willing to help whenever someone asks politely.

What is even sadder is that I could tell she was operating from a script. Which means that someone taught her to do what she was doing. Which means that someone is teaching her to fail. Big time.

My Mom always said not to say anything if you couldn’t say something positive (I guess that rule doesn’t apply when you are talking to daughters ;(), so here is my idea of the proper way to follow up a web site visit by phone.

• Identify yourself and your web site
• Ask if the person you are calling has time to talk (I usually ask for a minute)
• If they don’t have time, ask for a convenient time to call back
• If they do have time, tell them up front why you are calling
• Ask for permission to ask questions
• Keep it short, unless the other person is obviously engaged and asking questions. Even then, you put yourself in a better light if you keep it short and make another appointment for a longer call. After all, if you don’t have anything better to do than to talk for 40 minutes when you said it would only be 5, you must not be very busy, right?

The best resource I know of for talking to people on the phone without making the mistakes my caller did today is Ari Galper’s Unlock the Game training. Ari has a great membership site where people can buddy up with others in their industry and practice with each other. I’ve gotten some great ideas from my buddy and he says I’ve given him some good ones, too.

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