What does Ari Galper have against followup?

I love Ari Galper’s training. He markets it as training to do cold calls, but it is MUCH more than that.

Imagine the funny feeling I had when I heard him say not to use the word “followup” when talking to a prospect. I was indignant - of course we follow up. That is how they know we are still thinking about them.

Ari doesn’t say not to DO the followup - he just says not to use the word. According to Ari, it is one of those words that trigger sales resistance in prospects - the last thing you want to do, right? Ari believes, and his students testify, that certain words and language patterns activate your prospect’s defenses and other words let you slip right under the radar.

So, what do you say instead? As usual, it is pretty simple, but easily overlooked. Tell the truth about what you are doing. Here is the language Ari believes works best -

I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts or questions since we last talked about …

Now you might think a rose by any other name would be the same, but I’ve been using this one for a week with my prospects and our conversations do last longer.

If you try it, let me know how it works for you. (Don’t follow up on it, just let me know your thoughts and questions!)

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