"Is this the end?" - This was the first thought that ran through my head as I woke up to discover my Facebook ad account got shut down. No leads for my sales team, meant no sales for the company.
My stomach dropped (you know the feeling?), and I had to figure something out and fast. After a little self-loathing, I got focused on my next move.
You see, my entire business relied on new opportunities and leads to keep my business afloat. If there was a slow week, or ad costs increased, sales would decrease, profits were almost non-existent, and I realized that I was trapped in a vicious cycle with no way out.
You want to know the sad part? I was selling follow up software for real estate agents, and had it down to a science. BUT, we as a company were doing a terrible job following up with my own leads or clients. Crazy, right?!
Of course I'd send out an e-mail here and there, to promote a sale, or something, but that was about it. My sales reps would only work on leads for a few days before moving on to the next, which also meant that I had to constantly generate new leads to keep my revenue stream flowing.
I knew that I would need to make the change and start following my own framework, and follow up like a machine, but then something happened.
My Facebook ads account got re-enabled, and I was back in business!
You'd think I'd learn a valuable lesson and go to work on fixing the follow up problem right? Nope. I just figured I need to advertise in more places, in case that ever happened again, spending more and more money on ads to try and break out of the cycle, with ads.
Well, let me tell you, that doesn't work. Some months we'd make a killing, and some we'd barely break even. Apparently this is pretty normal, but it was working (kind of).
Then, COVID hit, and after a couple months my ads stopped working, and everything was going down hill fast. I was forced to cut 90% of my ad spend in just a couple weeks, because I was losing so much.
I knew I had to find a new way to generate revenue, and that's when I knew I had to to start putting into action the Follow Up Blueprint I had already created for my clients, and start following up with my database of leads and clients that I had collected over the past few years.
As I started to follow up with our list, I was amazed by how much we had been leaving on the table by not being consistent with our follow up before. Simply starting with e-mail marketing, then adding on video, and retargeting from there.
Our revenue began to grow, and eventually, it matched (and surpassed) what we were brining in before from ads, but this time with ZERO ad spend. I knew I had stumbled upon something significant, and decided to double down, doing it more frequently and more consistently.
In the end, I learned that the real fortune was in the follow-up. By building relationships with my clients and my list, I was able to create a sustainable business that could generate revenue with more than just new leads.
My business was now in a position to weather any economic storm, or ad platform disaster, and I got the confidence to invest in leads and grow again because I know my follow up foundation is in place.
Now the thought running through my mind is... "how much did we miss out on by not doing it sooner?"
If you want to build a business that can withstand any economy, consistently generating sales, leads and referrals then you need to keep reading!