The Leadership Line

The Art of Customer Follow-Up

• Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer • Season 6 • Episode 31

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Have you ever been bombarded with sales calls after showing the slightest interest in a product or service? That frustrating experience is exactly what we tackle in this candid conversation about marketing follow-up strategies that actually work—and the ones that drive potential customers away forever.

Carmen shares her maddening experience with a lawn service that wouldn't stop calling despite clear boundaries, while another team member describes the overwhelming vendor calls following the SHRM conference—up to 20 daily contacts from people trying to "help" with hotel arrangements through aggressive tactics.

At the heart of our discussion is a fundamental question: are you building a transactional business or a relationship-based one? The transactional approach relies on volume and frequency—bombarding prospects until someone eventually says yes. It might work occasionally, but at what cost to your reputation and the feelings of those on the receiving end? We contrast this with our preferred "three-touch method" that respects boundaries while still providing multiple opportunities for engagement.

The most valuable takeaway might be learning to listen to what potential clients are communicating, both explicitly and implicitly. When someone ignores multiple outreach attempts, they're saying "not now" or "not ever." Respecting that message preserves dignity on both sides and leaves the door open for future connection when timing is right. Remember: business development isn't about trapping reluctant prospects; it's about finding the right matches at the right time.

Curious about implementing a follow-up strategy that builds relationships instead of burning bridges? Listen now, and then share your own experiences with marketing outreach that either impressed or irritated you. We'd love to hear your perspective!

Karman:

Hello, Tammy and Scott.

Tammy:

Good morning Karman.

Scott:

Hello, Miss Karman.

Karman:

Oh, we get soft-spoken Scott. There's another word I wasn't coming up with Sweet.

Tammy:

Scott, sweet Scott. It's Sweet Scott. I'm always sweet. Yeah, he eats candy all the time, so that's probably it.

Karman:

Yeah, a man after my own heart in that sense.

Scott:

As you know, people here's the thing the interns and others are. You know, I try and have a little bit of ice cream every day and they're like why do you eat so much ice cream? And I'm like I have a genetic disorder. And they're like what? I'm like? Yes, my body does not make its own ice cream, so I have to supplement. And I would prefer, like, if people would not call me out on my medical condition.

Tammy:

I love it. You know, my father suffered from that same thing.

Scott:

I mean, I'm seeing it become more and more common.

Tammy:

You know, it's one of those things that people we really don't talk about it much, but I think there are many, many people who suffer from that same issue.

Scott:

I mean pretty soon, it's going to be a protected class.

Karman:

People whose bodies don't make ice cream.

Scott:

Ice cream or nerds clusters or any other number of things.

Tammy:

Sour Patch Kids, whatever.

Scott:

Sour Patch Kids. Yeah, Sour Patch Kids, yeah yeah, First they're sour, then they're sweet. Oh sorry.

Karman:

Yes See, sour, sweet, you know. I mean we can talk about Scott being sweet, but I've also seen him. You know, go papa bear on people who do not follow the expectations.

Tammy:

They don't meet the minimum expectations.

Scott:

You mean I hold people accountable. That's f***ing crazy.

Karman:

So we were talking the other day about marketing and how people follow up with you, how people follow up with you, you, us. You know, in broad general strokes, years ago I said yes to lawn service. I was like, yes, I want a spring treatment and a fall treatment. Thank you very much. And they called me every freaking week all summer long and said, how about another one? How about now? How about now? And be like no, we had a spring one and a fall one. Well, how about now? Like if you don't stop calling me, I will never work with you again. How about now? And I was like no. And so whenever a thing comes in the mail from that particular lawn service, my husband makes sure to leave it in a very special place for me, because he knows it's going to send my blood pressure right through the roof.

Tammy:

Todd is so sweet, such a kind man, that he wants to actually push your buttons Right.

Karman:

A friend was telling me last week they had the same experience with a customer and what are the wrong ways to make sure that people never want to hear from you again?

Tammy:

Well, it's interesting that you brought that up, because Jen is our contact that put all together everything for SHRM 25. When we went to the National SHRM Conference just a bit ago, one of the things that we found out by kind of being a speaker there and attending and all of that, is that they sell the list.

Scott:

They sure do, they sure do.

Tammy:

And Jen has been getting not only emails but phone calls, because for her she had to put a phone number in because we were speaking and all those types of things, and she told me she's getting 20 a day about the hotel arrangements for the 26 conference in Orlando. Okay, and these people get on the phone and it's like hey, you know, you need, you need to make your hotel arrangements. And she's like I've already made my hotel arrangements. Thank you very much, I'm taking care of. Well that, how much did you pay? Well, I'm very satisfied with our hotel arrangements. Well, we can get you a better deal because they probably ripped you off. Actually, I'm very satisfied with my hotel arrangements. Well, I think you should look at it again. Well, I'll make that decision some other time, but right now I'm satisfied. Well, when are you going to make that decision? This is exactly the conversation she and I had about this last week. Now, first of all, I would have hung up way earlier. You don't hang up, you don't answer the phone.

Scott:

To begin with, Number one you don't answer the phone. Number two if you answer the phone, it's I'm not interested. Remove me from your call list. Put me on your do not call list. Have a lovely day. Click Absolutely, yeah, give them my number, give them my office number. We're going to have some fun.

Karman:

Listeners. Scott's office number is 1-800.

Tammy:

All right. So, mr Bergmeier, what is, in our humble opinion? How do you? You've made a commitment. So let's say we're the people who are quote unquote, selling. Okay, how do you go about that process of serving them without driving them insane?

Scott:

Well, and I think when I step back, I think we have to separate the. In my mind it's also a kind of business, so I think of lawn care or other B2C business to consumer. You're probably going to get a lot of push, marketing and pushing things to you, whether that's mailings, phone calls, outreach, whatever that is and there's some level of follow-up. And Beth and I were looking at some furniture this last Friday and we went to a place you know here there is no Nebraska Furniture Mart or Homemakers, so I looked up what's the equivalent and it took us to a specific place in Houston. We walked in and there were probably 12 salespeople at the front desk who just swarmed you and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is what it's like to get bombarded with e-marketing, except it's in person.

Tammy:

You just showed interest, and now the whole world. And, by the way, this happens if you go out on the internet and start typing in oh for sure Location to such and such place.

Scott:

The next thing you know, you have all of this stuff that's headed towards you, yep, yeah, and so it's just, it's fascinating, like we'll never do business there, no, never.

Tammy:

Like we'll never do business there.

Scott:

No, never, like we walked around. I think we spent like eight minutes in the place. So, right, there's a feel. So I think it's also this how do you want your customer or your potential customer to feel? I love that, scott. I think if there's so much noise, I may have to bombard them. If there's so much noise, I may have to bombard them. From my perspective, it is way more about how am I building some sort of relationship connection to understand their need? And this is where the research, if you look at e-marketing, is like. Depending on what you read, depending on who you read, then I have success, which is weird to me, versus I look at when we approach it.

Scott:

We use a three-touch method and when we were at SHRM, this is what I said to people hey, we use a three-touch method. If you say you'd like to have a conversation, we're going to reach out to you because you've given us your contact information. We're going to reach out to you and we're going to try and set up a time to have a conversation. And then, if we don't hear from you seven, you know, five, seven, ten days we're going to reach out again and if we don't hear from you, we're going to send what we call the breakup email. Hey, you're probably busy, you got a lot going on. We're just going to kind of step away and you know, if you want to connect, let's have a conversation, and that is the method we use.

Scott:

Now, sometimes do we not follow up as quickly as we would like. I mean, we can have that whole whole conversation, but to me it's all about how do you want the person to feel, and what I see a lot of people doing in marketing is they're saying no, no, no, it's spray and print. I'm going to shoot a bunch of stuff out there and pray. Someone sees it, looks at it, which I guess you can do. I mean, that's fine.

Tammy:

Well, I think, scott, one of the pieces that you really have to decide, are you an organization that's transactional? Are you looking at, I need a whole bunch of little wins, okay, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, and that makes you like commodity, right? There are other people who are selling the same thing that you quote, unquote, sell, and so, therefore, you're hoping that, of their a million choices, that they choose you. And if they need that thing I need a mattress, or I need lawn service, or I need a training program, like I'm just going to, you know, keep pounding and when somebody needs that, my name is going to be right there, or I actually hit them at exactly the right moment and they go yes, I do need that, and they hit the button they move forward with me.

Tammy:

I think, if that is the philosophy of your organization, the answer is do what they did to Karman, do what they're doing to Jen. You keep going, because all you need is one person to say that every blank, minutes, hours, seconds, whatever that thing is. The question is is that, is that the kind of organization that you want to be? We've made the decision that we are going to be in relationship, which means I want you to choose us and we want to choose you. Ok, you're never going to choose the person that calls and calls and calls, and calls, and calls, and calls and calls to have a deep relationship with. You know that's not how you go about having a deeper relationship with someone. And so eventually you know if you're in that relationship You're dating. Yeah, it is, it is, and in that space, if you're going to say Wait, hold on?

Scott:

Isn't that? Swipe left, swipe right. I wonder if they make a marketing app that you can swipe. You know that's what these conferences need to do. Yes, If you want to talk to this vendor. Swipe left, swipe right. That would be fantastic.

Tammy:

Actually, that would be super helpful for us, scott. We should actually invent that. That's not a bad idea, because think Sherm Head how many, how many vendors do you think were at National Sherm?

Scott:

Fifteen hundred probably. And you can't guess, I don't know.

Tammy:

I mean, you would have to go if you were actually and they did sell an exhibitor only pass right. You would have to to see a 1500, you would have to go, and that's what you did the whole time and not go to sessions. So I mean, if you're looking for partners, that's a great thing to do in that space. But, honest, I think this piece is like having a deeper relationship, pieces like having a deeper relationship. And, Karman, it's interesting because we met a bunch of people and we had conversations in the booth and said do you want us to follow up? Okay, and we even had a card that said no, I'm only here for the price. Just, you can tell us that and that's not a problem and we'll give our stuff away. That's great, we won't bug you at all. But we had people who said, yes, please call me. Okay, please call me about this. We even had people who, at that moment, set a meeting, a follow-up meeting, with us, and one of those people that we had a follow-up meeting with and had a great conversation of all my notes, actually was like why are you contacting me? And it was like hey, here's your card. Remember this conversation? They're like no, not interested and I know what happened is they thought we were one of those transactional. Somehow or another they didn't remember who we were. They thought we were transactional and they'd been bombarded by so many people that we just fell into that mix with other people. And that is that a problem with that.

Tammy:

And it is why, if you want to be in relationship, you have to be really, really clear. And then you have to keep these commitments three and out, because if you continue to bombard them, you are not in relationship. So what makes that relationship work? Listening to what they've asked you to do? And if someone is ignoring you, they are saying not now or sometimes, not ever, and you have to be willing to accept that and move on.

Tammy:

And I think honestly, that's the biggest part is don't be afraid to ask the question. Okay, I've reached out a couple of times and I don't want to be that person that's just knocking on your door, knocking on your door, knocking on your door, knocking on your door. So if you would like me to continue to kind of contact you it's just the timing isn't right Let me know, otherwise I'm just going to go ahead and put you in this list. We'll send you a newsletter and you can reach out when you're ready. That is accepting the message that you've been given and ultimately, to me, it's not even three and you're out. It's asking the question and then giving them the chance to opt out in that, instead of just assuming that they want to talk to you and keep bombarding. I can't stand it. I don't know anybody who can. So listen to the no, Accept the no and live with it. It's no big deal. There'll be another opportunity for you to do business with someone else later.