Boss Responses
Want to know a secret? Your client isn't always right. But how do you tell them that without ruining your relationship? You give a Boss Response.
When you approach your clients from a position of mutual respect and power, you develop a positive working relationship that turns your client into one of your best resources. I believe every business owner can grow their business when they step up and run their business like a Boss.
But how do you successfully navigate tricky client questions and difficult situations to create superfan clients? Boss Responses comes to you with five episodes a week packed full of Boss Responses, real-life examples, and interviews with successful business owners who share their best and worst client management and communication stories.
Boss Responses
#18: How to Gain Clients Through Follow-Ups with Leslie Lang
Freelancers send out hundreds of letters of introduction or queries, and most rarely hear back from potential clients. Today, guest Leslie Lang provides her insights on how you can turn that no reply into a paying client. Drawing on her experience, Leslie shares that the secret often lies not in the initial contact, but in the persistent follow-ups. It's not about being ignored; it's about understanding that people get busy, and your message might get lost in the shuffle. It's time to equip yourself with the Boss Responses you need to master follow-ups and sign clients!
About the Hosts
Treasa Edmond is a content strategist and consultant, best-selling ghostwriter, and podcast host. On Boss Responses, Treasa and her weekly guest hosts explore how freelancers and small business owners can navigate the sometimes tricky path of client management and communication. She also teaches content professionals and small businesses how to create SEO-optimized content strategies so they can grow their businesses by connecting with their audiences.
Connect with Treasa on LinkedIn
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Leslie Lang is a former journalist turned freelance B2B content marketing writer and content strategist. She specializes in writing about technology and Higher Ed and K-12. Leslie's work includes white papers, ebooks, case studies, ghostwritten articles, op-ed pieces, blog posts, and infographics for marketing agencies and clients such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Dropbox, Adobe, Salesforce, and Verizon. Interested in Hawaii? Check out Leslie's books—Mauna Kea: A Guide to Hawai‘i’s Sacred Mountain, Exploring Historic Hilo, and What Would Our Kūpuna Do?
Check out Leslie’s YouTube channel Midlife Dialogues, where she interviews people doing interesting things in midlife.
Additional Resources
"You are Leaving Money on the Table if You Don't Follow Up" by Jennifer Goforth Gregory
"Following Up with Prospects—A Different Way to Think About the Process" by Ed Gandia (Episode 181 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast)
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to listen to Boss Responses. This podcast is a passion project that comes from years of helping freelancers shape a business that supports the lifestyle they want.
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Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast.
Treasa Edmond:We are on day three with our guest co-host, Leslie Lang. Today we're talking about when you should follow up after you first reached out to a potential new client. This is one of those questions I see a lot and I see a lot of great answers on this one. Jennifer Goforth G regory's blog and Ed Gandia, has talked about this on his podcast, so check both of those out as well. But today Leslie and I are going to give you our take on the situation. Let's go ahead and jump into today's question.
Treasa Edmond:If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, teresa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question. I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business.
Treasa Edmond:Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses. We're back for day three with Leslie and Leslie, I have a question for you today. This is from a reader about queries and letters of introduction and I don't do a lot of those, so I'm hoping you can answer this question. It says I send a lot of queries or letters of introduction and I find that most of the time I get assignments because I follow up, not from that first contact. What's your take on this and how important is the follow up?
Leslie Lang:That is such a great question. I actually find the same thing I went. A lot of my work at this point is from referrals or it's ongoing work with companies I've worked with for a long time. But when it gets a little slower, I go back to the basics and that's sending out LOIs, letters of introduction, and I find the same thing.
Leslie Lang:Very, very often I don't hear anything back and I think a lot of people think, oh, that doesn't work, then why bother? But then always follow up and I often get interest and work after one or even two follow ups and I don't understand why, but I've just come to accept that now is that's the way it works. So I shoot out the first ones, I put a note in my calendar for maybe a week later and if I haven't heard anything back, what I do is I hit forward on that first email that I sent out and I write I'm just following up to make sure you received my email below, let me know if there's any freelance writing I can help you with, or something like that, and that is the one, and then, if I don't hear, I might do it again a month later or then a couple months later. I just keep going till the cows come home. I never stop and it works.
Treasa Edmond:I don't know why it works.
Leslie Lang:It works though.
Treasa Edmond:Do you think it's a matter of just being there hitting their inbox at the right time? And they've already seen your name, so they're familiar with it?
Leslie Lang:I think that's probably part of it. I think some of it is just as basic, as people are busy and they may be glanced at your first email and then it got buried. You know, I mean that happens to all of us, and so they feel a little guiltier after they see it two or three times and haven't responded to you. Or maybe they were interested and meant to respond to you, but I think that's so important. If there's only one or two things you could teach a new freelance writer, it would be to keep following up, and that's when you hear back from people.
Treasa Edmond:Well, and yeah, not only with queries and letters of introduction, but with your clients. If you send them an email and they don't respond back, they get busy. People are busy. Don't assume they're ignoring you. Don't assume they're not interested. Send a follow up. If I do a query or a letter of introduction, I have a stopping point. I will send that first one and then I follow up about a week later, like you do, and then I'll follow up two weeks after that and then a month after that, and that one is usually my final one. And I send something funny. I send a.
Treasa Edmond:There's an old sales trick where you send an email that has three options. I haven't heard back from you. I'm going to assume it's one of these three things, and one of them is just completely outlandish A dragon ate your computer, something like that. And then it's so funny, you've gotten busy and you haven't had a chance to respond yet. You're really not interested and that's totally okay. You put something like it in there. Or three a dragon ate your computer and you couldn't follow up. Whichever option it is, I just wanted to let you know this is the last time you'll hear from me and I've had a response to almost every single one of those, even if it was just, you're right, I was busy or no, we don't have any work right now, but do check back in six months and at least that keeps that relationship open. I love that response.
Leslie Lang:That's great. Yeah, that's great. I will. If I don't hear after the first two or three contacts, I will maybe go back after six months or something, because everything has changed by then and they're not gonna be remembered that I wrote before and they've got new projects and so anyway, yeah, I think following up is so important. I highly highly recommend you have to do that to succeed in this business.
Treasa Edmond:One tip I would also give is, if you're following up with someone or a company and you haven't followed up with them in like six months, check to make sure it's still the same person, because with all of the staffing changes, it's possibility that the person you're emailing is no longer even there and someone just never reads their inbox anymore. So double check and make sure that you're emailing the right person.
Leslie Lang:Yeah, LinkedIn, check them on LinkedIn, I agree.
Treasa Edmond:LinkedIn's great. All right, thank you, and we will be back for day four with Leslie tomorrow.