How to follow up with your prospects to increase sales & retention

How to Follow up for business growth

• Providing follow-up services for overwhelmed businesses

• Solving the problem of neglecting leads and customers

• Serving established businesses with large contact lists

00:00
Welcome to biz coach and coffee, where our guests are experts, entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants that share tips, strategies and tactics to help small business entrepreneurs grow their business for long term success.

00:20
Please welcome your host, business coach Steve Feld.

Steve Feld 00:29
Hello, I’m based Coach Steve Feld. And my goal is to stop business owners from suffering entrepreneurial depression, and start making running their businesses much easier. Business owners and entrepreneurs hire me to crack multiple six and seven figures without burning themselves out. And today we have another wonderful guest for you.

We have Mustafa Hosseini. He is the founder of Persyo. So we’re going to dig in find out what that’s all about. So please welcome Mostafa

Mostafa Hosseini 00:58
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Steve Feld 01:00
Great. Well, the first thing is, you know, Okay, where did the name of your company come from?

Mostafa Hosseini 01:05
Beauty. So I’m Persian Canadian. And so, back in 2010, I started a marketing company. We did digital marketing for our clients and agency. And so every good name that I wanted to, that I wanted was taken for, domains were taken. And then one day I was sitting at a mall here in Calgary, and I saw a store called Korio. And I am like Oh, Korea. Persio, and then I was like Persio doesn’t sound good. What about Persyo?

Boom. That’s the name. So that’s how we came up with actually created the name. It did not exist.

Steve Feld 01:46
Nice. Yeah. And what is your company do?

Mostafa Hosseini 01:52
So right now I run a call center specializing in follow ups. The biggest problem that we solve is the fact that most businesses spend a lot of time and money to find new leads, while totally ignoring their existing list of prospects, customers and past customers.

The second problem that we solve is the fact that some of these people, they want to follow up with their list, but they don’t have the time, the manpower and the resources to do it.

And the third problem, and these are not in order of priority depends on who I’m talking to. And the third problem we solve is the fact that most people just hate to pick up the phone and make calls even to their friends and to their existing customers. And people that have raised their hand and said, Hey, I need help, they’re still hesitant to call. So those are the problems that we solve.

Steve Feld 02:42
Right? And that is so so true. And it that’s one thing I’ve always believed in, be relentless on your follow up, and his paid off, and amazingly, over the years for myself, so I totally get what you’re doing. And I think it’s wonderful in that. And I see why business owners are hiring you because they really don’t follow up. They

Mostafa Hosseini 03:03
don’t even salespeople don’t follow up. So we fix that problem for companies with sales teams as well. So we’re like, why don’t you focus on closing? We’ll take care of the follow up, because regardless of how much we try to encourage you and motivate you, the maximum that goes is probably for a day or two, and then they’re back to not following up. So

Steve Feld 03:24
true. And who are primarily your clients.

Mostafa Hosseini 03:30
So more established businesses, seven figure businesses that do probably between five to $25 million in sales, they have that list. And again, they don’t have the manpower or the systems to do it. So we do it for them.

Steve Feld 03:50
Well, yeah, that’s true. Yeah. So I’m sure they applied massive amount of leads, contacts, even past clients, and current,

Effective customer retention strategies with consistent follow-up calls

• How to educate and remind customers for referrals

• How to follow up to increase customer retention

• How to generate leads through past customer calls

• How to get high conversion rates from consistent follow-up

Mostafa Hosseini 03:57
absolutely. Like one guy I’m talking to right now has a list of 38,000 people. And they could do some of the even if they want to, they cannot, like I said they don’t have the manpower and the resources to do it. And when we show up, they’re like, Oh, this is great. That’s another few million bucks you could make.

Steve Feld 04:19
So we know their biggest problem is the follow up. So can you share with us like some of the things that you actually follow up with these clients or?

Mostafa Hosseini 04:28
Absolutely, so we do to follow up our clients from the moment leads opt into their system to download a book a lead magnet of some sort, and all the way to a webinar to an existing to a training or an event. pre post events and existing customers and past customers.

So we do the follow up for the entire funnel of whoever is in it, make sure that the people are not ignored and we have a competition with them and make sure we take care of them. And one thing that we focus on heavily He’s getting referrals from all the people on the list, even if they’re not qualified to be our customers, our philosophy is that maybe they know someone that may be a good fit. And if you don’t ask, a lot of times, you won’t get it. So that’s what we do. It’s so

Steve Feld 05:20
so true. It’s shocking that how many business owners have a great relationship with a client, and they don’t ask for referrals?

Mostafa Hosseini 05:29
Absolutely, absolutely. And some of them are waiting there. They’re like, hopefully, they’re gonna give me a referral if I do a great job. So what So one of the things that we do is we call the entire list every three or four months to consistently stay in touch in a very friendly and nurturing way.

And so when you ask your list three or four times a year for a referral, you’re educating them, you’re reminding them to refer to you and you cannot just wait and sit back and hope that one day, they’re gonna refer to your you should have to educate them, remind them, and then take care of them basically. Nice.

Steve Feld 06:08
So how did your idea for the company come about?

Mostafa Hosseini 06:14
So like I mentioned, I ran an agency from 2010 to 2018. Did I mention that already? Or not yet? No? Not yet. Okay. So I run a marketing company from 2010. That was my previous conversation to the I’m sorry. So I run a marketing agency from 2010 to 2018. And horrendous learn this from Dan Kennedy, about the power of retention and follow ups on how nobody does it. And it’s like the low hanging fruit. And we could just tap into it.

So the story is that every time I had ran into trouble, and I needed cash, and I was out of leads and customers, and I had a deadline for payments and whatnot, I would worry about it for a few days, then it would come to my senses and realize that I have a list of prospects, customers and past customers, then I would pick up the phone and have a very friendly conversation. Or I would get a team member to do it. 

And on the day of or shortly after, we would get appointments, referrals, introductions, you name it. So I was like, Oh, this is really working because we’re getting high conversion rates. And it was like, it’s almost instant, I would say probably the fastest I’ve seen results in any form of marketing. 

As a matter of fact, this has been our most profitable, highest converting marketing activity period. Because the fact that these people have already raised their hand and there is a level of trust, and credibility and expertise established.

And so we’re just going back and say, Hey, what’s going on? Can I help where you at and the rest of it. And then so 2018 I read 8020 principle by Richard Kosh change basically the way I think, with the ad 20. And then I was like, You know what, I’m going to start teaching the stuff that I have learned over the years. So I started teaching simple marketing formula. And what happened was, I started teaching this stuff that was actually working for us. Now, the last module was always customer retention. So I was like, Guys, this is the last step.

But this is probably the most profitable step. So here’s what you do. Here’s the script. Here’s the process, pick up the phone today. Call your people, and you’re gonna see cash and results today. Wow. And guess what? Nobody did it. Of course, I’m like, Who doesn’t like your people? This is your customers. Why don’t you do it? And you’re like, oh, you know, I don’t know, blah, blah, blah, they would come up with excuses. Then later on, a few times, as I ran the workshop, I had a guy who was making calls for us.

And he wasn’t he was looking for more work, than during the workshop, I would say, tell people that I have a guy who can make calls for you to your list. Who wants an introduction? Everybody? Wow. Then then I’d be like, Oh, that’s interesting. That happened a few times, then I’m like, there’s probably a business here, guys. What if we do this for you and manage it for you? Who wants that? Right? Yep. So I’m Yeah, brother. 

You’re, you’re doing the calling you go ahead and do it. So that’s how we started. That’s how we got some validation and ended up with us. Wow, that’s fantastic. All right. That was long story. But

Business growth and marketing strategies

• Focusing on one thing for simplicity

• Emphasizing existing customers for future revenue

• Upselling to existing customers for cost-effectiveness

Steve Feld 09:12
no, yeah, very good. Because it’s amazing how many people start a business and it’s all because of the need and the need arises just out of something else? Yes.

Mostafa Hosseini 09:24
Absolutely. We’re

Steve Feld 09:25
gonna take a quick word from our sponsor, we’re gonna be right back within the stop. This episode is sponsored by spotlight books. Get your expert book completed in 30 days. If you don’t have an expert, Lead Magnet book about you and how you serve your market, then visit WWW dot spotlight. Hyphen books.com. link is also in the show notes, put a spotlight on your expertise. 

And we’re back. We’ve been talking about how many you know the needs arise out of from one thing and To create something else, we see it all the time in businesses, especially small business owners, right?

Or you get multiple small business owners in a room, and they start talking and create something even bigger and better. Absolutely. even imagine. So what did you know, I was curious with business owners, what is one thing you learned the hard way that you would tell your younger self?

Mostafa Hosseini 10:25
The 8020 principle, I really wish I would have come across stage 20 principle when I was 20, or maybe even younger. And so I would have probably focused more on one thing and my agency days. So we started offering too many products and too many people, we were trying to please everybody.

And if I knew the 8020 principle sooner, it would have saved me a lot of headache and a lot of issues. So if you haven’t read the book, the 8020 principle by Richard Kosh are the 80/20 of Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall. Those are amazing books. And you got to know this.

Steve Feld 11:10
I couldn’t agree with more. I mean, I talked about the 8020 rule all the time, the Pareto principle, and it’s amazing how many business owners you know, they’re focusing on the 80, that brings in 20% of the revenue, and it should be focusing on the 20% of your activity that’s bringing in the 80% of your revenue

Mostafa Hosseini 11:26
100%.

Steve Feld 11:29
And I think that’s the case with most business owners. It’s like it like the big fluffy stuff.

Mostafa Hosseini 11:35
So 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your existing customers. That’s where we end up in the business of follow up. And probably 80% of your revenue from comes from the people that are already on your list someone that already raised their hand.

It’s so much easier to convert and get business from a prospect that has said yes, I have a problem come help me. And or upsell to an existing customer and or to reactivate a past customer. It’s like 8020 all over it.

Steve Feld 12:07
It’s crazy, isn’t it?

Mostafa Hosseini 12:09
Yeah. It’s simple. It’s crazy. To me, it sounds crazy to me that a lot of people are most people just ignore that. And they’re out there spending a ton of time and money to find new leads.

Steve Feld 12:20
Right? Yeah, they’re always chasing something new when they’re sitting on a goldmine.

Mostafa Hosseini 12:25
Exactly. Couldn’t agree more.

Steve Feld 12:30
You know, everyone’s grew up building their business, what it sounds like, the one thing you learned was focus. Yes.

Mostafa Hosseini 12:40
So there are two things that you should I think people should focus on if you find these two pieces. Growth and marketing becomes a lot easier. And I talked about that in my target market formula course. And that is when it comes to your target market. Two components are very important one, what you do and to who you do it for, right.

So here’s what I specializing. And here’s who I do it for, for example, I do accounting for dentists in the city of say, Phoenix, Arizona, and or you could go even in Arizona altogether, right? Well, when you say that, then you’re specializing, and it becomes a lot easier to find them and a lot, a lot of things become easier and less expensive, in terms of time and money. So when you focus,

How to Follow up for business growth

• Niche market focus for client acquisition

• How to follow-up with past clients

• Blueprint for increasing retention rates

• Emphasizing follow-up for exponential growth

Steve Feld 13:34
things are easy. That’s true. And then many business owners taking your example are like, I do accounting. And it’s like, for me, you know, let’s give a market and they’re so worried about losing business, when the opposite is actually true.

Mostafa Hosseini 13:51
100%. So when you say I do accounting for dentists, sometimes people ask and say, Look, I run a furniture store. Can you do accounting for me? Exactly. But when you say I do it for everybody, that second question never comes. True. I, we all say when you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody. Yeah. Right.

So if you take a group, and people worry about losing Well, if let’s say dentists in the city of Phoenix, there are most likely a few 100, if not a few 1000 dental offices in that city alone. And if you go a couple of cities further, you probably cannot even handle the amount of business in that very small niche market that we’re talking about.

So focusing is important and so much easier to find those guys, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can’t say enough about that. Yeah,

Steve Feld 14:45
I always joke with, you know, clients and prospective clients is like, I can’t search for everyone in Google. Because it gives me too many responses. But if I say like I’m focusing on dentists in the Phoenix area, guess what? I have an exact list

Mostafa Hosseini 15:01
Yeah. And it’s so much so much easier to find the list.

Steve Feld 15:03
Yeah, it’s quantifiable. Now. Now it gives it gives me real data.

Mostafa Hosseini 15:09
Absolutely. Oh, yeah. So what is

Steve Feld 15:14
one thing? I think you’re talking to your clients, your prospects, what is one thing you tried to instill? Like, listen, you got to really understand this about your business. And this is where you guys thrive on the other side is the follow up. But what would you tell your clients or prospects?

Like? What do you need to really work on?

Mostafa Hosseini 15:32
So mostly, what one of the things we work on is laying out the funnel, and trying to figure out where the bottlenecks are. And the reason we got into this follow up businesses, because that usually is the bottleneck, like people do a lot of work. And then at the end, they did they don’t do follow ups with leads existing customers, past customers, people are just out there. being ignored, basically, right.

And so if there’s one thing is lay out what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, find the bottlenecks and then focus on fixing them because you fix one bottleneck, and it fixes a lot of issues. In our case, follow up has been a big bottleneck for our customers. So we fixed we fixed that problem. Nice.

Steve Feld 16:22
So folks, stop the madness. If you’re afraid of follow up with your past clients, even prospects and leads. I think we found someone who can help you out on that. Right?

Mostafa Hosseini 16:36
Right. Either do it yourself, it’s so easy. Like, literally if you if you want to do it yourself, pick up the phone, and here’s our approach, we do have very friendly and nurturing approach and conversation with people.

So it’s not a, you know, hardcore salesy or pushy type of conversation, you’re reaching out to help and, and see where they’re at. Because these days, a real human conversation is missing quite a bit in the marketing mix. So when you pick up and have a real conversation, hear them out and ask questions, with the intention of helping, it’s so

Steve Feld 17:09
easy. Oh, it’s so true. Great speaking to help eight guests usually give a offer to our listeners that can help them in their lives or in their business, what kind of gift can you offer our listeners.

Mostafa Hosseini 17:23
So I’m sharing the blueprint, two simple retention formula. This is a checklist that’s going to help you fix your follow up problem, get referrals and increase your retention rate. So you could keep your customers in a you know, increase or create recurring revenue, and get appointments, referrals, higher profits, and the rest of it. And I believe you guys are going to share the link in the show notes.

Steve Feld 17:45
Yeah, we will have that link in the show notes. Absolutely. Great. So definitely take hit take advantage of Mustafa’s offer, get that blueprint print for simple retention formula? Why not? Hey, what a great way to grow your business, your contacts. What is one final thing that you would like to tell our listeners to help them grow their business?

Mostafa Hosseini 18:14
help you grow your business, fix your follow up problem, honestly, I’ve been talking about all the way along. It’s a big problem. And it almost I’ve been in the marketing world for 15 years, and almost every business has a follow up problem.

And so you fix that problem and your business start growing in some cases exponentially, because you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. 6789 figures on the table, depending on the business that you ran. Wow. So

Steve Feld 18:41
there you go, folks, follow up, follow up, follow up. If you can do it. Mostafa and his team can just want to thank you very much for being our guest on this coaching coffee.

Mostafa Hosseini 18:52
Thank you. Thanks for having me. This was a great conversation.

Steve Feld 18:57
Thanks a lot. And folks, if you like Mostafa, please make sure you like this episode. I’m sure Mustafa likes to hear a little love to so give us some positive feedback or some critical feedback if that’s what you feel like and let us know how we’re doing to help you out.

And make sure you like and subscribe to this channel so you don’t miss any other experts to help you grow your business. This is business coach Steve Feld wishing you and your business much success.

19:27
We hope you enjoyed today’s topic. If you’d like to discuss how you can apply these strategies in your business. Let us know this episode is sponsored by spotlight.

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