“I’ll get back to you”… “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”

Those are two phrases that I’ve heard time and time again when I’ve made a request or asked for something. It doesn’t matter what it’s about and it almost doesn’t matter who I’ve asked. I’ve received those two responses quite often. Sometimes, the person sticks true to their words and gets back to me. Then sometimes, they drop the ball. It always sucks when the latter happens, because now it seems like I’m bugging them, when all I’m trying to do is get an answer that they “promised” me. At least that’s how it feels. But in fact, they didn’t promise me anything. They simply said that they would let me know. Everybody is busy. Personally, I live and die by what’s in my calendar. Anytime I’ve agreed  to catch up with a friend a couple of days out, I open my phone and put it in my calendar. If I have a client meeting that pops up while I’m working, I stop everything I’m doing, pop open the calendar on my computer and schedule it. It’s either that, or I’ll forget it. So I’m personally not surprised when people don’t follow up with me because people are busy and forget. But as new speaker, you should never forget to follow up.

The importance of following up as a new speaker is unparalleled. It’s already hard to get your first couple of shots. You’ll make many calls and send out various emails that will go unnoticed or ignored. So what are you going to do? Will you let the opportunity pass you by and think what if? Or will you follow up? Let me make it clear, there is such thing as following up too much. Usually after the third time, you should leave the ball in their court. But you definitely shouldn’t give up if you don’t hear anything from them after the first try. But what if you overstep your boundaries? What if you become annoying? You won’t, as long as you know how to word emails. You see, most people are long winded when they are asking for an opportunity and the reader usually tunes out after the first couple of sentences. I found this personally happen to me a lot when I started on my journey. I would be going in-depth in these emails, when really I needed to be clear and to the point. I found myself going from not getting replies, to getting no’s or not right now’s, to eventually seeing “tell me more’s” and “I’m open to this possibility”.

But what if I already booked the keynote? What if I already completed multiple keynotes? What’s the point of following up then? In this case, following up could be the difference in receiving a great testimonial or never been considered for a conference you once spoke at again. You should always make it a point to follow up in the form of a thank you whenever you complete a talk. Some people think of this as stroking the ego, because you already completed all the work asked of you. Why should you follow up? Because it’s all part of the speaking process in its totality. Speaking is more than what you do on the stage. It’s about how you treat the external team that is working with you to make sure your talk is stellar. It’s about how you manage the relationship between you and the event organizer that booked you. It’s about simply showing gratitude for getting this opportunity, because someone is putting their reputation on the line by bringing you in.

Ultimately, emailing people too often can be very annoying but speaking is a relationship business. You’ll find that opportunities are given just as much by relationships as is a person having true skill. If someone see’s that you took the time to thank them for choosing you after a successful event, you’ll complete the positive imprint of you in their mind. You’ll be among the first they think about when another event comes around.  If a person see’s that you sent a second email because they may have missed your first one, then they’ll see you as persistent. They may be persuaded to get more information, because you took the time to reach out again. Just so we are clear, a follow up doesn’t have to be only in the form of email. You can go the extra mile by sending a hand written card if you can find an address. However you choose to do it, just do it. Follow up and be intentional.

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

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