I’ve been witness to a lot of disciplines in the practice of business. Some good...some far from it. But there is one thing I believe that is fundamental to running a business successfully...that’s follow up. It’s part of management...and part of management is delegation of responsibility, the other part is making sure that the delegation is followed up upon.

Now, the “art” of management is knowing how to temper the difference between delegating and making sure that the delegation is carried through but not to the point that you are micro-managing which means you are not letting the delegates do their job...you’re doing it all. That’s not management. The disaster of management is when either a responsibility has not been recognized and/or when follow up has not occurred.

On June 22, BannerView.com had a booth at the LVCC Business EXPO. We undertook untried initiatives in marketing our booth. You can read all about it in my June 15 blog. We conducted real business in our booth and the day was a success. However, the campaign does not stop there. The day was an opportunity for the future. Leads were generated and follow up must be done. It’s important to build a plan that generates business beyond a single, “one shot wonder.” Our marketing department has developed an entire follow-up campaign to support our sales team. It starts with our launch of our new, “Business EXPO News from the Booth at BannerView," an example of which is shown below.

To pull off such a day, there was a plan, a scope of details, delegation of responsibilities, and a follow up reporting system involved. As a result, the day went off without a hitch.

Follow up is critical to cementing customer relationships. If you are an account manager, it is important to listen and understand your customer’s needs, what your product and service delivery to the client will be, and be accountable for ensuring that all is delivered to the client’s satisfaction. You sacrifice the relationship if you don’t follow through. More importantly, you sully your reputation and credibility and that of your company. The cost of restoration is incalculable.

Pamela’s Simple Follow Up Tips that Can Save you a Million and Make you a Million:

1. Make a list of your to dos for getting the project done.
2. Determine the time it will take to get each step accomplished.
3. Determine what resources and talent you need for the overall job and each step.
4. Be time sensitive to the overall project and the scope of work for each step.
5. Make your team assignments and do so with realistic deliverable dates.
6. Create a mid-time follow up tickler for yourself in terms of checking up with your team...the last thing you want is an “oh-by-the-way” last minute surprise---fore warned is fore armed!
7. Make sure your plan has opportunities off of which you can leverage for the future.
8. Establish a measuring system for ROI and the effectiveness of your plan.