Stop Treating Follow Up Like Punishment (It Is Literally the Job)

This is the second post in the follow up pillar. The first one was about text. This one is about the thing that has to come before any tactic works.

The mindset.

Because nine times out of ten when an owner says they have a lead problem, they do not have a lead problem. They have a follow up problem. And a follow up problem is a mindset problem before it is a tactical one.

Let me show you what I mean.

The biggest lie we tell ourselves in this industry

I hear some version of these every week.

"Ugh, I have to do all this follow up."

"I do not feel like calling people."

"I do not feel like texting people."

"My leads suck."

No. Your leads do not suck.

If you have ten conversations sitting inside your CRM right now, that is not a chore. That is a blessing.

That is ten human beings who raised their hand. Even if they do not know you yet. Even if they are not ready yet. Even if they are ghosting a little bit because they are humans and humans get distracted.

Your job is to follow up with people. Then you train them.

But we like training more because it is comfortable. And we avoid follow up because it feels like rejection. So we keep buying more ads and complaining about lead quality instead of working the leads we already paid for.

That is the trap. And it is on you to climb out of it.

Speed to lead is not the real problem. Speed to contact is.

Here is my hot take.

Most of you do not have a speed to lead problem.

You have a speed to contact problem.

Your automations are doing their job. The lead fills out the form, they get a text. They get an email. They get a voicemail drop. They get the "hey look at me" automated stuff.

Cool.

But the wheels fall off after they respond.

If your automation messages them at 8am and they respond at 10am, and you do not respond until 11:30 because you were in sessions, you just lost the lead. You are chasing them at 11:30 when they already mentally moved on at 10:15.

Remember this. What you do is not important to them yet. What they do is important. They are thinking about themselves, as they should.

So when they respond, move.

You do not have to be perfect. You have to set expectations.

I am not saying you have to drop everything and get on a twenty minute call mid session.

Sometimes the best response is simple.

"Hey. I am walking into a session right now, but I am free after 5pm. What time works best for you?"

That is it.

That is the most powerful thing you can do in follow up. You set the expectation for the next touch. You let the prospect know you are real, you are busy with actual clients, and you have a plan to circle back at a specific time.

In a world that feels like robots talking to robots, that one sentence makes you stand out.

Time block like an adult. Because leads have patterns.

People usually have time to talk in three windows.

Seven to nine in the morning.

Eleven to one in the middle of the day.

After five in the evening.

So set yourself up. Block call time during those windows. Protect it.

If you are winging it and "getting to it when you can," you are going to keep having the same problem. Conversations going hot, then cold, then dead.

Calling at random times is not a strategy. It is a hope. Hope is not a strategy.

The easiest way to boost sales flow. Pull appointments forward.

This is one of my favorite moves and almost nobody uses it enough.

If someone is booked for Friday and you get a cancellation tomorrow morning, call or text them.

"Hey Deb. Quick one. I had a cancellation at 8am tomorrow. Want to slide your consult up and grab it?"

Two things happen.

You re engage them, which cuts the no show rate dramatically. A consult booked for tomorrow shows at a much higher rate than a consult booked for Friday.

You build momentum with back to back consults. And when you are in flow, you close more. Period.

You can use the same move to re engage warm leads who went cold.

"I had a 10am slot open up tomorrow and thought of you. Want it?"

Give it a little urgency. Keep it human. Move on if they do not bite. But you would be amazed how often they do.

If your show rate is under 80 percent, that is the red flag

If you are booking consults and people are not showing up, something is missing in the experience before the consult.

You need a quick pre frame qualifying call before the appointment. Four questions.

What do they want?

How long have they wanted it?

What has stopped them?

What would success look like?

Then when you send the confirmation message, you reference their words. The goal they told you. The thing they said was stopping them. The picture they painted of what success looks like.

People do not ghost as easily when they feel seen.

One more move that works insanely well. Have the coach or trainer text them the day before with a photo.

"Hey, it is Coach Sarah. I have your plan ready and I am pumped to meet you tomorrow."

Now it is not just "an appointment." It is a person waiting for them. That changes the show up rate by ten or fifteen points by itself.

Segment your list or stop complaining about being overwhelmed

If your follow up system lives in your head, it cannot scale.

Separate your lists.

Active members.

Past members.

Past trials.

Cold leads.

Tag them. Rotate timing. Stop blasting everyone at the same time every day and then wondering why response rates are mediocre.

Different audiences need different messages. A past member you are trying to win back is a completely different conversation than a cold lead who just filled out a form. Treating them the same is why your follow up feels exhausting and produces nothing.

The mindset shift, in one sentence

Follow up is not a chore. It is the job.

Train your brain to see ten leads in your CRM as ten people who raised their hand. Move on the ones who respond. Set expectations for the ones who do not. Pull appointments forward when slots open up. Segment your lists. Block call time around the windows people actually answer.

Do that for thirty days and you will be embarrassed by how much money was sitting inside your CRM the whole time.

The book has the full ten commandments of follow up that govern all of this. The cadence. The timing. The exact words. The weekly scoreboard. Five dollars plus shipping at tomleonardis.com/claim, or on Amazon Prime.

If you would rather have me on the phone with you while you build the follow up system into something that actually works, that is what the one on one coaching is for. Five spots open at a time.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between speed to lead and speed to contact?

Speed to lead is how fast your automation reaches out after a form fill. Most gyms have this dialed in. Speed to contact is how fast a real human responds after the lead writes back. Most gyms are bad at this. The second one is what actually moves close rates.

How long should you wait to respond to a gym lead?

Inside ten minutes if you can. Inside the hour at the outside. If you cannot respond right away because you are in a session, send the one line expectation setter: "Hey, I am walking into a session right now, but I am free after 5pm. What time works best for you?" That sets the next touch and keeps the lead alive.

What times of day do gym leads actually answer the phone?

Three windows. Seven to nine in the morning. Eleven to one in the middle of the day. After five in the evening. Block call time around those windows instead of calling whenever you happen to have a free minute.

How do you pull a gym appointment forward when you have a cancellation?

Text or call the prospect who is booked further out. Tell them you had a slot open up tomorrow and offer it to them. Two upsides. Earlier consults show at a much higher rate, and you build momentum with back to back appointments which makes you close more.

Why is my gym consultation show rate low?

Almost always because the experience before the consult was thin. Add a four question pre frame call. Reference their words in the confirmation. Have the coach text them the day before with a photo. Each one of those moves the show rate by several points. Stack them and you get back into the eighty to ninety percent range.