Ely Delaney: 00:00:00

Her calendar ended up being slammed for the next 30 days, and she did over $12,000 in sales by that Friday from that one single email that didn't sell a darn thing.

But I am the world's biggest super fan.

You're like a super fan.

Intro/Outro: 00:00:18

Welcome to the Business Superfans Podcast.

We will discuss how establishing business superfans from customers, employees and business partners can elevate your success exponentially.

Learn why these advocates are a key factor to Achie excellence in the world of commerce.

We discuss the invaluable insights of business owners who have successfully implemented the strategies in the book to build their own team of devoted super fans.

Gain insightful knowledge from the experts who create applications that help you create passionate super fans.

This is the Business Super Fans Podcast with your host, Freddy D. Freddy.

Ely Delaney: 00:00:54

Freddy.

Freddy D: 00:01:08

Welcome to episode 225 of the Business Superfans Advantage podcast.

Someone shows interest in your business, but they're not ready to buy you.

Follow up a couple times, hear nothing, and move on.

But what happens when they're finally ready and they've forgotten you?

In this episode, we're joined by Eli Delaney, who built his first business through networking and went on to help business owners turn follow up into lasting relationships.

He shares why constantly pitching can push people away and how a more personal approach keeps conversations going even when a sale is years away.

Superfans.

You'll hear how to reconnect with contacts who've gone quiet, write emails people actually want to answer and stay top of mind by making people feel remembered, understood, understood, and supported.

Welcome, Eli, to the Business Superfans Advantage podcast.

Great conversation that we had before we started recording.

Let's continue that conversation.

Welcome to the show.

Ely Delaney: 00:02:09

Well, thank you so much for having me.

It's my pleasure to be here today.

Freddy D: 00:02:13

So as we talked a little bit, you spent some time in Arizona, you spent some time up in Oregon, and now you're down in Texas.

And we had a great chat about that stuff and some of the things you've done in business.

But right now you've written a new book and you've also really helped people nurture their your customer base and potential customer base via email and stuff like that.

But how did it all come about?

What's the, what's the backstory?

Ely Delaney: 00:02:37

Yeah, so my first company was a web and graphic design agency.

I started that back in 95 and literally I built the business through networking.

I went to my first chamber of commerce, checked it out, went, got really good with that.

I went to a couple of other Networking reps. We got to the point where within the chamber, the couple of the guys that actually ran the chamber used to joke about the fact that when Eli started, he would come to the opening of a letter.

Because I was at every event I possibly could.

And I grew that business from my dining room to an office.

I had five employees or closing three to five contracts a week, killing it, having a great time, but it was all relationships.

And so that's kind of how it all started.

fast forward to Was it about: 2008

I got into the speaking world and started building these follow up systems because I might speak in front of a hundred people and I got five people that are like, I think I need your help.

They're like, credit card in hand, ready to go.

And my first thought was, I obviously suck because If I got 10 people that said yes and 90 people that walked out the door, I did something wrong.

So I started building follow up systems.

I'm like, okay, how can I help this?

And they work so well that I ended up getting known for my follow up processes.

And it's very different than what a lot of people are doing, which is very pitch, pitch, pitch.

My stuff was like, hey, I got something cool, I want to share with you.

And it was very conversational and very relationship focused.

And then when I did have something to actually promote, people paid attention and if they weren't interested or whatever, they would reply back to my emails and say, hey, this sounds awesome, but I'm just not ready for it right now.

Like I'm still building conversations and building the relationship even if they're not ready.

And that ended up kind of being the basis of how I've done everything ever since.

And so since then I've been helping clients with it.

We build these systems, I call it the ultimate follow up system, which is designed to be an evergreen process where we build these nurture processes, these nurture relationships.

And the cool thing about it is it doesn't just work in email.

Email's been my main platform, but it works in social media, it works in texting, it works in phone calls, it works in face to face meetings.

It's all about how do you communicate more intentionally and more effectively to strengthen the relationship to the point where when they're ready, whatever that looks like, which it might be today, tomorrow, next week, next year, or 10 years from now, which I have had happen, when they're ready, you're the first person they think of.

Freddy D: 00:05:02

Sure, sure.

And you bring up some great points there.

And that is the fact that not selling to them on a regular basis and just really building the relationships is something that I've done in the sales in the tech space for decades, was really following up, maintaining the relationships and what was their objectives and how could I help them get to the goals that they were looking for in their business or whatever.

And that, in turn, got me to where they were becoming my sales team and referring me to other people.

And it wasn't here's a referral.

It was an introduction.

They were creating introductions, which collapses the whole sales cycle dramatically.

Versus here's a referral.

Good luck, Follow up with it.

Versus hey, let me make a phone call or do an email introduction.

So what's really important about what you're talking about is you were nurturing those relationships.

And so when people are ready, like you mentioned, they're ready, and you're going to be top of mind.

Ely Delaney: 00:06:01

Absolutely.

And you brought up a really good thing where it's like you build a relationship to the point where other people become your referral partners and they're thinking of you.

Somebody says, hey, I got a problem.

They're like, you know what?

I need you to talk to Freddie.

He can solve that for you.

I actually had a story that just recently was only just a few months ago.

This guy ends up getting an introduction by one person who says, I was talking to this guy Michael today, and I want you, the two of you, to talk, because I think you can definitely help him with your special set of skills.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

So we talk and we get on a zoom call.

When he gets on the call, he was like, okay, I knew I needed to talk to you because I was in this particular group and I was on the hot seat, and I explained what was going on, and four different people all said, I needed to talk to you, Mike.

Cool.

Tell me who those four people were.

So I could think.

But it was when you get that kind of response, that feels good, but you're making a positive impact.

You're obviously helping them enough that when you get that kind of response, you're doing something.

Freddy D: 00:07:02

Yeah.

And that's what I call creating a business superfan.

The whole idea behind a business superfan is it's similar to a sports team super fan.

The guys that got the jerseys, the faces painted, the tailgate parties.

Ely Delaney: 00:07:13

Right.

Freddy D: 00:07:14

You're in Texas.

So the Dallas Cowboys, I mean, you got the super fans that are going to fight to the death to defend the Dallas Cowboys.

Ely Delaney: 00:07:21

Doesn't matter how bad they play, they'll Fight to the death, that's for sure.

Freddy D: 00:07:24

It's like the Chicago Cubs.

I mean, they were horrible for decades, but people still stuck with them.

And eventually they did win the World Series.

Ely Delaney: 00:07:33

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:07:34

So when you create a business superfan, it's the same concept and same approach as a sports team.

They're going to stick with you through thick and thin, and especially when things are thin, they're not to abandon you.

They're going to look at ways to helping you grow your business.

Because they're invested in you, because you've invested in them now.

Ely Delaney: 00:07:54

Absolutely.

And it's.

It makes life easier because now the.

The beauty of it is, like most of us, we're in sales whether we want to be or not.

Most people don't like the concept of sales because they've seen the bad side of sales, which are pushy salesmen, and they're like, I don't want to do that, so I suck at sales.

The problem is that we're all in sales, period.

It doesn't matter who we are, what we do.

I mean, I used to joke about my dog used to be in sales because he's selling me to throw the ball for him.

Right?

Freddy D: 00:08:22

The difference, they never give up because we have one, too, and they never give up.

And he'll come back, and he'll come back, and if it's not this toy, he'll run out and get a different toy and come back and see if that's the problem.

Ely Delaney: 00:08:33

Exactly.

Now, the thing is that the dog is way more persistent than human beings are, and we give up way too easy.

But this is why I like the framework and methodology that I use and why my clients like it so much, is because we talk about.

About how do we lead with value first, and the sale's almost an afterthought.

And when you do that, it's cool because, like, say, for instance, most of the time, if you're in talks with a salesman and you're not sure yet or you've decided to hold off or whatever, you see their name pop up on your phone, you're like, just send it to voicemail because you don't want to talk to them because they're going to pitch you.

Or in today's world, so many people, like, hey, book a call with us.

Nobody wants to book a call because salespeople, which could be the owner, but they're still the same person, have abused it to the point where a strategy session is nothing but a really long sales pitch, and people just got burned out on all that.

So let's go through and say, okay, let me send you an email.

And this email is going to say, hey, here's a book that I read that really helped me out in my business.

Now here's a book that I keep on my desk that I share this all the time.

It's the Go Giver by Bob Berg.

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:09:36

I know Bob.

Ely Delaney: 00:09:37

Bob.

I know Bob too.

Awesome.

Super cool dude.

Freddy D: 00:09:40

Yep.

Ely Delaney: 00:09:40

Speaking of a dog guy.

So I have been promoting that book for ages.

And I always talk about, the whole point of it is how do you come from?

Walk into a room with the idea of who can I help in this room?

Not who can I get to give me money.

And it's such a basic concept, but people a lot of times just don't get it.

We read the book, now they.

People will start getting it.

I recommend the book for everybody, whether you're in business or not, because you understand the concept behind all of this.

And the beauty of it is what Bob puts in the book is the same stuff I'm talking about.

Freddy D: 00:10:11

Right?

The same stuff I talk about.

Ely Delaney: 00:10:13

Exactly.

Freddy D: 00:10:14

Yeah, that's.

And you want to emphasize, Eli, is the fact that the people that are very good at sales don't sell.

They have conversations, they have understanding of where you're going, what's the challenges, et cetera.

And they're listening, they're asking questions and then they zip this and they listen.

I just had a guy recently and I want to share this because this is a good example of a face plant from a sales perspective.

And this person was talking and initially they wanted to see how we could collaborate.

Okay.

I'm very open to collaboration.

Ely Delaney: 00:10:49

Right.

Freddy D: 00:10:49

It turned out into a sales pitch for their service.

And I'm going like, well, I'm writing my own software platform and it's not something that I'm going to have to talk to somebody to do an evaluation.

It's self service.

Okay.

And he kept saying, we'll help you get schedules and then you can go through the assessment with the people.

I'm going like, that's not how the platform's designed.

Ely Delaney: 00:11:12

Right.

Freddy D: 00:11:13

It's designed to be self service.

Well, I don't want to be involved.

Ely Delaney: 00:11:16

Yeah, you get so many.

It's like we can book you 50 people on your calendar a week.

I'm like, I already talked to so many people.

I don't have time for that.

Yeah, no, it wasn't.

Freddy D: 00:11:25

He wasn't listening to what it was.

And then it was like I had mentioned, and I'm bringing this up because we're talking about it.

But I had mentioned at some point I'm thinking of a mastermind to do it.

Oh.

He goes, oh, Then you can book your assessment and then pitch people into the mastermind.

Intro/Outro: 00:11:41

Yeah.

Ely Delaney: 00:11:41

It's like Listening Carnival, Parker Methodology, where they're just yelling at, hey, come here, come here.

I got this for you.

Come here.

Yeah, those are the things.

And people, especially this upcoming generation, is just.

They have no tolerance for it.

And so everything I always do and has always been about, hey, here, here's something cool about you.

Go, try this.

Let me know how it works.

Very laid back, very casual.

And then the cool thing is, you do that enough when you say, hey, I think I have something that's good that would really help you out.

And this is a product that I actually sell.

Do you want to hear about it?

People are much more open to listen to it.

Freddy D: 00:12:16

Sure.

Ely Delaney: 00:12:17

And.

And the cool thing is, like, going back to the book process.

I share books all the time.

And the beauty of it is that I get people that get a book recommendation from me and they reply back to my emails and thank me.

I had one gal, literally, she had seen this email.

I was recommending the Greatest Salesman in the World by Ogmandino.

And so she sends me this email.

It was on Monday.

And she emails me and says, hey, Eli, I want to thank you so much for recommending this book.

I got your email on Thursday, and I've been really struggling with my business to the point where I was about ready to throw in the towel.

I decided to go ahead and get the book.

I got it on Friday, and I read it over the weekend.

And I want to thank you for sending this over because it totally changed my mindset.

It helped me realize where I was struggling and that I am actually on the right path, what I need to fix.

And I just want to thank you for that because you just saved my business.

Freddy D: 00:13:09

And that's how you create a super fan.

Ely Delaney: 00:13:11

Exactly.

And I mean, it's like,.

Freddy D: 00:13:15

You can't buy that kind of pr.

Ely Delaney: 00:13:17

Exactly.

Yeah.

And we love those kind of things because now I know that she got value out of it.

She shared that with me, and she's going.

She's going to share that with other people.

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:13:32

I mean, that's one of the things that people don't realize, and I'm glad we're having this conversation, is the fact that impacting somebody in a positive way, that helps transform them.

You can't buy that kind of pr.

And they're going to be A super fan telling everybody that they know how you help transform their business.

And the other thing that I think people overlook, and a lot of people talk about leadership stuff, employee stuff and customer stuff, and they forget that that's not the business ecosystem.

The business ecosystem is suppliers and vendors, contractors and VAs, complimentary businesses, distribution, if you've got it, ancillary businesses.

That is the real business ecosystem.

And you gotta look at that as like a contractor.

I've seen so many companies treat contractors well.

They should be grateful we're giving them work.

No, that's the front line dude or dudette that's going to the customer on your behalf.

So you should really be edify, notifying that person, because one of the guests on the show called those people directors of first impressions.

So treat them as a director of first impressions.

Ely Delaney: 00:14:43

Right?

No.

And the thing is that this is a yin yang situation.

It's give and take.

It goes on both sides.

So as a great example of this, as a podcast host, I always find it entertaining because I do a lot of podcasts, both as a guest and I have my own podcast as a host.

I get people that want to be on my show and they're like, hey, you know what?

I am awesome.

And I your show is me.

Cool people.

I'm cool.

You should be on it.

And I'm like, well, the fact that you said that, so you're not coming on my show, plain and simple.

But what ends up happening is like, for me as the host, I want to give somebody that I see have value platform to come and just share their story.

A lot of times the guests that I bring on my show are people that are not really overly experienced, because I know they have something good and they need that opportunity.

So I'll bring them in.

But the other side of that is I want them to promote the show.

I want them to share that show out, be grateful on it.

And it's both sides, because I've had times where, like, you're a guest on my show, so you need to promote this because that's the only reason I'm letting you on my show, which is not a good way to do it.

And on the flip side, you get people that are guests that are prima donnas, and they're like, well, I am so good.

You should be honored to have me on your show.

And I'm like, everybody needs to put their ego in a pocket somewhere, because neither side wins when you do that.

It's like, let's.

Let's work in building the relationship and help each other out.

And when we do that, and this is just one example, we do that in business.

Like my vendors, anytime I work with somebody else, I'm doing it because I appreciate them and I know that they'll do a good job, but I want them to thank me.

Now, sometimes we have a commission, like a commission situation, sometimes we don't, that's fine.

But if I send somebody two or three referrals and I don't even get a thank you, probably not going to do it again.

Freddy D: 00:16:34

Exactly.

Ely Delaney: 00:16:35

Because it's a two way street.

Freddy D: 00:16:37

It's bidirectional.

It needs to go bi directional.

Ely Delaney: 00:16:39

Exactly.

Exactly.

There's got to be balance in there.

And the balance doesn't always have to be one specific thing.

If I get somebody who just shows me appreciation, there's a lot of times I'm totally cool with that.

And as long as I know that and I know they appreciate it, I'm going to keep sending people their direction.

And I do this with my clients.

I try to be humble enough that when they come to me, they are hiring me for my expertise.

And sometimes I'll be a little bit gruff with them in the fact of we're going to do it this way because this is the way that works.

But at the end of the day, I'm also going to show appreciation that they still chose to work with me.

And it's two sides.

And my clients, the beauty of it is we end up having that relationship where they appreciate me.

They will be raving fans for me, and as you call them, super fans.

And that's where I get people that are like, what?

You need to talk to Eli, because he's done so much to help me.

And that's what we go for.

Freddy D: 00:17:33

Yeah.

In my book, creating business super fans, One of my quotes in the book is people crawl through broken glass for appreciation, recognition.

Ely Delaney: 00:17:41

Absolutely.

Freddy D: 00:17:42

And that's what we just talked about.

Ely Delaney: 00:17:43

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:17:44

So let's talk about Eli, how it is that you work with somebody.

So I'm looking at your services.

Yeah.

Let's share a little bit about your services.

How do you work with somebody and share a story how you've really transformed somebody into a super fan because you took them from this spot that was stagnant and now their business is thriving.

Ely Delaney: 00:18:06

Okay.

Yeah, I got a couple of them.

So how I work with my clients, I am primarily, I help you get your voice out, like get the right intentional your personality, your style, your stories, your, your quirks, your experiences, everything that makes you unique.

And put that into words because most people suck at that.

They're really hard to do it.

A lot of times when people write, they don't write like they talk.

They write like their English teacher taught them, which is not going to create an emotional reaction.

I help create that.

And so that comes in a couple of different ways.

Some people, I completely ghost write for them where I'm helping them pull that out of their head and then I help them write that stuff.

And then some people come to me for coaching so I just guide them in that direction.

But I had one client where he came to us and he actually came to us because he thought he needed CRM help and we came in the door from that.

But in the process I'm like, okay guy, You've got over 5,000 people on your list and your open rates are horrible and like there's getting no movement with it.

And so I helped him redevelop how we communicate with his prospects and his clients.

And when we started working together, he was doing somewhere between 30, 35,000amonth in sales.

And he has a in person once a week workshop that he does and he uses it as a lead generation piece and then it's an ongoing training for his existing clients.

And he was struggling to get 30 people in the door every week.

We go back and we're like, we're going to fix this because you've got gold sitting here.

But I look at his emails and they're very hypey, very pitchy, very gruff because he's kind of a gruff guy, but it just wasn't resonating with anybody.

And so I'm like, let's fix this.

And so I developed a campaign to help him change the way he spoke to people.

And it was probably, I think about a six month process where we took him from struggling to put 30 butts in seats once a week to ripping out a wall so he could hold a hundred people in the room.

A bad, a bad week for him was 75 people.

And that 35k a month went to about 110amonth.

It was just changing how we spoke to our people.

That's all it was.

Freddy D: 00:20:15

And turned that guy into a super fan for sure.

Ely Delaney: 00:20:18

Absolutely.

And he, to this day he says, you, you help put my school on the map.

And because that's what he was doing was training people.

And it was a lot of fun because now he's got people, they like him more, they comment on his stuff, they reply to his emails, but he's filling the room and he's making massively.

I mean we were just over triple almost four times.

And we, and we did that buzz, like I said, we just changed the language.

We just changed how we communicated.

And that's like all the stuff you and I are talking about here.

We're, we're saying that it's about relationships, but it's not just relationships.

A relationship is the after effect of it.

It's being intentional about your words and your actions and the things that you do and say to other people.

Whether that's a prospect, a client, a referral partner, a vendor, or even just somebody that you randomly talk to on the street.

Because that all of those things make a difference.

When you can make that words matter.

Absolutely.

And when you can get intentional about your words and get your words to be congruent with your personality and style along with saying the things that are going to create an emotional response.

And that emotional response is just, you know what?

I like this guy.

It doesn't have to be big.

That it could be something as simple as, you know, he always sends out really cool stuff or I really just feel like she's talking to me.

I think you mentioned my book, the follow up code.

I put this out back in April.

Freddy D: 00:21:45

And yeah, I was going to bring that up.

So let's talk about the book.

Since, since you brought it up.

Let's.

Ely Delaney: 00:21:50

Since I was intentional about my words about putting it in there.

Right?

Yeah, no, but I brought.

The reason I bring it up is because like the biggest bit of feedback that I have from people with this is the part that really means more to me than anything else because I get a lot of people saying this is awesome.

I bought a book on email marketing and this not what I was expecting.

This is so much different and it makes so much sense because it's not about how to write your next million dollar subject line in while on your laptop, on the beach, in your underwear, drinking a mojito or any of that kind of stuff.

Because we all know that's B.S.

It's about how do you talk to people, how do you communicate with them effectively so they feel like you actually like them, want to help them and don't treat them like your personal atm.

And the coolest thing with this is I get a lot of feedback on the content of it.

But almost everybody that I've actually talked to said what this was such an easy read.

I felt like I'm just sitting there and you're talking to me and that's what I wanted.

That's what I was Going for more than anything else.

And if you can get that in your writing.

And for me it's writing, that's my preferred platform.

But you can do it in your videos, you can do it in text, you can do it in real face to face conversations.

I mean, how many times have you had a conversation with somebody and they're like, I just feel like I could talk to you forever.

If you can get that feeling and that response out of somebody, you're doing it right.

Freddy D: 00:23:18

Yeah, you bring up a great point there.

And that is the fact that when I was selling manufacturing software, I would be sitting there, how did you get the business started?

What's your background, all that kind of stuff.

And we would be talking, not nothing to do with what was going on with their business initially, was just learning about one another.

Because here I walked in, usually I was introduced by somebody.

I wasn't the world's greatest prospector, but I had the world's greatest sales team and which was all my customers.

And I would build those relationships and we would take a tour through the shop floor and how did this get started and what's the story?

And then we start talking about what's the challenges that they're dealing with.

And all of a sudden it was like we were sitting together brainstorming on how we could take what they're dealing with and go to a whole nother level.

And it was more of a brainstorming session than a sales conversation because as you were mentioning is the fact that I was getting them to buy, not selling.

Ely Delaney: 00:24:22

Yeah, it's an old school term of consultive selling where you're talking to them and helping them decide, number one, explain the problem that they have so they are very clear on what that really is.

And then guiding them in the direction of what this would solve your problem or this is something that might help you.

And for me, I always love it because I always tell people, it's like, I'm going to give you that answer whether it's my stuff or not, and it might be somebody else's.

I've had many times where I'm talking to somebody and they think they have one problem.

And I'm like, but I think I know somebody you need to talk to before you come to work with me.

Freddy D: 00:25:07

Yeah, I've done the same thing.

And I want to emphasize, Eli, is the fact that consultive selling, if you're really good at it, is the person is starting to come up with the solution themselves.

You're not presenting it to them, you're Making them uncover the solution and the problems and how whatever you have can solve their problem they're coming up with.

If I implement this system, this will help me with this and this and this.

And so now they're buying and you're not telling them, my system's going to help you solve this.

You want them to go, if I get this, this is going to help me do blah, blah, blah.

Whole different approach.

Ely Delaney: 00:25:50

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And the cool thing about it is that if you mix consult of selling that whole concept by itself to emotional connection and being more intentional about your words, which is really where my area focus is, you will get people.

And I've had this multiple times.

I have one client that's been a client of mine for.

We're going on probably three years now.

No more than that.

We're going on almost four years now because it was actually before I moved here and this person actually closer to four and a half maybe this person saw me speak at an event and because of my presentation, which was very educational, very connection it was.

There was no pitch on the call actually.

And the funny thing is that she got on my calendar and she gets on a call and she's like, okay, explain to me more about what it looks like to work with you.

What does your program look like and how much does it cost?

Because I feel like I need to work with you, but I don't know exactly what you do, which I thought was really funny.

I'm like, obviously I suck at telling people what I actually do, but I did a really good job of it because you're right here asking that question right now, which is exactly what I do.

Right.

And yeah, she's been a client of mine ever since.

And like I said, that was over four years ago.

When you can do that, you can add that emotional connection in there where they just have a feeling.

They're like, I trust them, I trust you and I really want to work with you.

What does that look like?

And it's regardless of the product.

Freddy D: 00:27:20

Yeah.

I have relationships still with people around the world.

When I was in charge of global sales for a software product and I became friends with them to where I would come back and visit, business or non business.

And they would invite me to their house and says, hey, stay at our place.

And they'd cook dinner and everything else.

And it became friendship.

And I've had some of them.

Thirty some years later, we're still friends to this day because it wasn't selling anymore.

It was, how do I work with you to help you get to where you want to get to.

And we just became friends over the time because that's how you really build relationships that stick.

Ely Delaney: 00:27:58

Yeah, no, absolutely.

The fun thing about that, I always joke about the fact that friends make horrible clients, but clients can become amazing friends.

And I'm very big on that.

If somebody's a friend of mine, I'm like, okay, we got to think twice before you're going to come in and be a client of mine.

Because that doesn't necessarily always work.

But I have some of the, the best friendships from people I started with as clients.

And that's the best part of it, because they've already seen how you work.

They've.

You've already delivered the goods to them and they still choose to hang out with you on a regular basis.

That's a good thing.

Freddy D: 00:28:30

Yeah.

And in my case, it was either it was a customer or it was a distribution channel.

So it was people from the distributors.

And at the end of the day, that's a customer.

Even though they're an agent for me, representing my technology or whatever it is someplace else in the parts of the world, at the end of the day, that's a customer to me.

And I need to treat them as such, if not more important, because at the end of the day, that's my front line.

Ely Delaney: 00:28:57

Yeah.

Well, and that, and that brings up another thing too, is that I'm very big on the follow up process.

Like the book is called the Follow Up Code, but it's also about longevity, knowing that you never know when somebody's going to be ready.

Like I said earlier, could be today, tomorrow, next week, next month, or 10 years from now.

,: 2010

Can you help us with some marketing stuff?

So over a decade.

No, it's 22.

It was over a decade later.

Like, he comes back and is like, hey, I need some help.

And I'm like, this is insane.

Freddy D: 00:29:44

You had created a super fan of that person.

Ely Delaney: 00:29:46

Absolutely.

Freddy D: 00:29:47

Even though you didn't help them, you made such an impression that it stuck.

And when they were ready, you're the first person they thought of.

Ely Delaney: 00:29:55

Absolutely.

And that's exactly what we want to do.

And it's the cool thing about it is we don't have to pitch our stuff all the time.

And for anybody who's listening to this, don't want to feel squirmy and I don't want to be of pitch all the time.

I don't want to be one of those yucky salespeople.

Do this stuff.

Do this stuff instead.

Because you could communicate on a consistent, regular basis a lot and people will love it if you actually give them value and show that you care about them.

Literally on the back of my book, because so many people say email's dead, and back of my book, I say, email's not dead.

Your emails just suck.

Change your emails, change the conversations.

Treat them like a real human being.

When you do that, you can stay in touch with them every single week and they will appreciate it because they know that you have something of value.

You're not just asking for their credit card.

Sure.

Freddy D: 00:30:51

And another way to cut through the noise is old school direct mail.

Ely Delaney: 00:30:55

Yes.

Freddy D: 00:30:56

Direct mail is actually more powerful in my mind than email because it cuts through the noise and it's a physical aspect.

And you go, oh, wow, I got a car, or I got a letter or whatever it is, a brochure or even a postcard.

It gets the 30 second look.

People read it and they'll either throw it or keep it, but you got in front of them and it's the same thing.

The messaging is the same.

It's just a different view.

Ely Delaney: 00:31:20

Yeah, well, and here's a cool little trick that anybody can do that is super simple.

Whether it be email or physical card, this works really well for both.

Actually, if you send somebody something, give it a day or two and then call them up and say, hey, I just wanted to check.

Did you get the thing?

Like, if it's an email, you can, you can do it like 24 hours, 48 hours later, because it's real quick.

If it's mail, maybe do it the next week.

But you just say, hey, did you get that card that I sent to you?

I.

So I just want to call and make sure that you got it.

Well, guess what?

If they didn't get it, they're going to go looking for it.

Like, I actually mail my book to people and I had one guy and I was like, I just check it in.

Hey, did you get the book?

And he's like, like, no, I never did.

And find out it's been sitting in his mailbox.

He hadn't checked his mail for a week.

And it's like, okay, so we did get it.

But when you do that and it's just like, I just want to make sure you've got the thing, it changes the entire conversation.

It's much less threatening to them.

Freddy D: 00:32:15

Yeah, it's actually zero threat.

Ely Delaney: 00:32:17

Exactly.

And the whole conversation is, did you get it?

So like if you're using email and as I tell people do this all the time and you don't have to do this every single time, but get consistent with getting good at this.

If you send an email, especially something as pure value, you give it a day or two and if you haven't heard back from them, pick up the phone and call them.

It's like, hey, I sent you an email a couple days ago.

I just want to check.

Did you see that one now?

Yes.

Your CRM system is going to tell you if they opened it or not.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter.

You want to start use this as a conversation piece.

Because a lot of times you will find that they'll be like, I've been really busy.

I just haven't had the chance to check it out.

It's like, okay, well I just shared a book that I thought was super cool.

I thought you might get value of it.

I just want to make sure you got it.

Since I hadn't heard before back, well, now they're like, huh, he actually cares about me.

And.

And that just changes the entire game altogether.

Freddy D: 00:33:08

Yeah.

I'd follow up with people that I didn't hear back from and sometimes I'd send them an email, follow up, hey, I've just want to make sure that you receive this stuff.

It's been a couple weeks and blah, blah, blah.

And all of a sudden they're apologetic and saying, oh my God, I'm sorry, I've been so busy and everything else.

And guess what?

Ely Delaney: 00:33:26

What?

Freddy D: 00:33:27

You're now in control of the conversation.

Ely Delaney: 00:33:29

Yep.

Freddy D: 00:33:29

Because they feel obligated.

The fact that they didn't respond initially.

Ely Delaney: 00:33:34

Yeah, well.

Intro/Outro: 00:33:36

And.

Ely Delaney: 00:33:36

And you will find times that if you do that often enough, just staying in touch with them and not not calling them every time you send an email, you don't need to do that.

But if you mix it up and you stay top of mind with them, even when they don't respond, they're paying attention.

And I've actually had times where I followed up with somebody 11 times.

And then the twelf they were like, but I want to thank you so much for keeping up on me on this.

I think I need your help.

Can I get on your calendar?

Matter of fact, I did that with a client and again changing the way we communicated.

When she first came to me, she'd been in business for about four years and she's like, okay, I've tried a Bunch of different things.

Nothing's really worked.

She got the feeling that I was the right person to work with.

But when she launched her campaign, generally we start with what we call a bring it back campaign.

I'm going to give out the first email in this, in this campaign right here.

I call it the magic script because it works so well.

Your subject line should be, I'm such a slacker.

You're going to grab their attention.

If they normally ignore your emails, that'll grab their attention.

And you're going to say, I have not stayed in touch with you the way I should.

And I'm promising that I'm going to do better moving forward.

I am sorry for that.

First thing out of, out of the gate, I just would love to know what's new and exciting in your world.

And then you sign it.

No fancy newsletter template, no fancy graphics.

Don't make it complicated because you'll screw it up if you do.

But send that email out.

Look and see what kind of open rates you have compared to what you're used to and what kind of replies you have.

Now I have a dozen stories talking about this.

I have one client, literally.

We had a three email campaign.

She sends the email on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, I get an email from her.

How do we stop the campaign?

I don't want the other emails to go out like, oh, what happened?

I picked up the phone, called her because I was like, I'm not going to email with this.

And I'm like, what's wrong?

And she goes, everybody replied.

Like, what do you mean everybody replied?

She goes, everybody replied.

Her calendar ended up being slammed for the next 30 days.

And she did over $12,000 in sales by that Friday from that one single email that didn't sell a darn thing right.

Freddy D: 00:35:52

And sometimes less is more.

Ely Delaney: 00:35:54

Yeah, and you can do that.

This other client I was just talking about, she came to me and about three weeks after she had launched this whole campaign that we built out, she's like, eli, I gotta tell you, I believed in you.

That's why I signed up.

I wasn't really sure.

I, a hundred percent believed that this would work as well as you said it would.

But I have to tell you, I have had more people reply back to my emails in the last three weeks than I have in four years.

Thanking me for the email, thanking me for the stuff I'm sharing with them and asking to get on my calendar because they feel like they need my, my help now.

They were already getting stuff from me.

They were already on My list.

Some of these people have been on the list for almost four years and I didn't even know who they were.

And now they're reaching out, thanking me and saying, I need your help.

Can I, can I get on your calendar?

And it's all because again, we change the language, we change the, the way we treat them.

Treat them like a human being, talk to them like a human being and.

Freddy D: 00:36:47

All of a sudden the rest will take place.

Ely Delaney: 00:36:48

The rest of it just takes place.

It just happens.

Right, Right.

Freddy D: 00:36:52

So as we kind of, kind of get close to the end here, where can people find the book?

Ely Delaney: 00:36:58

Yeah.

So it is on Amazon.

Is, is the follow up code, is the name of the book.

You can find it on Amazon.

You can also go to connectwitheli.com and Eli is E L Y connectwitheli.com if you do it with an I, I think it goes to like some commercial real estate dude in Iowa or something.

So that's not me.

But when you get there, there is a link to the book right there.

And I also have a, what I call the follow up fix.

So it's basically the five biggest mistakes that I see people making with their email marketing and what they should be doing instead.

It's a little mini course that you can take for free and that'll help you kind of get you started on stuff.

But the book is going to give you a very different mindset behind how you communicate.

And I literally put it at the beginning is like the book is about email.

But the principles that I use, it's all on the based on the virtues of Bushido, which is the code of the samurai.

It's all based on how do we commun and become better human beings.

Just using email as the example, we'll.

Freddy D: 00:37:53

Make sure that that's in the show Notes.

Great conversation, Eli.

You and I could probably spend about another three hours on this conversation.

We're both on the same page with this stuff.

So thank you so much for your time.

Love to have you on the show down the road.

Ely Delaney: 00:38:05

All right.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's my pleasure.

Freddy D: 00:38:09

The follow up that matters most gives someone a reason to welcome your next message.

As Eli reminded us, staying in touch works when people feel you care about them, even ready to buy.

That's how you become someone that they remember and recommend.

This week, choose a person you've lost touch with.

Send a short personal message asking what's new in their world.

No sales pitch attached.

Give the relationship room to grow.

If someone came to mind while listening share this episode with them.

Until next time, Superfans.

Remember, every relationship you strengthen brings you one super fan closer.

Keep cultivating relationships.

Keep creating superfans.

Keep growing predictable revenue.

I'm Freddie D. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you in the next episode.

Intro/Outro: 00:39:01

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans Podcast.

Join us on the next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.