You probably know better than to follow up with someone like this:

• “Just following up!”

You realize that doesn’t really help either of you. But you still might be making this mistake:

• “Did you do that thing you said you were going to do?”

That feels like it’s helping, but from the customer perspective, it’s just adding to our guilt. What if you took a different approach, a helpful approach.

Here’s how I can help you be successful with this next step.”

Now that sounds helpful! And I’m betting you’ll have a lot more success following up to be helpful than to just add more guilt.

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