We talk frequently about automated follow-up ? following up with prospects, with customers and with partners. We talk about doing it in a way that enables business owners and marketers to really establish a relationship with their prospects and customers.

The Benefits of Automation
There is transactional business and there's relationship business. If you want to develop a very powerful relationship business, and you don't have an unlimited amount of time or an unlimited number of employees who can work for you, you've got to use automation in order to make that happen.

The benefits, ultimately, are about relationship and about building a client base that enables you to grow your business to levels that you really cannot do if you don't have the automation, the technology to make that happen.

I want to make another point also. I think about my average week. How many times am I sold to? How many impressions do I get from people trying to sell me their stuff? I don't know what the numbers would be in an entire week, but it's going to be many, many thousands of these impressions.

When doing follow-up, whether the person is still a prospect or whether that person is a customer, you've got to cut through the clutter. It's critical to getting the message from where it is in your brain to your customer. The follow-up doesn't happen, they don't hear you, and it doesn't matter how valuable the service is you provide. You just can't get the message to them.

Getting into the Mindset
What has really been instrumental in the success of my business is more of a mindset than it necessarily is a technique, because there are plenty of techniques and promotions out there. A lot of it is just acquiring the mindset. The fact that people are reading this shows clearly that we are talking to people who want to improve this and have a concern with what tools can help them do this and what technologies that are available.

There's a seven-letter word that absolutely changed my life, which is bonding. What does bonding actually mean? It doesn't mean you just sell something to somebody. It means that there's a constant, ongoing relationship. One of the analogies that I like using with marketing is it's rarely an event. It's a process. Sales is a process, not an event.

For instance, take a boxer in a boxing ring. The goal of the boxer to win is to knock the opponent out. Well, the goal of the entrepreneur is to make the sale.

Typically, all of the little touches, all of the punches, all the little things you can do to make contacts are going to get you that much closer. So, that's the whole process.