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Follow-Up. This is a critical, and often neglected, skill for success. It is imperative in today’s busy world. Your prospects are swamped with all kinds of communication that they need to address. We are all so swamped with so much to do that we have to engage in massive filtering on a regular basis.

So How Can You Follow Up Without Being a Pest?

You can’t just keep calling with some lame response like, “Uh, I’m just calling to see if you got my dull and boring e-mail from last week.” Ugh! We all have been accustomed to the unwanted requests for our attention, our time and other input. We have to shield ourselves from them. Caller ID is just one of the many tools we use to protect our time and thought energy from those who would drain our emotional and time resources.

Yes, you sent an e-mail. Welcome to the party, pal! You and about 100 billion other messages are there in your recipient’s bogged-down mail box. At the same time, your would-be recipient has about 100 billion (yes, same number) tasks and “Gotta git this done” tasks all pulling on her ankles for attention.

Here are some tips you can use to make sure your message is sought-after, not avoided, when you need to get through to your prospect or important recipients.

Think of Where They are and What They are Interested in Doing

It’s not about you, Sparky! It is about them. They have their own agenda. You’ve got to do your research. The other day I had some outfit from Texas calling me about investing in oil and gas. For the right person, that might be good. However, these people have called me many times and I’ve said repeatedly that I’m not interested and I really don’t want to invest in oil or gas.

Each time they have a different person and he (it is always a man calling) thinks he is the one that can persuade me. They don’t listen to what I have to say and instead go back to their script of cute little phrases. If they really wanted to reach me, they’d learn about me and where my interests are and then adapt accordingly. Think about what your intended prospect is interested in doing. Study their social media presence. Learn about them. You’ll waste a lot less of their time and your own. This is where real follow-up begins.

Create a Way to be Interesting to Them

If you don’t know anything they are doing or are interested in, you’re going to just be “whistling in the wind.” If the pesky salesmen that have been calling me from Texas would learn a bit more about me and what I’m interested in, they might get more of my attention. They can do this if they had half a brain and could use social media. For most people today, they have a presence online and you can study that to get a better idea of where they are and what is important to them.

Hot tip: Find your key target prospects and what they are tweeting about, if anything, on Twitter or posting about, if anything, on Facebook. Check them out at websites. Do a Google Search on them. Check their LinkedIn Profile.

Advanced hot tip: Use the new Twitter Advanced Search. You can plug in a host of options on key people. You can also search for “mood” for positive or negative entries about a topic with others who are like this prospect. The possibilities are enormous! When you follow-up in ways that they enjoy, you are more likely to have them welcome you.

Use the Ninja Trick of “Advocate Marketing”

If I say my product is great, you doubt it. You should doubt anyone who you don’t know when they make claims about their product or service. However, if someone that you know and trust says someone’s product is good, it gets a lot more attention. Find out about your prospect and their inner circle. Whom do they respect and admire? Can you get those people to recommend you? If not, do your research and take the time, money and effort to learn more about the circles where your target recipient lives.

Using an advocate to market for you is a much better way to get through. This is what Klout is using with their system. Key influencers are awarded perks and have the option (not the requirement) to write about a product or service. This “advocate marketing” approach is more cost-effective, welcomed rather than avoided, and is more effective at ultimately getting the sale.

Advocate marketing is the best way to follow-up. It takes more work, but is well worth it. Avoid annoyance. Stay away from the traditional cold call. It’s just not good business. Instead, get to know your prospects, their likes and dislikes and come up with wonderfully acceptable ways they will welcome you into their lives to solve their problems. That’s the best form of follow-up.

This is really simple to do, but it is not easy. Yes, it will take work. It will take time, money and effort. However, your results will be far ahead of the competition who continues to annoy.