Honey Select (ハニーセレクト in Japanese) is an eroge created by the Japanese H-game company Illusion. The game was released on September 9, 2016. In the past, I'd have stopped following up long ago (and lost the deal). Thanks to the follow-up, I finally got a response: They had a crisis at their company and froze all partnerships. Once the crisis was resolved, I was there—at the right time, and closed the deal. I won at least 15% more deals just by putting your follow-up advice into.
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Life is all about the follow-up. Especially when it comes to sales.
It’s easy to focus on the initial contact. The first meeting. The email you’ve sent to someone important. You reach out to someone and then feel good about yourself. You’ve done your job, you’ve pitched and reached out. You’ve asked for a meeting/call/etc. Now all you have to do is sit around and wait for them to respond.
And that’s the problem—you have no follow-up hustle.
I get it. You don’t want to be a pain in the ass. We all want to avoid being annoying at the risk of getting rejected. The key is to keep it short and sweet yet remain persistent.
Most people will contact someone once, and then wait around for that person to get back to them. That’s the completely wrong approach.
My follow-up philosophy
I have a simple philosophy: I follow up as many times as necessary until I get a response. I don’t care what the response is as long as I get one. If someone tells me they need another 14 days to get back to me, I will put that in my calendar and ping them again in 14 days.
If they tell me they are busy and they don’t have time right now, I will respond and ask them when they feel like a good time would be for me ping them. The key here is to actually keep following up. If someone tells me they are not interested—I leave them alone.
But here is the kicker—if they don’t respond at all, I will keep pinging them until they do. And trust me, they always do. :)
Once I followed up with an investor 48 times until I got a meeting. Now mind you, this investor was introduced to me and had responded positively to my initial email, but then disappeared in limbo and I couldn’t get hold of him anymore.
He finally responded, we met, and he ended up investing.
And I'm not the only one that has seen results with my follow-up strategy. Here's just one example of someone who applied this strategy and the results he saw:
Another story of someone who followed up relentlessly? James Altucher wanted to work for a billionaire investor. He got his foot in the door by cold emailing the guy for a whole year.
Or this guy who just emailed me recently after putting my follow-up advice into practice:
Here's what another reader has said:
'My life changed after I started implementing your follow-up advice.
The only thing that can make me stop following up is my prospect.
Today I closed a deal that started 5 months ago. 32 touchpoints, including e-mail, whatsapp, and phone-calls.
In the past, I'd have stopped following up long ago (and lost the deal). Thanks to the follow-up, I finally got a response: They had a crisis at their company and froze all partnerships. Once the crisis was resolved, I was there—at the right time, and closed the deal.
I won at least 15% more deals just by putting your follow-up advice into action.'
- Thiago Dantas, Head of Sales, Vulpi
I literally get these kinds of emails all the time.
'I just won a new investor client thanks to Steli's follow-up advice. 9 ½ months, 28 e-mails and I don't know how many calls and messages, but it's a €100,000 starting ticket that was well worth the effort. '
- Marko Rant, Director, Invoice Exchange
And people tweet me their follow-up wins:
How to follow up like a pro
Following up is more art than science. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Nothing can replace building strong follow-up habits. To give you a starting point, here’s how I think about following up.
How often should you follow up?
If you reach out completely cold and never had any interaction with the other person, follow up a maximum of six times. You really don’t have the type of relationship that gives you permission to do much more than that.
If you already had some kind of interaction and that interaction was not a clear, definite NO, then follow up as long as it takes to get a response. Never stop till you get a response.
The right follow-up frequency
Here’s a general schema for timing your follow-ups:
Day 1: First follow-up (+2)
Day 3: Follow-up (+4)
Day 7: Follow-up (+7)
Day 14: Follow-up (+14)
Day 28: Follow-up (+30)
Day 58: Follow-up (+30)
… (from there on once a month).
I use our sales CRM to create simple follow up reminders. Follow up reminders are a great way to ensure you follow up with a lead on a specific day. Close will remind you to follow up by sending a notification to your inbox—so no need to add it to your calendar or keep track of notes.
(You can sign up for a free trial here, no credit card required.)
I also set up tasks with due dates, and create lists using smart filter functions.
For example, I can create a list of prospects whom I haven't emailed in 14 days, and with whom I've had a phone conversation that lasted longer than 4 minutes in the past 3 months.
You can stack all kinds of filters on top of each other to match it to your requirements, but if you're not a Close customer, you can use Google calendar or tasks, but I find those suboptimal—too much friction.
These are not hard rules, they are guidelines
It all depends on the context, the situation, the relationship and interactions you had with the other person.
For example, if you follow up with an incredibly busy and important CEO of a large enterprise, don’t send another follow up email tomorrow and two days later and four days later. Give them more time, maybe 4–7 days until your first follow-up. Maybe follow up once a week. If you know this person gets 5,000 emails a day, be respectful of that fact.
Which medium is best for following up—email or phone?
This depends on what you’re after. Do you want to optimize for a) quick response or b) positive outcome?
If you optimize for a quick response (because an issue is time-sensitive) then a phone call is the best medium. However, it’s also a lot easier to come across as annoying, so the risk of turning a 'maybe' into a 'no' is much higher.
If you call me ten times in two days, I’m probably going to turn you down even if I was actually interested. Because I’ll think, 'Geez, working with this person is too much pain, I’ll pass.'
If you optimize for a positive outcome, then email is the best medium for follow-ups. But sending me a monthly email might take years.
Following up by email
Keep it short, upbeat and professional.
Email #1:
“Hey [first name], how is it going? Can we schedule a time to talk this week?”
Email #2:
“Hey [first name], we got some new press coverage [link]. I’d love to pick up on our conversation. When’s a good time to chat?”
Email #3:
“Hey [first name], can we hop on a quick call Wednesday 4 p.m. or Thursday 11 a.m.?
Cheers,
Steli
PS: thought you might find this article interesting [link]”
You get the idea.
Close's email sequences feature allows you to automatically enroll your prospects in a follow-up email sequence.
You can enroll a large group of prospects, or enroll people manually—whatever best matches you way of managing leads.
This isn't just a typical email cadence workflow tool—Close's built-in email sequences feature is optimized specifically for sales teams to follow up with prospects in the most effective manner. Let automation handle the busywork for you, without compromising the quality of your follow up. Start creating your own email sequences in Close today and see how they can transform your sales emailing game. Sign up for a free 14-day trial!
Following up by phone
When you call, there’s a higher risk that your follow-up will annoy the other person.
If you tried to call three times and the other person didn’t pick up the phone, call again and leave a voice mail.
That’s it. More than three missed calls and one voicemail can be perceived as too invasive, annoying, and even desperate if placed over a short period of time.
If you're dealing with a large number of leads, a proper pipeline management tool can help streamline the follow up process. For example, our CRM with a built-in predictive dialer can help you call a large number of leads you want to follow up with in a short amount of time—much faster than doing it manually.
Following up in person
If it’s a do-or-die situation, you can show up at their office. It’s the best way to make sure you get attention, but it’s also really intrusive. So make sure you play this trump card only when it’s warranted.
Following up on social media
I don’t do this, but some people like to tap into social media as another way to stay on the other person’s radar. Doing things like retweeting or favoriting a tweet, sending a LinkedIn invite, liking or commenting on their status updates or posts.
The main piece of advice I can give here is to not overdo this and don’t come across as a creepy borderline-stalker.
Following up with handwritten notes
Use your judgement if you want to do this or not. It’s just another weapon in your arsenal.
Depending upon the interactions you had and the relationship you share with them, a handwritten note can still make an impression.
Gary Vaynerchuck wrote about how one of his clients uses handwritten notes as an opportunity to connect with customers.
If you can make it work and it’s authentic and it makes a difference—do it. If it’s awkward, forced and cheesy, don’t.
Following up by fax
“It’s 2019. We’re a startup. Fax? Are you serious?”
Yes.
If they didn’t respond to your emails, and they didn’t pick up the phone, why not send them a fax?
Because nobody uses fax anymore!
Exactly. It’s the least cluttered medium you can use.
There are still approximately 46 million (active) fax machines, and around 17 billion faxes get sent each year.
Again, view it as another tool as your disposal. 99% of cases you won’t need it, but every once in a while, it might make a difference.
Do’s & don’ts
Stay persistently friendly and nice. Have an attitude of indifference if they don’t respond. Impress them by staying on top of your game.
Keep it short. Avoid long-winded formalities. If they’re a good customer, they’ll probably be busy individuals who value their time. It’s annoying to read through three paragraphs of meaningless pleasantries, and smart people will know they’re meaningless copy+paste phrases you use on every lead. Be nice, but get to the point.
Provide value. (optional) Know and understand their wants and needs well enough to be able to offer them something relevant. It can be an article or something else that they’ll appreciate getting. (In general, clear, simple and concise works best). But keep your objective in mind—giving things away is not selling. It’s a jab, not a right hook.
Never ever make them feel or do anything guilt-inducing. Avoid saying things like “Why haven’t you responded to me so far? I've sent you 10 emails already!!!”
The fortune is in the follow-up
Most people will assume that there is no interest if they don't get a response to their email and will stop following up.
I don’t. I simply assume that the person is busy and that I need to follow up until they have a moment to respond. If I keep reaching out, my chances of getting to that perfect moment are massively higher. I’m a salesperson—it’s my responsibility to maintain the relationship and move the conversation forward.
That’s how you get things done that others don’t. That’s how you get meetings that others don’t. You follow up. And you never ever stop ... until you get the job done!
The follow-up is the most underrated part of the startup hustle. Get ahead of the competition by grabbing your free copy of The Follow-Up Formula.
Further reading:
Put some funny in your follow up
Looking for creative and outrageous ways to get a prospect's attention? Here's a case study of how to use humor in your sales and marketing to increase your response rates. Read more ...
Introducing email follow-ups
Our sales software makes it easy to create and manage follow-ups to ensure that no leads fall through the crack. Stay on top of your sales game and win more deals with the power of the follow-up. Sign up for a free trial now!
The pheromones of the honey bee are mixtures of chemical substances released by individual bees into the hive or environment that cause changes in the physiology and behaviour of other bees.
Introduction[edit]
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) have one of the most complex pheromonal communication systems found in nature, possessing 15 known glands that produce an array of compounds.[1][2] These chemical messengers secreted by a queen, drone, worker bee or laying worker bee to elicit a response in other bees. The chemical messages are received by the bee's antenna and other body parts. They are produced as a volatile or non-volatile liquid and transmitted by direct contact as a liquid or vapor.
Honey bee pheromones can be grouped into releaser pheromones which temporarily affect the recipient's behavior, and primer pheromones which have a long-term effect on the physiology of the recipient. Releaser pheromones trigger an almost immediate behavioral response from the receiving bee. Under certain conditions a pheromone can act as both a releaser and primer pheromone.
The pheromones may either be single chemicals or a complex mixture of numerous chemicals in different percentages.[3][4]
Types of honey bee pheromones[edit]
Alarm pheromone[edit]
Two main alarm pheromones have been identified in honeybee workers. One is released by the Koschevnikov gland, near the sting shaft, and consists of more than 40 chemical compounds, including isopentyl acetate (IPA), butyl acetate, 1-hexanol, n-butanol, 1-octanol, hexyl acetate, octyl acetate, n-pentyl acetate and 2-nonanol. These chemical compounds have low molecular weights, are highly volatile, and appear to be the least specific of all pheromones. Alarm pheromones are released when a bee stings another animal, and attract other bees to the location and causes the other bees to behave defensively, i.e. sting or charge. The alarm pheromone emitted when a bee stings another animal smells like bananas.[5] Smoke can mask the bees' alarm pheromone.
The other alarm pheromone is released by the mandibular glands and consists of 2-heptanone, which is also a highly volatile substance. This compound has a repellent effect and it was proposed that it is used to deter potential enemies and robber bees. The amounts of 2-heptanone increase with the age of bees and becomes higher in the case of foragers. It was therefore suggested that 2-heptanone is used by foragers to scent-mark recently visited and depleted foraging locations, which indeed are avoided by foraging bees.However, this has recently been proven false. In a new discovery, it was determined that bees actually use 2-heptanone as an anesthetic and to paralyze intruders. After the intruders are paralyzed, the bees remove them from the hive.[6]
Brood recognition pheromone[edit]
Another pheromone is responsible for preventing worker bees from bearing offspring in a colony that still has developing young. Both larvae and pupae emit a 'brood recognition' pheromone. This inhibits ovarian development in worker bees and helps nurse bees distinguish worker larvae from drone larvae and pupae. This pheromone is a ten-component blend of fatty-acid esters, which also modulates adult caste ratios and foraging ontogeny dependent on its concentration. The components of brood pheromone have been shown to vary with the age of the developing bee. An artificial brood pheromone was invented by Yves Le Conte, Leam Sreng, Jérome Trouiller, and Serge Henri Poitou and patented in 1996.[7]
Drone pheromone[edit]
Drone Mandibular Pheromone attracts other flying drones to suitable sites for mating with virgin queens.[8]
Dufour's gland pheromone[edit]
The Dufour's gland (named after the French naturalist Léon Jean Marie Dufour) opens into the dorsal vaginal wall. Dufour’s gland and its secretion have been somewhat of a mystery. The gland secretes its alkaline products into the vaginal cavity, and it has been assumed to be deposited on the eggs as they are laid. Indeed, Dufour’s secretions allow worker bees to distinguish between eggs laid by the queen, which are attractive, and those laid by workers. The complex of as many as 24 chemicals differs between workers in 'queenright' colonies and workers of queenless colonies. In the latter, the workers’ Dufour secretions are similar to those of a healthy queen. The secretions of workers in queenright colonies are long-chain alkanes with odd numbers of carbon atoms, but those of egg-laying queens and egg-laying workers of queenless colonies also include long chain esters.[9]
Egg marking pheromone[edit]
Honey Games The Followers
This pheromone, similar to that described above, helps nurse bees distinguish between eggs laid by the queen bee and eggs laid by a laying worker.
Footprint pheromone[edit]
Honey Games The Followers
This pheromone is left by bees when they walk and is useful in enhancing Nasonov pheromones in searching for nectar.
In the queen, it is an oily secretion of the queen's tarsal glands that is deposited on the comb as she walks across it. This inhibits queen cell construction (thereby inhibiting swarming), and its production diminishes as the queen ages.
Forager pheromone[edit]
Ethyl oleate is released by older forager bees to slow the maturing of nurse bees.[10] This primer pheromone acts as a distributed regulator to keep the ratio of nurse bees to forager bees in the balance that is most beneficial to the hive.
Nasonov pheromone[edit]
Nasonov pheromone is emitted by the worker bees and used for orientation and recruitment. Nasonov pheromone includes a number of terpenoids including geraniol, nerolic acid, citral and geranic acid.
Other pheromones[edit]
Other pheromones produced by most honey bees include rectal gland pheromone, tarsal pheromone, wax gland and comb pheromone, and tergite gland pheromone.
Types of queen honey bee pheromones[edit]
Queen mandibular pheromone[edit]
Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), emitted by the queen, is one of the most important sets of pheromones in the bee hive. It affects social behavior, maintenance of the hive, swarming, mating behavior, and inhibition of ovary development in worker bees.[11] The effects can be short and/or long term. Some of the chemicals found in QMP are carboxylic acids and aromatic compounds. The following compounds have been shown to be important in retinue attraction of workers to their queen and other effects.[12]
- (E)-9-Oxodec-2-enoic acid (9-ODA) – inhibits queen rearing as well as ovarian development in worker bees; strong sexual attractant for drones when on a nuptial flight; critical to worker recognition of the presence of a queen in the hive
- (R,E)-(−)-9-Hydroxy-2-enoic acid (9-HDA) promotes stability of a swarm, or a 'calming' influence
- (S,E)-(+)-9-HDA
- Methylparaben (HOB)
- 4-Hydroxy-3-methoxy phenylethanol (HVA)
Work on synthetic pheromones was done by Keith N. Slessor, Lori-ann Kaminski, Gaylord G. S. King, John H. Borden, and Mark L. Winston; their work was patented in 1991. Synthetic queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) is a mixture of five components: 9-ODA, (−)-9-HDA, (+)-9-HDA, HOB and HVA in a ratio of 118:50:22:10:1.
Queen retinue pheromone[edit]
The following compounds have also been identified,[13] of which only coniferyl alcohol is found in the mandibular glands. The combination of the 5 QMP compounds and the 4 compounds below is called the queen retinue pheromone (QRP). These nine compounds are important for the retinue attraction of worker bees around their queen.
- Methyl oleate[14]
- Coniferyl alcohol[15]
- Cetyl alcohol[16]
- α-Linolenic acid[17]
Other[edit]
The queen also contains an abundance of various methyl and ethyl fatty acid esters,[18] very similar to the brood recognition pheromone described above. They are likely to have pheromonal functions like those found for the brood recognition pheromone.
References listed alphabetically by author[edit]
- Imrie, George Georg Imrie's, Pink Pages Nov. 1999
- Katzav-Gozansky Tamar (2002). 'Review'(PDF). Apidologie. 33: 525–537. doi:10.1051/apido:2002035.
- Blum, M.S. 1992. Honey bee pheromones in The Hive and the Honey Bee, revised edition (Dadant and Sons: Hamilton, Illinois), pages 385–389.
- Boch R., Shearer D.A. (1971). 'Chemical releasers of alarm behaviour on the honey-bee, Apis mellifera'. Journal of Insect Physiology. 17 (12): 2277–2285. doi:10.1016/0022-1910(71)90077-1.
- Butler, C. 1609. The Feminine Monarchie. On a Treatise Concerning Bees, and the Due Ordering of them. Joseph Barnes: Oxford.
- Free, John B., Pheromones of social bees. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock, 1987.
- Imrie, George George Imrie's Pink Pages November 1999 accessed Feb. 2005
- Keeling C. I., Slessor K. N., Higo H. A., Winston M. L. (2003). 'New components of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen retinue pheromone'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 00 (8): 4486–4491. Bibcode:2003PNAS..100.4486K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0836984100. PMC153582. PMID12676987.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Leoncini I., Le Conte Y., Costagliola G., Plettner E., Toth A. L., Wang M., Huang Z., Bécard J.-M., Crauser D., Slessor K. N., Robinson G. E. (2004). 'Regulation of behavioral maturation by a primer pheromone produced by adult worker honey bees'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (50): 17559–17564. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407652101. PMC536028. PMID15572455.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Maschwitz U (1964). 'Alarm substances and alarm behavior in social Hymenoptera'. Nature. 204 (4956): 324–327. Bibcode:1964Natur.204..324M. doi:10.1038/204324a0. S2CID4271328.
- Moritz , Burgin H (1987). 'Group response to alarm pheromones in socialwasps and the honeybees'. Ethology. 76: 15–26. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1987.tb00668.x.
- Slessor K. N., Kaminski L.-A., King G. G. S., Borden J. H., Winston M. L. (1988). 'Semiochemical basis of the retinue response to queen honey bees'. Nature. 332 (6162): 354–356. Bibcode:1988Natur.332..354S. doi:10.1038/332354a0. S2CID4362366.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Vander Meer, R.K. et al. 1998. Pheromone Communication in Social Insects; Boulder: Westview Press
- Wager B.R., Breed M.D. (2000). 'Does honeybee sting alarm pheromone give orientation information to defensive bees?'. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 3 (6): 1329–1332. doi:10.1603/0013-8746(2000)093[1329:DHBSAP]2.0.CO;2.
Notes[edit]
- ^Free, John B., Pheromones of social bees. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock, 1987.
- ^Blum, M.S. 1992. Honey bee pheromones in The Hive and the Honey Bee, revised edition (Dadant and Sons: Hamilton, Illinois), pages 385–389.
- ^For Imrie, George Georg Imrie's, Pink Pages Nov. 1999
- ^Katzav-Gozansky Tamar (2002). 'Review'(PDF). Apidologie. 33: 525–537. doi:10.1051/apido:2002035.
- ^'Analysis of Honeybee Aggression'.
- ^'Honeybee Bites Can Act As Anesthetics'. Medical News Today. 17 Oct 2012.
- ^'US Patent 5695383 A'. google.com. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- ^Lensky, Y.; Cassier, P.; Finkel, A.; Delorme-Joulie, C.; Levinsohn, M. (1985-04-01). 'The fine structure of the tarsal glands of the honeybee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera)'. Cell and Tissue Research. 240 (1): 153–158. doi:10.1007/BF00217569. ISSN1432-0878. S2CID45073312.
- ^Katzav-Gozansky T., Soroker V., Hefetz A. (2002). 'Honeybees Dufour's gland - idiosyncrasy of a new queen signal'. Apidologie. 33 (6): 525–537. doi:10.1051/apido:2002035.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Leoncini I., Le Conte Y., Costagliola G., Plettner E., Toth A. L., Wang M., Huang Z., Bécard J.-M., Crauser D., Slessor K. N., Robinson G. E. (2004). 'Regulation of behavioral maturation by a primer pheromone produced by adult worker honey bees'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (50): 17559–17564. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407652101. PMC536028. PMID15572455.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Butler, C.G., Callow, R.K., Johnston, N.C. (1962). 'The isolation and synthesis of queen substance 9-oxodec-trans-2-enoic acid, a honeybee pheromone'. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 155 (960): 417–432. Bibcode:1962RSPSB.155..417B. doi:10.1098/rspb.1962.0009. JSTOR90262. S2CID86183254.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Slessor, Keith N., Kaminski, Lori-Ann, King, G. G. S., Borden, John H., Winston, Mark L. (1988). 'Semiochemical basis of the retinue response to queen honey bees'. Nature. 332 (6162): 354–356. Bibcode:1988Natur.332..354S. doi:10.1038/332354a0. S2CID4362366.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Keeling, C. I., Slessor, K. N., Higo, H. A. and Winston, M. L. (2003). 'New components of the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queen retinue pheromone'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100 (8): 4486–4491. Bibcode:2003PNAS..100.4486K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0836984100. PMC153582. PMID12676987.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^methyl (Z)-octadec-9-enoate
- ^(E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-prop-2-en-1-ol
- ^hexadecan-1-ol
- ^(Z9,Z12,Z15)-octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic acid
- ^Keeling, C. I. & Slessor, K. N. (2005). 'A scientific note on the aliphatic esters in queen honey bees'(PDF). Apidologie. 36 (4): 559–560. doi:10.1051/apido:2005044.