Learn how to easily follow-up in sales without bothering your prospects.

 

Sales Follow-Up Techniques:

Once you have identified a prospect with your sales software tools, what’s the next step? With the right level of persistence and contact strategy, you can follow-up in sales without bothering your prospects. You may achieve contact on the first call and have a promising conversation. But how do you get them to commit to your product or service without seeming too persistent? To help you (and your business), here are 10 ways to follow-up in sales without scaring your prospects away:

1. Finding the Right Tools

There are some great software tools, like PandaDoc (eSign proposals, contracts, quotes) and Hubspot (software products for marketing, sales, and CRM) that notify you whenever the client reopens your quote or revisits your website. This is an ideal moment to take the initiative and make contact. Your service or product is fresh on the prospect’s mind, so they won’t feel surprised or caught off guard when they receive your call.  

2. Schedule a Follow-up Call

Always schedule a follow-up call with your prospect. Mark it on your calendar and set the invitation as something like, Call with Bob – His Feedback. This allows you and your prospect to have a clear understanding of the next time you will be speaking and what you will be discussing. The prospect feels committed in advance and you successfully avoid an annoying, unexpected phone call.

 

3. End-of-Call Questions

Before ending your conversation, here are some useful questions you can ask your prospect:

• What’s the best way to communicate with you moving forward?
• When is the best time to contact you?
• How about tomorrow at 4:00 PM, if I give you a call and we customize your quote together?

You need to set the ground rules for future communication and be clear about your expectations. Let them know you respect their time.  

4. Following Up with Emails

If you ask your prospect, what’s the best way to communicate with you? their answer will usually be with an email. If it is, respond with something like, I’m sure you get a ton of emails every day, like me. What should I put in the subject line that will get you to open it and respond? It’s better to ask your prospect for the subject line because it allows them to take part in scheduling a follow-up. They are more likely to respond and will not feel surprised or annoyed to receive your email. Also, try using an emoji in the subject line. It will definitely catch your prospects attention!  

5. Provide Valuable Information

Most people do not respond to follow-up emails because they sound like an automated sales pitch. However, if your prospects believe you are contacting them with a limited deal or discounted price, they are more willing to listen. Anyone can find information about your business on the Internet, so avoid repeating what they already know. Instead, ask questions to gauge their level of interest and product knowledge. Then, provide them with valuable information to keep them engaged.  

6. The Right Level of Persistence

To avoid receiving negative comments about sales persistence, resist calling more than six times. Determining when to make the next call can be tricky. How long should you wait to follow-up again? For details on the exact number of days and conversion rates, check out our Sales Engagement Guide.  

7. Call-to-Action

Try to end your conversation with a call-to-action (CTA). This is the best time to get a commitment from your prospect and plan the next steps moving forward with your product or service. They usually have their schedules in front of them, so seize the moment and lock them down for a follow-up call.  

8. Contacting the Buying Team

When you’re selling to a large organization, there may be several people involved in the buying decision. In some cases, it’s better to focus on the company as a whole. You can still make great connections with individual prospects but stay focused on your objective. Make it clear how your product or service will not only improve their lives but their team members as well. You may seem desperate if you contact each member of the buying team multiple times.  

9. Notifications + Contact Time

Spread out your follow-up calls to avoid annoying your prospects. However, finding the best time to contact them is challenging. So how do you make contact without annoying them? The secret is knowing when they have time and want to speak with you. Use sales prospecting tools to notify you whenever your prospect returns to your website or reopens your email. Then, you can simply take the phone, make the call, and close the deal. That is the best moment to reengage your prospects.  

10. Knowing When to Walk Away

Knowing when to walk away from the dreadful gone dark scenario is the hardest part. The lead may have seemed promising, but after you tried calling and emailing them 5-6 times, they may never reply. So what’s the next step? It’s now time to send your final email. Here’s a sample of what a final email looks like: Hi Devon, I’ve tried to contact you multiple times via phone and email, and I hate to keep bothering you. If or when you’d like help finding [product], please let me know and I’d be happy to assist you. At this point, I am closing your request for help. You can get in touch with me at [phone_number] and [email]. Ps. Don’t forget to check out our latest feature on this link. Kind regards, Jim   Sending a final email to unresponsive prospects usually gets a response. But why now? It’s a simple sales scarcity tactic. When you remind them that you’ve tried to contact them and now you are closing the conversation, they are motivated by their last chance to respond.  

Final Thoughts on How to Follow-Up in Sales

Although it’s critical to be persistent in sales, you should actively avoid being irritating or overbearing with your prospects. Remember, always be polite, schedule your follow-ups, and try different modes of contact to increase your conversion rates.   Authors: Madison O’Connell Mylvio Mendes