Master Your Sales Follow-Up (with examples)

Most businesses know the importance and benefits of cold calling as part of your sales strategy. Cold calling is a superb sales strategy that lets you connect with prospects and successfully lead them through the buyer journey, so you can grow your business. But, organisations tend to leave out an important part of the cold calling strategy.

Despite popular belief, a cold call doesn’t end when the sales agent puts down the phone. There is another, often-forgotten step: the follow-up. 44% of sales agents only make one follow-up attempt, giving up afterwards.

Mastering your sales follow-up has amazing benefits for your customer relationship management and you can implement these effective follow-up strategies from our experts at Myphoner immediately. You can also use our cold-calling tools to streamline thelead tracking and follow-up process, so that you can meet your sales targets every time.

The Importance of Follow-Up in Sales

Sales follow-up, also known as lead nurturing, is a vital step to add to your customer journey. Customers and leads today prioritise personalisation in their shopping decisions and purchase journey. Only 20% of buyers would make a purchase despite an impersonal experience and 42% get annoyed when their experiences are not personalized.

Personalized customer experiences, not only draw and retain customers, they help build trust between your company and its prospects, boost consumer engagement and enhance your organization’s image.

To achieve these benefits, your organization needs to monitor the buying cycle: from search engine optimization research to determining what prospects are searching for and understanding how to improve their post-sales experience.

The importance of follow-up in sales is also about the number of attempts. 4 out of 5 cases require at least 5 follow-ups to make the sale. Yet only 8% of salespeople follow up more than 5 times. You can get ahead by being persistent about your sales follow-up strategy and finding multiple touch points to connect with your prospect.

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Sales Follow-Up Statistics

As you identify your follow-up strategy, keep in mind that it’s vital to understand how most sales happen. Here are some key sales follow-up statistics to give you some insight:

• Only 4% of customers who visit your website are ready to make a purchase.
• Only 20% of new prospects lead to conversions.
• 42% of customers feel prompted to make a purchase if an agent follows up at an agreed time.
• Four out of 5 sales require approximately 5 follow-up calls.
• “60% of customers say no four times before saying yes.”
• Following up within 5 minutes of a call increases your likelihood of a sale by 9 times.

These sales follow-up statistics demonstrate the importance of follow-up in sales, and the impact it has on whether customers buy your products or services or not.You’ll want to tailor your follow-up strategy according to the ideal timing and profile of your prospect - and keep following up to get results.

Remember that following up doesn’t have a time-consuming process, either. Currently, salespeople spend 21% of their time writing emails, which is way too much. You can streamline your follow-up strategy by using Myphoner’s email templates, power dialer and other key tools.

Best Ways to Follow Up With Customers

To improve your lead nurturing, here are five methods to use for your follow-ups. Follow-up calls should be easier than the first cold call, but they can still cause anxiety in sales agents. There is still the stress of considering how your call will be received. Call too many times and the customer will likely get annoyed and block your calls. But give up too quickly and you may miss out on valuable future sales. So what to do?

Using a streamlined call management system can track all relevant information about a lead, including how many times an agent has contacted them.We’re convinced that Myphoner offers the most comprehensive leading tracking out there, enabling you to keep track of your prospects instead of relying on bulky spreadsheets or your memory.

Let’s go through key follow-up techniques for a variety of touch points, so that you know how to follow up with customers and start converting prospects today.

Email

A great way to make sure you catch customers when they’re free to talk, and don’t impose on their time, is to send them a brief email.

Your email has to be concise yet conversational and personal for the customer. If you have already tried to contact them before, you can add a line saying so. Be friendly and thoughtful about what they may need from you.

The great thing about email follow-ups is that you can use email templates. You just need to make sure that you use templates that don’t sound too robotic or like an automated email. If you do, your prospects may be less likely to respond.Luckily, Myphoner’s got you covered with friendly, personalized email templates.

How to Write a Follow-Up Email

As you write a sales follow-up email, you’ll want to tailor your messaging according to the prospect. All your emails should be friendly, but also to the point. The last thing you want to do is waste your prospect’s time. To start, you might write something like:

How are you doing?

Can we set a time to talk again this week? How’s 10 am on Wednesday for a call?

Looking forward to our chat, [your name].

Even better, you can share a link to your calendar tool, so that your prospects can book a time that suits them. You might even suggest a specific time through your tool so that the lead can simply accept the invite or not.

However, keep in mind that your messaging will change depending on where you are in the sales funnel. Business follow-up emails will be distinct if you’ve previously spoken on the phone, had an initial meeting, met at a networking event or already sent multiple follow-up emails. Be sure to personalize your sales follow-up email according to these circumstances.

Follow-Up Email Example

Sometimes it’s easier to understand email follow-up techniques when you see them in action. One of the most common follow-up email examples is for after an initial call. Here’s a follow-up email template that you can tailor according to your prospect:

Subject line: Let’s discuss your business goals

Hi [prospect name],

I enjoyed chatting with you earlier and learning more about your business challenges.

I’ve attached more info about our product and how we can help boost your [business goals]. I’d love to pick up on our conversation and answer any questions you may have. When’s a good time to hop on a call?”

Cheers,
[your name]

When using a follow-up email example, don’t forget to personalize the information and subject line. According to studies, personalizing your subject line can boost open rates by 29%. Using a strong subject line can make the difference in getting a prospect to open the email. Go for subject lines that are intriguing yet helpful, such as “Ideas to boost your business goals” or “Let’s brainstorm next steps.” Even adding your prospect’s name to the subject line can work well.

Pro tip: Don’t forget to personalize and save your favorite sales follow-up email templates in your preferred software tool, such as Myphoner.

Texts

You can do pretty much the same thing with a text message as you can with an email. The plus-side is immediacy.

While many people can go for hours or even days without checking their emails, most people will glance at their phone notifications often. This means they are likely to see a text message very quickly.

Plus, you can use a sales follow-up template system here as well to make this process more efficient.

This can seem invasive if done poorly, though. Due to the intimate nature of text messages, there's a level of informality which may turn away potential leads here.

Social Media

What’s more personal than social media these days?

Customers share their purchases, lifestyles, choices, almost everything on social media. This makes social media a prime space for customer engagement. Retweeting, liking and following - simply engaging your customers online is important. But, you can also use social media to follow up and get reviews from them.There are different ways to do this:

• Create polls asking about products and/or services.
• Respond to comments and tweets about your products and/or services.
• Use DMs as you would a text or an email.
• Share User-Generated Content from followers.

By being active in the social sphere, your business will both be seen as genuine and proactive.

Companies acting in bad faith tend to have limited social footprints online, so having active social media with constant reviews and interaction can help leads feel more comfortable opting for your products.

Gifts

Anothereffective follow-up strategy is to send useful gifts, discounts, vouchers, or coupons. With a personalized note, this is a thoughtful touch that makes your prospects feel valued. Branded items, like pens, are also excellent at keeping your company top of mind!

Whether you send the trinkets along with a note, or via email, you can use this as another opportunity to schedule a sales follow-up call.

Effective Follow-Up Strategies

Make sure the same person follows up

Consistency is critical in customer service and communicating with the same sales agent is a personal touch. Keep your customers’ information in one place and record the outcome of your sales cold calls with them.

A fantastic way to do this is to streamline your follow-up tasks using sophisticated outreach software. For example, these cold calling tools are considered some of the best out there.

This will help your sales rep stay on the ball and direct the call suitably. Lead tracking solutions like Myphoner can log calls, transcribe the conversation, store notes from previous communications, and track the best times to follow up.

Using this type of software and ensuring that the same reps follow up with prospects is key to a personalized, thoughtful and conversational follow-up.

Follow a sales follow-up timeline

It’s also important to consider the time-zone and customer profile of that lead. When is the best time to call them? According to Inside Sales, the best time to make follow-up calls is around 8 am and between 4 pm - 5 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Conduct research to determine the best times to contact your prospects, taking into account their work schedules and their time-zones.Define your sales follow-up timeline and stick to it!

Don’t forget to space out your sales follow-up timeline as well, or you’ll bother your prospect with constant emails and calls. Typically, the first follow-up happens within 24 hours. After that, sales follow-up should occur about every 2-3 days. After 10 days have passed, you should space out follow-up even more, likely once every two weeks.

Take into account your prospect’s needs, too. For example, if a prospect says next month would be a better time to talk, be sure to follow up next month instead of pestering him/her until then. Agreeing on when to follow-up next is a helpful way to avoid bugging your prospect.

Define your follow-up strategy

With these benefits, outreach software can also help you keep in mind the reason why you’re following up. Do not just call customers with no purpose. ‘Just touching base’ is not a good enough reason.

Go over the information you have stored on your prospect to guide you on the best way to approach the follow-up. Consider their customer profile, past purchases, your company’s customer research in order to define your follow-up strategy.

Doing this helps you get a sense of your sales team’s history with that customer, as well as what they may find beneficial from the call. You want to make the follow-up valuable for them. Giving purpose to your conversation is a practical way to do this.

Have something of value to provide for each follow-up

Another way to show the value of the follow-up is by having something to offer the prospect. Make the time and attention they give to your follow-up call worthwhile for them too.

You can offer the latest sales and discounts, or a coupon for their next purchase. It can also be as simple as providing a link to an article or video that you believe may be useful to them or letting them know you’re available at any time to assist them. Whatever you choose, make it worth their time.

Understand that the sales follow-up process isn’t always linear

The best ways to follow up with customers are those that work. As you work hard to build a relationship with your prospect and make the sale, it’s important to remember that the sales follow-up process is rarely linear.

As part of your sales follow-up strategy, be sure to use multiple touch points and a combination of techniques in order to connect with your prospect. Be persistent in following up, but always add value when you do.

And finally, know when to stop. If a lead isn’t interested, you should spend your time on other leads. Lead tracking can help you see the full picture of your contacts and determine when it’s time to call it quits during the sales follow-up process.

What not to do in Sales Follow-Up

What should you avoid when following up leads? Here are our picks for some “do-nots”.

Pursue an uninterested lead

You don’t need to follow up on every sales call. Some customers just aren’t interested in your product - and that’s OK! Pushing and pursuing a lead that is obviously not interested — or hostile to your attempts — is a waste of time and effort.

How can you tell whether a lead is worth pursuing? Ask yourself:

• Does this customer suffer from the painpoints that your product solves?
• Did the lead indicate a genuine interest in your product in the first call?
• Does this lead have the means to commit to your product?
• Do they fit your “target persona” - or at least have some qualities in common with your desired customer?

Treat leads as business assets or opportunities

Of course, when chasing a lead it can be easy to lose yourself thinking of the numbers involved. But treating your leads as assets can really make them feel as though you're acting in bad faith.

Sales calls, and cold calling in general, already has a somewhat tainted reputation. To cut through this, you’ll need to show a genuineness and humility that will resonate with the lead.

Remember, the person on the people on the other end of t lines, and making connections with them is one of the best things you can do to make a lead successful.

Follow Up Without The Right Tools

Myphoner'sCRM is feature-packed with everything you need to turn a lead into a success.

These world-class tools are essential to any cold calling business, and can help push your business to new heights. With our lightweight CRM and lead tracking and routing features, keeping track of leads has never been more simple. So, why not make things as easy as possible and try Myphoner today?

Be patient but persistent

In anything, patience is incredibly important. Especially when dealing with people. This is also true when it comes to cold-calling.

There is an art to mastering the 'tempo' of a lead — learning to both be patient and push a lead towards success. While you don't want to drag a lead out unreasonably, pushing a lead too hastily into a decision can result in failure.

So, you want to make sure to be patient with them, and help 'guide' them into the right decision rather than pushing them.

By having a plan for each lead and asking the right questions to make sure you're covering each of their needs, you can make sure that your leads are satisfied and more open to making their decision to buy a product.

Master sales follow-up strategies with Myphoner

Having an effective follow-up strategy is highly beneficial, yet often overlooked in sales. Following up properly and ensuring you use a customer-centric approach, is the best way to nurture leads and turn them into customers.

By giving up after one follow-up call, you miss out on building potentially long-lasting customer relationships. So, make sure that you follow-up multiple times and provide value to your prospects. Think about what they would want and offer them a more personalised experience. This will help you to build good relationships with your potential customers and improve customer loyalty for your business.

Myphoner can help take your prospect relationships to the next level. As you master your sales follow-up techniques, be sure to get support from lead tracking software like Myphoner.

Using features such as Myphoner’s lead router means that your agents can follow up with their leads easily. Plus, our world-class CRM is focused on efficiency and simplicity. This means that your agents can access the information they need on their leads without a confusing or clunky user interface to try to navigate.

Our service also comes with other amazing features such as our Power Dialer, meaning that you can elevate your cold-calling status to the next level!