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Published: Oct 4, 2024
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7 min. read
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Maria CarpenaEmerging Trends & Research Writer
- Maria is an experienced marketing professional in both B2C and B2B spaces. She’s earned certifications in inbound marketing, content marketing, Google Analytics, and PR. Her favorite topics include digital marketing, social media, and AI. When she’s not immersed in digital marketing and writing, she’s running, swimming, biking, or playing with her dogs.
Following up with a lead is both science and art. You must understand your prospects well and develop creative ways to build rapport with them.
With an effective sales follow-up process, you can nurture a lead and turn a skeptical prospect into your customer. This blog post discusses tips on how to create a sales follow-up process that closes deals:
What is a sales follow-up?
A sales follow-up is any communication with a lead or prospect after your first interaction. It’s a crucial step in your sales process to foster trust among your prospects by providing them support as they decide to purchase.
You can conduct a sales follow-up in various ways:
- Phone call
- Message
- Meeting
Why is a sales follow-up important?
A sales follow-up is critical to standing out among your competitors. That’s because an effective follow-up process builds rapport with your prospects.
In addition, it keeps your leads engaged with your business. When they have additional questions, you provide answers to help them make an informed decision.
A sales follow-up is not only meant to nudge your leads to buy from you — it’s also meant to create a trusting and collaborative partnership with them. In fact, sending out one follow-up email increases reply rates by as much as 220%.
8 sales follow-up tips
Here are eight sales follow-up best practices you can employ to nurture your relationship with your prospect:
Effective sales follow-up strategies
Let’s go through each one:
1. Respond to leads quickly
Fun fact: if you follow up with an online lead within 5 minutes of their inquiry, they’re nine times more likely to engage with you.
Show your prospects that they’re important by quickly responding to their inbound inquiries. Being responsive to their questions demonstrates that you’re a brand they can rely on.
2. Space out your follow-ups
Remember that sales follow-ups are meant to cultivate relationships with your prospects, not just to remind them to purchase from you.
Always consider your prospect’s timeline when scheduling a follow-up call or sending a follow-up email. Each prospect may have different timeframes, so note when it’s best to reach out to follow up. You can ask them during your call or take cues during your meeting.
For example, let’s say you’re in the business of providing software-as-a-service (SaaS) for dental clinics. If your inbound lead says they’ll discuss your offer with their management team in two weeks during your meeting, it makes sense to follow up after that meeting — not in three days.
To help with following up and keeping your brand top of mind, use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Nutshell to create an email drip campaign. Nutshell can automate sending emails based on your prospects’ actions.
3. Use various follow-up channels
Each prospect is different, so try various follow-up channels to discover their preference.
You’ve probably encountered a lead who responds to your emails, but rarely takes calls. Other prospects may answer your calls, but don’t respond to emails or SMS.
Use the communication method that your prospect is comfortable with. Ensure you provide them a consistent tone and experience across different communication platforms.
4. Specify the next steps
A deal may fall through the cracks when the following steps are unclear. Remember that your prospect may also explore other vendors and forget about your business.
To stay top of mind, guide them through the process and specify the next steps. Set a date and time for your next appointment or call before you end your discussion.
For example, let’s say you’re in the business of medical equipment. If your prospect liked your sales pitch and mentioned that they’d regroup internally after two weeks, set a specific date and time for your follow-up appointment or call.
Give your prospects a reason to agree to your follow-up appointment by specifying your agenda, such as a Q&A session after they’ve reviewed other vendors’ pitches.
5. Make your follow-ups short
Keep in mind that your prospects are busy. Your follow-ups must be short — they don’t have time to review your pitch again.
Show them that you value their time. Send short follow-up emails that are direct to the point.
When making a follow-up call, keep it short. Don’t keep your prospects on the line for more than 10 minutes.
Make your brief sales follow-up effective by using a friendly tone that conveys that you’re happy to help and guide them.
6. Show value with each follow-up
Think of sales follow-ups as an opportunity to keep your prospects engaged — not another chance to push them to convert. Every time you reach out to them, offer something that addresses their pain points or ask how you can help them.
Share a blog post or how-to guide they’ll find insightful or helpful while waiting for budget approval. Did your prospect ask for a discount? Inform them when you have special offers on products they’re interested in.
If your prospect recently launched a new product or opened a new store, congratulate them and ask how it went. You may discover new ways to help them after their milestone.
7. Know when your prospect is no longer interested
Salespeople can’t keep following up forever. After a certain point, your prospect may no longer need your services and see you as a nuisance.
There is no magic number on when you can send follow-ups, as it may vary from one lead to another. However, the average number of follow-ups for most salespeople is around five.
To determine whether your prospects still need you, send them a final email stating that this is your last follow-up and that you’ll no longer stay in touch with them. This email is called a break-up email.
If they still need your products or services, they’ll respond to your break-up email. If they’re no longer interested, they’ll know you won’t follow up anymore.
Break-up emails foster good professional relationships with your prospects. They show your prospects that you understand them and respect their time.
By exerting an effort to say goodbye (instead of ghosting them), you show them that they matter and that you care. They may even contact you when ready to purchase or refer you to their colleagues!
8. Monitor and analyze your sales follow-up process
Are your follow-ups effective? To answer this question, monitor and evaluate the results of your efforts.
While this adds another step to your sales follow-up process, it helps you measure and improve the results of your efforts. You’ll discover what works for your prospects and the best practices for each customer segment.
How often should you follow up with leads?
A good cadence and frequency for follow-ups depend on your industry, situation, and your current relationship with a prospect.
Here are a few guidelines:
- Respond to an online lead within 5 minutes of their inquiry. If you respond quickly, your leads are nine times more likely to engage with you.
- Two to five days is the ideal time to wait before following up on a sales email. This is your first follow-up email.
- If you don’t get a response from your first follow-up, you may follow up after three days, either by phone or email.
- Wait for another seven days before making another follow-up if your prospect doesn’t respond.
- Reach out again after another seven days.
- Give your prospect another 14 days before you follow up.
- After two weeks, you would’ve given your prospect more than a month. You can make your sixth follow-up.
Note that 60% of customers say “no” four times before finally saying “yes.” Depending on your follow-ups, you can gauge if you need to send a break-up email or follow up again after a certain period.
If your prospect says they’re exploring options and not yet ready to buy, you can ask them for the best time to chat again. You can then take note of when to do another follow-up.
Boost your sales follow-up process with WebFX
An effective sales follow-up process can grow your revenue and your bottom line. If you need help with lead nurturing and sales efforts, consider teaming up with WebFX.
Our team of 500 experts will gladly help you boost your revenue through data-backed marketing strategies. When you team up with us, you also get access to our proprietary tools, MarketingCloudFX and Nutshell.
MarketingCloudFX is a growth platform that can measure and monitor the success of your sales follow-ups. Thus, evaluating your process is no longer a guessing game.
Nutshell is a CRM platform that automates and personalizes follow-up emails, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks.
Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!
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Maria is an experienced marketing professional in both B2C and B2B spaces. She’s earned certifications in inbound marketing, content marketing, Google Analytics, and PR. Her favorite topics include digital marketing, social media, and AI. When she’s not immersed in digital marketing and writing, she’s running, swimming, biking, or playing with her dogs.
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Table of Contents
- What is a Sales Follow-up?
- Why is a Sales Follow-up Important?
- 8 Sales Follow-up Tips
- 1. Respond to Leads Quickly
- 2. Space out Your Follow-ups
- 3. Use Various Follow-up Channels
- 4. Specify the Next Steps
- 5. Make Your Follow-ups Short
- 6. Show Value with Each Follow-up
- 7. Know when Your Prospect is No Longer Interested
- 8. Monitor and Analyze Your Sales Follow-up Process
- How Often Should You Follow Up with Leads?
- Boost Your Sales Follow-up Process with WebFX

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