Mastering the Art of Follow-Up

August 17th 2024

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously stated that “The fortune is in the follow-up” when it comes to business opportunities, and he is right.

Once a potential customer or client indicates any interest in your business or your products and services, it’s your responsibility to educate and inform them until they have enough information to make a purchase decision. Depending on what they already know and how financially able they are to proceed, they may make that decision in a matter of minutes. But it could also take days, weeks, months, or years to get to that point.

According to The Brevet Group, 80% of sales occur after at least 5 follow-ups, although 44% of salespeople only follow up once.

If you give up on staying in touch after only the first interaction, it’s very likely you’re missing out on countless sales.

Besides staying top-of-mind with prospects, following up also helps deepen the relationship you’re building with your potential customer, builds trust, demonstrates your interest in working with them, and provides an opportunity to gather useful feedback on why prospects aren’t buying, which can help increase your conversion rate with other potential clients.

If you haven’t been following up consistently, here are 5 different ways to approach the process:

Provide additional information

If your prospect hasn’t said “yes” yet to buying from you, it may be because they don’t yet feel they are well enough informed. Maybe they’re not convinced they have a need or that your solution is the best for them. If you sense this is the situation, or if your prospect has told you as much, your follow-up messages should contain more helpful information.

Keep in mind that at this stage, they do not want more sales or promotional material. Your goal should be to position yourself as a trusted ally who is trying to help them make a good decision. To do that, regularly send them articles about your type of product or service – but not ads. White papers and industry reports are great for this.

If a new study comes out that confirms your solution helps clients save money or make money, forward that to everyone on your list with a quick note that you thought they might find the report interesting. Or if someone in your company is quoted in an article, send that along. The same if someone in your business is interviewed on a podcast – send the link.

Do not, however, add prospects to your email list without their permission. This is not the time to overload them with spammy messages. Pick and choose useful content that might help push them to make a purchase.

Connect via LinkedIn

You don’t want to overwhelm your potential clients with messages from multiple platforms, but connecting via LinkedIn provides another way for you to stay on top of what they share about their work and also offers a way for them to be exposed to what you post.

Although your LinkedIn posts won’t be personalized to them, being connected there gives you another potential way to stay top of mind. Each time they come across one of your posts, that’s essentially another indirect follow-up.

Check in via phone

Email is one of the most efficient means of following up with prospects, but it’s reactive and asynchronous. Calling someone allows you to speak in real time to see where they are in their thought process. Do they have any questions? Any new concerns that have emerged?

It’s also an opportunity to inquire about what’s holding them back? Why won’t they decide to move forward? That kind of specific information is worth its weight in gold.

Offer added value

As part of your follow-up messages, look for ways to help your customers more broadly with their purchase. Provide useful information that addresses their larger reasons for considering a purchase.

For example, if you’re an interior designer, you might send along some initial thoughts about the best use of the client’s space, or you could alert them to an upcoming sale on an item that is an essential piece of their room design. Demonstrate that you’re trying to help them achieve their objective of getting their room professionally designed.

Be persistent

Even when you may be getting tired of following up, your prospect may still be considering their purchase. Right now, they may not be ready but next week or next quarter they could be. 

To ensure that you’re still in the running for their business, follow up regularly. Remind them that you’re still available to answer any questions that have come up.

And if you’ve let some prospects fall off your radar over the last few months, you can always circle back and follow up to see where things stand. Are they still considering your company? Would they like an updated price?

You really can’t over-follow up. Stop only when the prospect asks you to or when you determine they aren’t a good fit for your business.