There’s power in a follow-up email. Sure, making a good first impression on your initial email to prospects is important. However, what you want is an actual response, and a carefully crafted initial email does not guarantee a response. So, what does?
It can take two…three…four… or even five (the “magic number” according to EmailAnalytics) emails to hear back from a prospect. In fact, Velocify’s research indicates that you’ll see higher conversion rates within those five emails.
Yet, Invesp reports that 70% of salespeople don’t send another email. They send one, don’t hear back, and give up. Don’t do this. You need to put all the effort you put into that first email (and more) into your follow-up emails. Or better yet, your follow-up video emails. That’s what gets you the replies you’ve been looking for.
Keep reading to learn how to follow up on a sales email. In the post, you can also find a sales follow-up email template (and accompanying video email example) to use with prospects (and clients) in different scenarios. Use them correctly and you can create great follow-up emails that not only help increase replies but also close deals…
1. Follow-Up Sales Email After Leaving a Voicemail or Speaking on the Phone
2. Follow-Up Sales Email After Prospect Opens an Email and Doesn’t Respond
3. Follow-Up Sales Email After an Event
4. Follow-Up Sales Email After Closing a Deal
5. Follow-Up Sales Email After a Client’s Contract Ends
6. Follow-Up Sales Email After Prospect or Client Stops Responding
How Do You Follow Up on a Sales Email?
While your marketing department probably sends out beautifully designed emails with flashy graphics and call-to-action buttons, your sales follow-up email doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to be great.
When writing your follow-up sales email, you just need to focus on a few key areas:
Start with a great subject line
The subject line on your first email may very well have been the reason you didn’t get a response to it. You might have the best message, but if you don’t have a solid email subject line, your email might end up straight in the trash. So with your follow-up, you need to craft a subject line that really gives your client a reason to read your email.
A couple of great follow-up sales email subject lines that EmailAnalytics recommends include: “You’re busy, but can you spare five minutes,” and “[Your company] and [their company] – can we work together?” See the full list of sales subject line recommendations for more guidance.
Get to the Point
No one wants to read a novel. Clearly and quickly explain why you’re reaching out and what you are offering. If this email is being sent after a meeting, provide a recap and action items so there are no miscommunications.
Keep Your Message Personal
Your follow-up sales emails need to be personal. They should be tailored to your prospect or client’s specific needs and challenges. The best way you can do this is not through text, but rather a personal video message.
Video allows you to connect with people in a more personal way, so they’re more likely to trust you and reply. You can also incorporate more personalized touches in a video, like your recipient’s name or company logo on a whiteboard. For more tips on making your videos more personal, check out this post.
Provide Helpful Content
Be of value in your sales follow-up emails. Offer information about a service that your business provides that can address their needs. If you’re sending a follow-up video and you have a screen recorder, you can show your recipient exactly what your product or service can do for them.
Of course, all emails will be unique and should be used at different times in the sales cycle. However, if you focus on these four key areas, you can craft winning follow-up messages – no matter the situation.
6 Great Sales Follow-Up Email Examples
There are endless situations in which you’ll need a good sales follow-up email. It can be anything from your first contact with a prospect to the end of a major contract – and everything in between.
Here are follow-up email examples to clients for some of the most common situations:
1. Sales Follow-Up Email Template to Use After an Initial Phone Call
Most of the time, when you first call a prospective client, you’ll get a voicemail. Your chances of getting a call back are pretty slim, so you’ll definitely need to follow up with an email.
That email should briefly introduce you, explain why you called, and clearly map out next steps – just like this sales follow-up email example…
Subject Line: “I must have just missed you…”
Watch what this looks like in a video email format below…
If you did manage to get an answer to your initial call, you can use the same style of email or video message after speaking with that person on the phone. Just briefly recap your conversation and what will happen next.
2. Sales Email Follow-Up After Client Opens an Email and Doesn’t Respond
In many cases, when you send emails to clients, you don’t hear back. There’s a chance they never opened the message, or maybe they did open it but took no action. Your email could have also gotten buried in your recipient’s inbox.
However, if you have email tracking capabilities, you’ll be able to see if and when they opened your email or clicked on anything in the message. You’ll even be notified if they played your video email (if you sent one, instead of a plain-text email).
With this, you’ll be able to track their engagement (or lack thereof) and follow up accordingly. And there is a simple sales follow-up email trick that can entice a response.
Simply find the original email in your sent folder, and reply all to it, so you are copying your original message in your new email. This prevents your prospects from having to dig through their inbox to find it. Here’s the sales follow-up email template you should use…
Subject Line: “Let’s try this again.”
And if you’re going to send a video message instead, try something like this…
3. Sales Sample Follow-Up Email to Send After an Event
Local and virtual events like conferences and networking sessions are excellent opportunities to meet new prospects. However, it’s likely you only had a few minutes to speak with them before exchanging contact information and going your way.
Make sure your follow-up email includes information about something you spoke about in-person to help them remember you. They’ll be more inclined to respond if they don’t view you as a stranger.
Here’s our recommended follow-up email example…
Subject Line: “Great meeting you at [event]!”
Or here’s a video message approach you can take…
4. Follow-Up Sales Email After Closing a Deal
The conversation doesn’t end after your client signs on the dotted line. You want that client to be a repeat customer and refer you to others. So, it’s important to maintain the relationship that you’ve built during the sales process.
Want to know how to keep lifelong customers? Check out this episode of our podcast – The Customer Experience Podcast – with Joey Coleman, author of “Never Lose a Customer Again: Turn Any Sale into Lifelong Loyalty in 100 Days.”
There is so much you can express in the follow-up emails you send to cultivate client loyalty. They should include a thank you (see our full article on thank you video messages), as well as an invitation for them to contact you with any questions or issues.
See the sales follow-up email template we recommend below…
Subject Line: “Welcome to the [company name] family!”
Want to send a video email instead? Here’s a good idea of what that should look like…
5. Sales Follow-Up Email Template to Use After a Client’s Contract Ends
In a perfect world, every client would be a repeat customer. Unfortunately, the world isn’t perfect and some of your customers won’t buy again.
Although your professional relationship is ending, you still need to send a follow-up sales email to thank them for being a loyal customer. This offers an opportunity for you to offer your product or service again in the future.
Plus, you never know if they might come back one day. Here’s an example follow-up email you can send…
Subject Line: “Thank you for being a loyal customer.”
Here’s what this looks like in a video message…
6. Follow-Up Sales Email After a Prospect or Client Stops Responding
At some point, it becomes apparent that your prospect or client has lost interest and won’t be buying from you or renewing their contract. Before you cut your losses, try one more follow-up email to see if they’ll reengage.
At the very least, you might receive confirmation that they aren’t interested.
Your previous sales emails haven’t been working, so this is your opportunity to show a little creativity, humor, and personality in your message. Here’s a sales follow-up email template you can use…
Subject Line: “Is this thing on?”
Watch the video below to see how you can reach out with a video message instead…
How to Incorporate Video Into Your Sales Emails
Prospecting is no easy task – and sales follow-ups are a key component of it. Every day you’re dealing with ignored cold outreach emails, appointment no-shows, and little opportunity for the face-to-face interactions needed to close deals. But prospecting videos change that.
Using video in sales is easy, and it can be incorporated into so many key points of the prospecting stage. Check out the article below to see real examples and learn where and when you can use video in prospecting to see results.
