3 Tips for Nailing Your Sales Follow-Up Emails

You’ve cold called a lead, or made an impressive first touch. You’re feeling unstoppable, bolstered by the exhilarating feeling of breaking through with a lead. You’re feeling so good, in fact, that you entirely forget to follow up within a reasonable timeframe, and when you do, your efforts are slapdash and generic.

You’ve just committed one of the cardinal sins of working a lead: you’ve failed the follow-up. The vast majority of the time (vast might even be an understatement) a lead won’t give you a “yes” on the first touch; the majority take between 5 and 12 contacts before they offer a green light. That’s why nailing your follow-up is of the utmost importance.

In this article, let’s look at four tried-and-true tips for nailing your sales follow-up email.

Timing & Frequency Matter

Firstly, it needs to be noted that the timeframe within which you follow up, and the frequency with which you follow up – together often referred to as your “sales cadence” – matters a great deal. Wait too long, and leads are liable to run off with your competitors. Email too often, and the lead might label you a nuisance and move on. You need a structured cadence.

You can’t trust your memory to these tasks, as doing so is too often a recipe for letting a lead slip through the cracks. Instead, nail your follow up with better lead tracking from a sales engagement platform, which can automate your cadence, prompting you to contact leads at the most opportune times and at an optimal frequency.

Always Be Prepared

Always have a game plan for your follow-up. There’s nothing a lead likes less than feeling as though you don’t know what you’re doing. It deflates their enthusiasm and makes them reconsider their confidence in your product. Approach each follow-up email with a solid plan: whether that’s providing them more information, scheduling a meeting, scheduling a demo, or simply reiterating and answering their concerns.

Whether using drip marketing, lead nurturing, personal selling… whatever – it pays to have a plan.

Don’t Neglect Your Subject Line

You can be as prepared in your emails as you possibly can, but if your subject line is generic – if it looks or feels too much like an automated response – it might be destined for the trash bin. Personalize your subject line, give it some life and avoid the clichéd sales lines. If a lead feels that the email is specifically for them, rather than a cookie-cutter email you are sending by rote, then they’ll feel more obliged to read it and respond.

Also, to evade spam filters, avoid yelling in ALL CAPS or using excessive punctuation!! Most filters recognize those as tell-tale signs of a bot at work.

With a sharp subject line, an email that achieves a predetermined purpose and an automated cadence that allows you to send emails at the right tempo, you will easily be able to nail your sales follow-up. Don’t let a good first touch lull you into a false sense of security – stay on top of your leads!