Following up with a prospect is an essential part of marketing strategy. As it actually leads to strengthening the sales process and establishing a long-term relationship with prospects, follow-up results in closing more deals. There are 3 main ways of follow-up: calls, email and social media.
In our previous article, we have already discussed the sales follow-up calls. In this article, we are going to concentrate on how to create the best follow-up email for sales. Email following-up is considered to be one of the most effective ways of reaching your potential leads. Recent surveys have shown that email marketing brings more conversions than any other ways. Therefore, an effective email follow-up requires persistence and attention to details. You need to know when and what to send in order not to lose any opportunity.
Let’s have a close look at the following types of email follow-up:
- After meeting or sales call to add value. For keeping the deal moving forward, email lead thanking them for their time along with a brief summary of the call. In order to customize your sample email, you should add the following points:
- Overview all mentioned points for the prospect so that they can visualize what they will get out of deal;
- Identify how your product/service can solve their pain points;
- Answer the questions if they needed additional information;
- Tell the next step they need to take for moving the deal forward;
- Set an exact time for next meeting or call.
By writing such follow-up email after sales, you will build a friendly and trustful relationship and create open-free atmosphere for further nurturing.
- After you left a voicemail. In case you can’t reach your client (he can be either busy or just ignore you), leaving a voicemail together with an email will be of great help. By combining two faculties – visual and auditory you will double the impact of your message and increase the chance of receiving the answer. Such follow-up sales email should consist of the following points:
- Introduce yourself using full name;
- Give company name;
- Mention that you also left a voicemail;
- Remind client why you are writing;
- Summarize the main points discussed during the initial call;
- Set an exact time for next call or meeting.
- After the client have opened your emails but haven’t replied. Send such email if the sales process has reached the stage where your prospects have all information to make a purchase decision and yet there has been no response from them after your first or second follow-up.
- Mention the main points of your previous calls/ emails;
- Ask the following questions: Are you still interested in our service? Do you want to clarify some points? You are not sure if our product/service will solve your pain points?;
- Express gratitude for helping you understand at which stage they are.
When it comes to sales follow-up emails, persistence always pays off. As the first follow up will not always bring direct results so you have to be prepared for all the follow-ups thereafter. Besides, because of rapid changes in sales, you should constantly test and improve your own sample and combine emails with other types of communication (whether it is phone call or meeting or chat in social media). And keep in mind that you should value every prospect and handle each interaction with great responsibility and professionalism. Only in this case, you will build a long-lasting relationship that will bring undeniable results.