If you’re getting all the responses you’ll ever need on the first cold email you send to prospects, let me know. You’re a walking, talking miracle-worker! But if you need to send one sales follow-up email after the next, you’re like the rest of us.
That’s fine, because we’ve got your back with a list of follow-up email templates you can use to reach out to your prospects and get responses.
The following templates are based on some simple cardinal rules about how to send a follow-up email.
Related: 11 Must-Follow Rules for B2B Email Introductions
What should I write in a follow-up email?
- Open with a strong subject line.
- Get to the point quickly and don’t waste the prospect’s time.
- Personalize as much as you practically can.
- Offer something of value.
- Be clear about what you want from the prospect.
- Offer a clear call to action.
That’s it in a nutshell, but there’s loads more to think about, so this piece also contains a list of tips and tricks to help you work out how to follow up on an email.
Sales follow-up email templates
To help you jumpstart your email follow-up efforts, here’s a run-up of useful templates that you can use. As you try these out, use A/B tests to identify which work best for your business and prospects. Then, try some new ones of your own.
A. Sample follow up email to a prospective client
This is a very general email, which can work in a wide variety of circumstances. It’s unlikely to be the strongest email you can send, but it also won’t be the worst. It covers all bases, and goes back over a lot of the ground that you should have covered in your first message.
B. Follow-up sales email after a meeting
You’ve already had a meeting so you know you’re getting somewhere. This sales followup email is to be practical, respectful and to the point. Depending on how it’s gone, you could even press a little harder about when that next chat might take place.
C. Follow-up email after no response
If you’ve already had a meeting with this person, you can add more of a Challenger element here.
Your opener could instead be:
“You’re busy and on to something big. I get that. But we make time for the things that matter, and based on {{problem they shared}}, I do believe we can help.”
D. Another follow up email sample you can send after no response
I’m adding another follow up email in this category, since “no response” is such a common response.
This one pushes harder for a second meeting, and gives more information about what’s needed.
E. Generic sales follow up email sample after a touchpoint
If you’ve engaged them at a particular touchpoint, now’s the time to follow up, reference it, and offer the next steps. Jogging their memory about what you actually talked about in the last touchpoint will make this follow-up email even more effective.
F. Follow-up sales email after an event or trade show.
This is a situation where personalization would be great if possible. Can you mention something you actually talked about with the prospect at the show? If not, then this is a good approach to at least show that you have something in common and you were in the same place.
G. Break-up email sample after another follow-up
You have to judge what a prospect will and won’t like. Is it time for something funny? But humour’s a quick and easy way of personalizing a sales follow up email and getting their attention. There’s plenty of data that emails with images get more opens.
12 tips to produce strong follow-up emails
Right. Those are the templates. Now, let’s have a look at some theory (and actionable tips) to go with it. Here’s what we’re covering:
- Balance Scale with Personalization and Relevance
- Have a clear purpose
- Open strong
- Follow up email body tips
- Move forward – even if it’s towards a “no”
- Email automation tools
- How long to wait before following up on an email
- How often to follow up with sales prospects for higher response rates
- When to stop sending follow up emails
- Monitor and analyze your email data
- Sales Follow Up Email Templates
- Be willing to challenge best practices
1. Balance scale with personalization and relevance
Never, ever forget that leads are people. They value their time, care about their privacy, and don’t love being interrupted with unsolicited sales pitches (most of the time). They’re smart too. But just like the rest of us, they tend to make decisions based on emotions, as demonstrated by behavioral economics.
Few leads will respond promptly and favorably to your sales emails. But with strategic and authentic lead nurturing, enough of them will see the value you provide— with a little personalization and patience on your part.
If you only send mass email campaigns, leads might feel like they have a stalker who is not detail-oriented. That won’t get you very far. On the other hand, you won’t cover enough leads to meet sales targets if you personalize every chasing email individually.
Instead, group your prospects by their buyer persona, and personalize to that.
“It’s possible to personalize so much that you compromise productivity. Personalize to the persona, tell a relevant story, and spend more time on follow-up emails than on the initial one. Doing so can have a massive impact on response rates without slowing you down.”
– Mark Kosoglow, VP of Sales at Outreach
2. Have a clear purpose
Committing to a strong follow-up email sequence is one thing. How you approach each step in that sequence matters too.
You should have a clear next step you’d like to achieve when you follow up and understand what your prospect would want to achieve too. Find a reason to speak with them that serves both purposes and clearly communicate that in your email.
For example, using the phrase “just checking in” is usually discouraged by sales leaders. It’s even worse if you’re checking in without offering anything new that’s valuable to the prospect!
This looks lazy:
There are tons of other reasons Ben could have provided, explaining the purpose of his email. He could have:
- Given me a recap of our last phone call and reminded me of next steps
- Asked me specifically what’s changed on my end that has made me not respond
- Sent me some additional information pertaining to our last conversation (if we had one)
- Asked for additional information so he can provide me something extra
- Sent me a helpful resource, or a news article that might affect my work
If all Ben wants is to talk, he just needs to ask for that, and tell me when he’s free! I at least deserve an idea of why we should speak.
3. Open strong
Subject lines matter. In fact, a catchy subject line can drive up to a 42% open rate for your follow up emails. Here are some ways to make subject lines more effective:
- Keep them short, sweet, and straight to the point.
- Be casual and personal. (But don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to your grandparents).
- Reference the prospect’s company and/or name.
- Use a simple call to action.
- Be highly relevant.
Now, I know it can be tricky to put that advice into practice, so here are some examples you can play with. These aren’t one-size-fits-all example subject lines, so make them your own!
Warning: Great subject lines are not enough. If you’re getting improved increased open rates, great. Now turn your attention to reply rates.
4. Follow-up email body tips
If you’ve gotten a prospect’s attention, you’ve got a new challenge: keeping it.
The key to writing great follow-up email copy is to be valuable and relevant as quickly as possible. This 3-item checklist should help make your efforts worthwhile.
1. Personalize. You are engaging a person, not a robot, so extend all the respect and attention the email recipient deserves. Even if you are using a marketing automation platform, ensure that your emails do not sound automated, generic, or irrelevant.
However, make sure that you are personalizing in a thoughtful way. Just referring to someone’s title, work history, or the school they attended just proves you can do basic internet research. It doesn’t tell them you took the time to really understand them.
For example, you could instead reference content the prospect has personally written, something unique to the prospect’s industry, or recent news about the prospect’s company.
According to Outreach SDR Manager Sam Nelson, you can execute personalization at scale through a combination of personalized and automated messages. For example, personalizing just the first two sentences of an email can deliver a dramatic increase in open rates. Bottom line: understand your buyer persona and fine-tune the message in a way that makes your value proposition shine.
2. Go for short and sweet. Don’t go beyond what’s necessary to generate a response from the recipient. Get straight to the point, and plainly state the email’s purpose at the onset. Then quickly offer up unique personalized value and end with a simple, clear CTA.
If you can’t catch the prospect’s attention during the first few seconds, it’s unlikely you’ll get a response anyway. So avoid getting too wild and creative, or spinning a long tale.
3. Provide relevant value. The key word here is relevant. Your marketing department’s latest ebook might be valuable, but make sure it directly addresses your prospect’s main concerns.
One example: if the recipient recently attended a conference or trade show, follow up by citing event highlights or attaching resources. Make sure whatever you share relates to the prospect’s business, activities, interests, or problems. Or, you can mention newly published news or trends that impact the prospect’s company or industry.
5.Move forward – even if it’s toward a “no”
You’re sending a follow-up email because you want the recipient to sign something (eventually).
For that to happen, the prospect needs to make a series of decisions that result in a purchase. Including CTAs (calls-to-action) is what allows you to connect the present with that future scenario.
Any sales email is useless without a clear CTA. Regardless of what you would like the next step in the journey to be, make sure it’s also compelling to your prospect.
Short and direct is better.
Use this: “Do you have 20 mins for me next week?”
Instead of this: “Are you available for a quick 20-minute introduction call on Monday or Tuesday next week to discuss driving your sales efficiency and saving you and your team 10 hours per week?”
6. Use email automation tools
Automation makes it easier to craft, send, and track sales-related emails. While a one-to-one correspondence is ideal, sales is a numbers game. New tech can help find the happy medium between massive scale and heavy personalization.
Here are some of the most useful tools for reinforcing your email-based efforts:
- LinkedIn – the primary source for contact’s professional information
- Rapportive – provides relevant business intelligence within your email service
- Cirrus Insight – offers tight integration with Salesforce so you can access CRM data without leaving your email
- Close.io – centralizes your sales call and email workflow; provides analytics to optimize sequences
- HubSpot Marketing – excellent inbound marketing platform and overall resource on best practices, templates, and other email-related topics
- MailChimp – the industry leader in email marketing
- Constant Contact – helps you manage all aspects of your email: contacts, lists, templates, and tracking; has an image library and social media integration
- Boomerang – tracks whether the recipient opened the email, schedules transmission
- Outreach – the market leader in sales engagement with robust leading-edge email capabilities
- Yesware – syncs with CRM data and provides prescriptive analytics to propel your email prospecting campaigns
- Zoho Campaigns – links your email marketing and social media campaigns
7. How long to wait before following up on an email
There’s no absolute rule on how soon you should send a follow-up email. It all depends on the context and finding the sweet spot between keeping the deal moving forward and stalking/ spamming the prospect.
You should have agreed with your prospect ahead of time on an appropriate follow-up time. That way, there’s no guesswork involved.
If you weren’t able to do that, or just haven’t spoken to the prospect yet, here’s a rough guideline to consider.
Send a follow-up email the same day or within 24 hours if…
- You just had a meeting and need to send confirmation of next steps
- You’re thanking the prospect for anything (an introduction, for example)
Wait at least 48 hours if…
- You’re just following up on an email you sent previously
- You provided them with lots of material for their consideration
- Your prospect needs to meet
Wait at least 3 weeks if…
- You already sent 5 emails and got no reply
Sending follow-up emails at different times of day and different days of the week improves your chances of getting a reply. That way, you’re not always sending the email at a bad time for the prospect, like on Tuesday afternoons when she attends a live six-month training program.
Obviously, there’s no one-size-fits all solution here. A controlled trial and error approach will help fine-tune your team’s email effectivity and maximize impact.
8. How often to follow up with sales prospects
Again, the best answer is “it depends”. Your relationship with the recipient, their decision-making authority, and stage in the buyer journey all matter.
Sales experts disagree on how many follow-ups is an effective number, too. A joint guide published by Ambition and SalesFolk successfully used an 8-touch sequence composed of a cold email and 7 follow-up emails.
Meanwhile, Close.io’s Steli Efti recommends a maximum of six follow-up emails for completely cold prospects. That’s not the case if you’ve had some form of interaction and the lead doesn’t ask you to stop emailing them. Then, Efti says you can and should send follow-ups until you get a response one way or another.
Efti’s recommended sequence adopts the following model:
Note: This is an extreme example that worked for Efti. But you should never treat templates or tactics as dogma. In sales, contexts are never identical. Even if a situation featured here sounds similar to yours, treat your selling situation as completely unique. Plus, a model or template that proves to be effective today may not deliver the same outcome tomorrow.
9. When to stop sending follow-up emails
You can be relentless but sometimes, there’s a point where you’ll have to stop. Email outreach requires time and resources to get done even when you are using smart tech to make it more efficient.
If you have tried all the hooks in the book, it’s time to let go. A little attrition keeps the pipeline cleaner and allows you to focus on engaged prospects. Send a courteous break-up email that leaves the prospect a final chance to respond. End with a jolly farewell knowing that you’ve tried your best.
And of course, leave a link to the resources you think will resonate most with the recipient (just in case). When you include this in a follow-up email, you’re leaving the door open for them to learn more in the future.
10. Monitor and analyze your email data
So you ran your sequence, and you got some replies. Others didn’t even open your emails. That’s not the end of it!
Even if you don’t get replies, you can get value from your efforts. Monitor your campaign, analyze email data, and document what you’ve learned. You’ve just made all your future efforts more efficient!
Consider using email tracking and analytics software, which help elevate performance. If it’s possible on your platform, run A/B tests, too.
Ask yourself:
- Which emails drove the highest reply rates?
- Did those replies correlate with deals that closed/won?
- How many follow up emails did it take to get your desired action?
- Does your sequence work better for some prospect personas than others?
11. How to write a follow-up email after no response
In a perfect world, one follow-up email would be all it takes to elicit a response. However, this isn’t likely to happen. It’ll take much more perseverance than that.
No response the first time around shouldn’t put you off. Instead, follow the advice above on how and when to follow-up. When doing so – when your prospect isn’t responding – here are some tips you can use:
- Take a different approach: Don’t send the same type of email, again and again, and expect something to change. Take a different approach, whether it be your tone, offering, or call to action.
- Add value: Get beyond the basics of following up and give the prospect something of real value.
- Include a call to action: This is a nudge in the right direction. For example, you could close the email with “are you available for a brief chat tomorrow at 3 pm?” This may be all it takes to get the ball rolling.
12. Be willing to challenge best practices
I began by saying that “just checking in” is a bad idea. Then, I gave you lots of subject lines and sample follow-up email templates to use.
coBut you should also know that a lot of the advice about follow-up emails is really untested. Plus, it depends entirely on your context, and your prospects.
Case in point: the data science team at Outreach recently A/B tested the phrase, “just checking in”.
They analyzed its impact on more than 4000 bump emails. The results were surprising and went against all of the other advice we’ve heard. It turned out that using the phrase lifted email reply rates by as much as 86%.
What’s the lesson? Use these sales follow-up email templates how you like, but don’t treat anything like dogma. Contexts change and assumptions aren’t always what you expect. Conduct A/B tests to find out what works best for you and your prospects in each scenario. Doing so will allow you to craft a better sales follow-up email the next time around.
Updated by Kendra Fortmeyer @ Sales Hacker 2023