When sending emails with sales intent, one often does not receive a response. However, should one send a follow-up email after one has not received a response? Yes! You absolutely should; but, the way in which you structure your follow-up email, and when you send it is extremely important and could determine whether you entice a lead to bite or not.
In this article, we will discuss why you should send a follow-up email after no response, when you should send a follow-up, and what that follow-up email should look like.
Why You Should Follow Up
Following up with a lead has been proven to increase your chances of them responding and converting that lead into a paying customer. Whether it be when you first pitch to a potential client or in the middle of striking a deal, silence is never a good sign. Therefore, it is up to you as the sales representative to get that conversation flowing. If your talking, there is always a chance of you selling. Therefore, don’t just stop after one follow-up email. Keep going until you receive a response. Just be sure that your timing and tone are correct; otherwise, you might scare a prospective client off.
When to Follow Up
As with most things (especially when it comes to sales), timing is crucial. When sending a follow-up email you don’t have to wait as long as you might think. It is perfectly acceptable and even advisable to send a follow-up email within one to three days after sending your initial email. After three days or a week, you might be waiting a little too long and will lose any interests the potential client might have had. However, avoid sending a follow-up email on the same day, as this could come off as desperate and potentially be annoying.
Follow-Up Email Sample After No Response
Whatever you do, do NOT resend your first email. This will look lazy and you will not be fixing any of the mistakes you potentially could have made in your first email. The first thing you should do before drafting a follow-up email is check your previous email for any mistakes. Perhaps you didn’t include a closing sentence, or maybe you didn’t tell them how to proceed and include a call to action.
Once you have identified the problems, you can work your way through this list which will give you a good indication and sample of what your follow-up email should include. Remember that you should tailor these elements to suit your industry and clientele.
- Subject Line: It is important to write a subject line that is direct and to the point. Try something like “Following up on our previous conversation”. This will immediately let your potential client know what to expect from the email they are receiving. This is very valuable when dealing with a person who is very busy and doesn’t have time to sift through an entire email.
- Start With a Reminder: The first sentence (After greeting your potential client), should remind them what you are following up on. This is important as it will bring their attention back to the issue or question at hand.
- Keep the Tone Friendly: When following up it can be easy to write an email with a tone that leans towards passive-aggressive. If your potential client hasn’t been responding they might already feel guilty for doing so and will take anything up the wrong way. Therefore, it is extremely important that you remain friendly, upbeat, and avoid any accusatory language.
- Short and Sweet: Try to keep your email short and sweet. While the email should be friendly, don’t clutter it with long paragraphs of text. If you get to the point you should have a positive outcome.
- Include a CTA: As always, it is imperative that one includes a call to action (CTA). without it, people often don’t know how to proceed or perhaps they just need that extra push.
We know that keeping track of when you should follow up can become complicated. Leadtrekker is a CRM that could help you by reminding you when to follow up with potential and current clients. Contact the Leadtrekker team to find out more about how Leadtrekker can help you manage leads and turn those leads into paying customers.