It is inherent for a prospective client to not respond to the sales pitch or your cold-email. So, ideally, just follow-up. The literal meaning of 'follow up' is to pursue further.  

Before we delve into questions like:  - when to follow-up  -how many follow-up emails are too many 

- examples of follow-up emails  - follow-up email templates,  it will be helpful if you knew why you have not received a response. 

Here is a list of 5 possibilities to get you started: 

In all the above scenarios, following up helps in clearing the confusion existing in the clients' minds.  A simple analogy is - Follow up is like the second touch a footballer takes and pushes towards the goal. The sales pitch is the part where the footballer controls the ball after that immense pass from his teammate, and follow up helps him hit it home. 

Wondering, what is a follow-up email? 

A follow-up email in sales is to alert the prospective client about the value of your product. There are several details a sales representative has to keep in mind while drafting a follow-up email.   Some of them are:  

1. When to follow-up? 

2-3 days after your first introductory email /previous follow-up email is the industry standard. If the prospect has requeted to be reached out after xx months or during a particular season, update the CRM and follow-up at that specific time.  

 2. How many follow-up emails are too many? 

There is no right answer to this. Stay persistent. Try multiple touch-points such as LinkedIn, Voice calls, Twitter. But, don’t given up unless you hear a No  

3. Examples of follow-up emails 

There is amazing content out there, but we found comprehensive examples in this book published by Outplay here 

4. What to include in follow-up emails? 

a. Engaging subject line:  The subject line is what attracts the attention of an email viewer. In the case of a potential client, they will look at the subject line, the formatting, and the first line of the email before even opening it.  Therefore, following up with an exciting and professional yet engaging subject line matters. It decides the whole course of persuasion within the mind of the sales representatives who hope for a sale. 

b. Clear CTA:   This is vital for constructing a well-defined follow-up email capable of swaying confused minds. CTA refers to a Call to Action and mentioning distinctively what the email wishes to achieve through its content and what sort of effect it wishes to have on the client. 

c. Patience:  This is the hard part. No opinion piece will ever write this as a component of follow up email but in our experience, it is the core. Sometimes it takes an extended amount of time for a sales representative to convince and being patient is okay. 

d. Adding value:  Empathy is at the heart of customer success. Sharing a blog or recommending something to solve your customer problems in the follow-up email is a good start to build trust. Pitching makes sense only when it comes from someone your prospective client trusts. Everything else is just hard to buy. 

e. Tenacity not annoyance:   There is a fine line between being determined and irritating. Follow-up emails can be related to the time intervals in that context. It should not be immediate but then also not considerate. The sales representative should have that familiar sense of choosing the best time possible to provide an affinity to the maximum persuasion of the client. To come across as tenacious, asking questions like:  - What happens if A?  - Are you open to exploring B?  - What if you had access to C?  - When was the last time you did D? 

- Does E ever concern you?  Source: A lost LinkedIn Post by Roy Itzhaki 

f. Personalized content at scale:   A good follow-up email should not sound as a template, If you don’t care to spend 3 mins understanding the email recipient, why should he be bothered to buy from you. Automation at scale helps in resolving this issue. Lyne.ai, Lavender, etc help. 

g. Unambiguity:   Knowing why he is your Ideal customer, why you did not response can help you write unambiguous emails. Having a clear email increases the client's confidence and, at the same time, increases the chances of the particular product getting approved by them. 

h. Simple Language:  Continuing from the earlier point, the sentence structure and the choice of words used in the email should be straightforward as the clients do not have the required time to open a dictionary and find each of the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious terms, which does not have a sense of cohesion between the idea that the sales representative wanted to convey through the email. 

i. Data:  This is like adding the cherry on top. If, during the sales pitch, some of the data and insights have been not presented, then follow up emails are a great way to do it. It adds a lot of clarity to the clients and helps them understand the practicalities of the product and how it is helping society. 

These were some of the ways through which follow up e-mails can be constructed. Even in 2022, emails are one of the best performing marketing campaigns. It is of no news that following up with a potential client is what every sales representative should do, irrespective of whether they have been attracted to the idea. 

Following up shows that the sales representative, along with the business organization, has belief and trust in the client to help them grow.