Follow-up Email Response

So you had an excellent qualify call and sales presentation, and everything pointed to them signing up, and they needed to discuss a few things internally but said they would be back to you in a few days – and they honestly sounded like they meant it. And for this scenario, let’s say they were sincere. They were excited and loved the presentation.

When the time comes to contact them back to move forward, you get crickets. So, you leave a follow-up voicemail and send a follow-up email.

They reply with “we need a few more days, will be in touch soon.”

But a few days turn into a week, and so you reach out again. They don’t answer the phone, so you send another email, and the reply you get is:

“We’re still evaluating things over here. We won’t be able to decide until next week at the earliest…we’ll keep you posted.”

Your heart sinks as it now sounds like your “sure thing” just went on tilt.

You start to wonder if someone else in their organization is objecting to your offer, or, maybe another competitor has worked their way into the conversation and about to steal your deal.

You know you need to respond, you’re just now sure how to do it without sounding desperate or making things worse.

What do you do?

Step One: Set Your Response Objective

Take the emotion out of the situation and think clearly about what is the objective you want to achieve with your email response to this situation.

The objective in this scenario is to get them to open up and share what the hold up is.

This situation is dangerous because prospects by nature will have their guard up and will want to take the path of least resistance/confrontation.

You’ve also worked hard developing the business relationship and don’t want to put that in jeopardy by using the wrong response.

Step Two: Craft a Response that will Complete the Objective

As in most things, you get what you want from others when you give others what they need and desire.

When a prospect is going through the decision-making process, their goal is to avoid making the WRONG decision.

When you put their needs, wants, and desires first, you will have a much better chance of having them open up and share the concerns or roadblocks standing in your way.

So you will want to word your email response by leading with what’s most important to them first.

Here’s a word-for-word example I created that often gets prospects to open up:

“Ok. It sounds like we hit a bump in the road. We want to make sure we are the right fit to help you get the best increase in sales results as well so if a few concerns popped up, please let me know.”

That’s it. Short, sweet, and with a WIIFT (What’s In It For Them) style message.

The email message encourages them to share why things have now slowed down, and why they need more time.

The responses you get from your prospects will vary based on their situation, and now you will be in a better position to decide how to respond with the new information they give you, which is way better than just sitting in the dark hoping for the best.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – An online sales training company.

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