Sales Follow Up Strategies to Boost Your Conversion Rates

You just wrapped up a great sales call with a prospect who seemed genuinely interested. However, days pass with no response. Did you reach out too soon? Too late? Following up in sales can be tricky. Reach out too little, and you risk being lost in the shuffle. Reach out too often, and you’ll come off as pushy. 

The right follow-up strategy helps you stay top-of-mind without overwhelming your prospects. These strategies and templates will help you remind prospects of your pitch in a well-structured cadence—boosting conversions without added pressure.

Closing the deal after the first follow-up is a dream, but it’s rare. According to Woodpecker’s research, sending a second or third follow-up email can increase your reply rate by about 40%. That sounds more attainable, right? Check out these strategies to create effective follow-ups that reengage your leads and can boost your close rates.

1. Personalize for your prospect

A study by McKinsey found that fast-growing companies earn 40% more revenue through personalized initiatives than slower-growing companies. Here are some ways to infuse personalization into your sales follow-up:

• Keep up with the news and happenings in your lead’s industry.

• Remember details about your prospect’s job, company, and life outside of work.

• Understand their obstacles and show how your product solves them.

• Ask what they need for the next step. Do they want experts on the next follow-up call? Do they need more references?

Throughout the process, keep detailed notes in your CRM. Review this information to further customize future interactions, building trust and refining your messaging over time. 

A personalized video can take your outreach to the next level. Prospects can hear your voice, see your face, and understand your body language. More importantly, videos are a kind gesture that makes people feel comfortable and perhaps impressed that you’ve gone the extra mile to address them personally.

2. Know your sales etiquette

Like the frequency of your sales follow-up, sales manners require intention and care. Striking the balance between persistence and respect is a nonnegotiable for a good sales relationship. Check out these etiquette tips:

• Resist making demands: Instead of running at prospects with a hard sell, share value and get to know them first.

• Use a conversational tone: Set yourself apart from other sales reps with phrases like “I thought of you when…” or “Does it make sense to…” instead of “Thought I’d check in…” or “Following up…”

• Respect their preferred communication channels: Ask how they want you to contact them: Is it email? LinkedIn? A phone call?

• Don’t overwhelm them: Respect their time by keeping it short and simple.

Putting potential customers first helps them feel comfortable and valued. Have you opened an email to find a wall of text? It’s usually an immediate delete or save for later. Instead, send a well-crafted follow-up email they can scan quickly. 

If you enjoyed your initial contact, say so in a follow-up video—the feeling was probably mutual. A video is a great low-effort way for your prospect to hear your follow-up, and you save time by recording a quick video that grabs your prospect’s attention better than a long email. If you want a tool that can record in a snap, check out Loom. It’s a screen-recording tool that lets you record yourself and your screen at the click of a button.  

3. Breathe new life into your sales collateral with video

Without sales collateral that illustrates your product’s worth, converting leads into buyers is tough. 

For example, case studies prove your product’s success through real customer experiences. Say your prospect is a construction company. You could tell the story of a similar customer’s problem and how your product helped them solve it. Adding a video to the case study helps your prospect get a mental image of someone like them finding the perfect solution—your product—for resolving their problem. 

Battle cards are also effective sales collateral. They’re short, easy to use, and give a side-by-side comparison of how your product is better than the competition. Maybe you’re a pharmaceutical representative promoting a medication to medical offices. Use Loom to record a screen share video with your product information, going head-to-head with a competitor to explain the differences.

Or, record a demo with Loom to give your prospect a tour of what your product can do. You could be showing a new SaaS tool to an accounting firm. The personalized demo video you send directly addresses the firm’s pain points. This will help you show your product’s value and build rapport with your prospects. 

With tools like Loom’s sales video software, you can create videos that help personalize the sales journey and simplify the evaluation and purchasing process.

Keep your prospects chatting by asking them what they think about your shared content. You can also direct them to related product-related blog posts or the most recent industry news, offering value and continuing the conversation.

4. Use your time wisely

You’re respecting your prospect’s time, but are you respecting your own? Here are strategies to save some minutes:

• Automate tedious tasks: Use email templates and automation to streamline your follow-ups.

• Don’t leave it to memory: Set reminders on your calendar so you don’t miss the ideal follow-up time.

• Communicate asynchronously: Use video tools like Loom instead of writing long emails and attending meetings.

5. Persist to win sales

Most sales hinge on your follow-up efforts. It’s a massive opportunity for those who persist. Be sure to use your prospect’s preferred communication channel. If you don’t know it, use more than one channel until you find one that works and note it in your CRM. 

6. Schedule the next steps on the spot

Just wrapped up a demo or sales pitch? Use the momentum to your advantage and schedule your next meeting immediately. This keeps the conversation flowing and interest piqued.

If there are busy days ahead and you or your prospect can’t find a meeting time that works, make prerecorded demo videos your go-to. Sales professionals can share the most relevant product or use case demo they recorded with Loom, and prospects can watch it at their convenience.

A solid follow-up process keeps you organized, nurtures sales leads, tackles objections, and satisfies prospects by sharing timely info throughout the sales cycle. Here’s a head start on creating a sales follow-up process that works for you:

Map your goals

Review current sales tactics, strategies, and processes that help you close sales. This will give a clear understanding of your existing sales pipeline. Then, use these metrics to decide how effective specific touchpoints in your sales cadence are:

• Responses

• Email open rates

• Meeting or demo bookings

• Progression through your sales pipeline

With these numbers, you can set data-driven goals for better sales outcomes.

Strategize your sales follow-up approach

Successful sales cycles hinge on a strategic follow-up plan. Consider following these steps in honing your follow-up approach: 

1. Don’t limit yourself to in-person or live meetings: Use your lead’s preferred channels—emails, phone calls, voicemails, text messages, social media, or instant messaging. With nearly 40% of sellers closing big deals without in-person sales calls, digital channels are your friends.

2. Reach your prospect when they’re ready to buy: Automate your follow-up email sequence to avoid your client’s busy periods. The best approach uses more than one channel for a consistent customer experience. 

3. Customize your message to stand out: Consider including personalized videos in your follow-up strategy. Recording with Loom is easy, and Campaign Monitor reported that email videos resulted in a 65% increase in click-through rates, along with a 19% boost in open rates and a 26% reduction in unsubscribes. 

Pro tip: Boost engagement with Loom videos. After you send your recording, your prospect can interact with it by leaving comments, emojis, and even their own video responses. Loom's analytics and viewer engagement insights help you learn how effective your videos are, too. 

Choose the right tools

Your sales team likely already has CRM and analytics tools to track prospects and assess the health of your sales pipeline. Consider adding a screen recorder like Loom to send videos asynchronously, sidestepping obstacles like busy schedules or differing time zones. Here are other ways you can use video to bolster your prospecting efforts:

• Highlight, add annotations, or draw during sales presentations to make key points

• Create demos, walkthroughs, and other engaging content for social media or your website

• Share your screen while explaining key details about what the viewer is seeing

• Use email, DMs, or video links to easily distribute your value proposition

• Get summaries and transcripts after recording that round out your follow-up messaging

To use Loom, simply hit record on your Chrome extension, desktop, or mobile app. Loom will instantly generate a link to share in your email—no tedious rendering necessary.

Loom’s free plan comes packed with features, so you can mix videos into your sales strategy in a way that’s friendly to your bottom line.

Make your follow-up irresistible

Want to make your message click-worthy? Keep your message short, direct, and conversational. Here’s how:

• Reference a meeting time or a limited-time offer to create urgency

• Ask questions that encourage the prospect to respond

• Provide value as early as the email subject line—share a relevant video or handy article

• Craft custom video messaging to generate enthusiasm and prompt a response

After mastering the art of creating must-open emails, it’s time to move on to the next stage.

Showcase your value

A personal touch sets you up for good conversation and a great connection. From there, share helpful resources and notifications about special offers or limited-time discounts.

 You can also use video in your sales follow-up strategy to do the following:

• Highlight your product’s value through presentations, walkthroughs, and demos

• Answer your prospect’s questions and lead them toward a sale

• Share new features and product upgrades for cross-selling and upselling opportunities

For best results, record a video that mimics an in-person conversation. Be sure to back up your claims with valid customer data, third-party statistics, and anecdotes from industry thought leaders. You can also include social proof—like testimonials and case studies—to show what similar clients achieved with the product or service.

Then, handle objections directly to minimize sales bottlenecks. Use video so decision-makers can see and hear you address their concerns, establishing trust and credibility.

Tell your lead what to do next

It’s vital to remove friction throughout the follow-up process so that your prospect can easily and quickly buy your product or service. Your sales follow-up emails and customized videos need a clear and actionable call to action (CTA) to accomplish this. 

When you send a Loom sales video, summarize the next steps and include links or buttons to guide them there—Loom AI can even add CTAs automatically. 

Know when to step back

Persistence is often worthwhile, but knowing when to fold is just as important. If you’ve made six or seven unsuccessful attempts, it’s time to think about moving on.

Consider sending a note letting your prospect know you will stop contacting them. This may prompt a response or, at the very least, make sure you aren’t perceived as spammy. Balance is key between persistent follow-up with your prospect and respecting their space.

Constantly sending follow-up messages but not getting any responses? Take a moment to analyze the emails that grab your attention for their structure, language, and appeal. Then, create a “swipe file” of sample messaging. Here are a few sales follow-up email templates you can tailor to your sales process:

Trigger event follow-up

Subject: [Contact Name], let’s make the most of your free trial

Hi [Contact Name],

I noticed you signed up for our free trial. Here are some resources to help you get started:

Resource 1

Resource 2

Resource 3

If you have questions or need help finding a specific feature, just let me know!

Best, 

[Your Name]

Product insight follow-up

Subject: [Contact Name], diving deeper into [Product/Service Name]

Hi [Contact Name],

I noticed you checked out our [Content]. Based on this, I thought these resources might help you understand our product better:

Resource 1

Resource 2

Resource 3

Let’s schedule a chat on [day] at [time] to discuss how [Product/Service Name] can solve your specific challenges.

Best, 

[Your Name]

Previous conversation follow-up

Subject: [Contact Name], continuing our conversation from [Event Name]

Hi [Contact Name],

I enjoyed chatting with you at [Event Name]. You expressed interest in [topic], so I thought we could discuss it further. How about a call next week? What’s a day and time that works for you?

Cheers, 

[Your Name]

Value proposition follow-up

Subject: [Contact Name], understanding the value of [Product/Service]

Hi [Contact Name],

I want to make sure you understand the value [Product/Service] brings to your business:

Point 1

Point 2

Point 3

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Best, 

[Your Name]

Gauge interest and provide requested information follow-up

Subject: [Contact Name], let’s revisit [Product/Service]

Hi [Contact Name],

It’s been a while since we last connected. I’d love to address any questions or concerns you might have about [Product/Service].

Also, I promised to share some information during our chat at [Event Name] that could help you with [pain point]. Can we schedule a call for [date] at [time] to discuss this?

Best,

[Your Name]

Infuse some life into your follow-ups with added value and dynamic elements like video. You and your sales team can use Loom to embrace video prospecting—share short demos, capture successful use cases, and distribute promo announcements.

Experiment, find out what clicks with your audience, and you will soon have a personalized video for every occasion. Loom Variables can even help you share these customized recordings at scale.

Video sets you apart from the usual email follow-ups, allowing you to answer questions, share extra info, or revisit key details in an engaging, memorable way. 

Streamline and nurture prospect relationships in a snap. It’s like a face-to-face chat without the schedule juggling. 

Ready to follow up? Reengage your prospects with Loom.