Sales Follow-Up Strategies (and Scripts) That Get Results

Quick Summary

The most effective way to follow up with a prospect is to make it structured instead of hoping they call you back. Set a specific day and time for the next contact before you get off the phone, keep every touch about the prospect instead of your pitch, and run a planned voicemail and email sequence so you always know what to say. When a prospect goes silent after a demo, a timed sequence and a light, low-pressure email will reengage far more of them than random check-ins ever will.

Key Takeaways

Lock in a specific day and time for the next contact before you get off the phone. Never leave follow-up vague.
Keep every message about the prospect, not your pitch. Do your research and lead with something useful to them.
Be persistent with a plan, not by repeating “just checking in.” A structured voicemail and email sequence does the work.
Script your voicemails and emails in advance so you are never improvising when they don’t pick up.
Use a light “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” email after a week of silence. It gives the prospect an easy out and flushes out the interested ones.
Assume the best. Even prospects who don’t buy can refer you or come back later if you follow up well.

What to Do When Prospects Ghost You After a Presentation or Demo?

One of the hardest things for a sales rep to handle is a prospect who goes silent after a presentation. I’m sure you have a few of them sitting in your pipeline right now.

You gave them your 45 minute demo, answered their handful of questions, asked for the deal, and heard that they would run it by whoever needs to sign off. Then you start chasing with calls and emails, and you never hear a word back.

So what do you do now?

The answer is that you need a structured approach, and it starts with the single most important part of follow up: setting an appointment with your prospect before you leave the demo.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “But they didn’t know when they would have an answer from the decision maker, so they just told me to follow up in a week or two.” It doesn’t matter, and here’s why.

Schedule a Date

At the end of every contact with a prospect, it is imperative that you lock in a date, or at least get a yes on a day and time to follow up. Even if they won’t have an answer yet, that is fine.

What matters is that you have a specific day and time to check back in. Ask them what day and time works for them, tell them you have put it on your calendar, and suggest they do the same.

Once you have made that appointment, don’t worry too much about whether they will remember it. There is a decent chance they won’t be ready for you when the time comes, and that is okay.

The point is that you now have a legitimate reason to reach back out, and you can use the voice mail sequence below to start reengaging them.

First, the Rules That Keep You From Becoming a Pest

Here is something worth admitting. Most of us are pretty good at the selling part. The follow up part is where we tend to fall down.

We try to sneak a pitch into a check-in message.
Use blunt force by sending the same note, through the same channel over and over and over.
Or we get discouraged and quietly stop following up at all.

Before you touch a single script, get these rules straight, because they are what separate a follow up that earns a callback from one that gets ignored.

1. Do your research. Before you pick up the phone, spend a few minutes on Google or your AI tool. Look at their company, their website, their LinkedIn. Find out who this person really is and what their company is wrestling with right now. This is the difference between reaching out as someone who gets it and reaching out as one more vendor working down a list.

2. Don’t sell. I know that sounds strange coming from a sales guy, but hear me out. Your voice mail, your email, your check-in call, none of it should be about you, your company, or your product. It should be about them. Once they are a real prospect you will have all the time in the world to show them what you do. And trust me, if they are interested, they have already been online reading about you and what other people say about you.

3. Add value. Find something your prospect would actually care about and send it their way. An article about their industry, a piece on a challenge they mentioned, even something you talked about that had nothing to do with business. It shows you were paying attention, and it gives them one more reason to take your next call.

4. Be personal. Do not send the same message to everyone. Tailor each one to the person based on your meeting, your research, and what they actually need. A message that could have gone to anybody feels like it went to nobody.

5. Be persistent. People are busy. It is your job to stay in front of them, not their job to remember you. Give them plenty of chances to respond. But being persistent does not mean calling over and over and mumbling “just checking in.” It means having a plan for every single touch.

6. Stay connected. Keep up with them and their company between calls. If they get featured in the news or announce something big, email or text a quick note with a genuine comment. Like and share their posts. You want to stay on their radar without ever having to ask for anything.

7. Assume the best. Even if they never buy from you, if you handle all of the above well, they may send you a referral or come back around when they do have a need. Follow up like the relationship matters, because it does.

Rules five and six are where the real work happens, so let me hand you the exact sequence and follow-up scripts I use, so you are never staring at the phone wondering what to say.

The Voice Mail Sequence

Here is the first voice mail to use if, when you call to actually run your demo or presentation, they do not answer:

“Good morning (afternoon) _________, this is ________ _________ with (your company). I’m just calling for the appointment we have today at (2 pm) for the demonstration of our (marketing solution, lead gen, whatever your product or service is). You may be on the phone or finishing up a meeting, but when you get this message, please reach back out to me. You can call me on my direct line, which is (leave number slowly). I’ll stay off the phone for a few minutes in anticipation of your call. Once again, my direct number is (leave slowly), and I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

Here is your follow up voice mail for after you have made your presentation, again for when they don’t answer:

“Good morning (afternoon) _________, this is ________ _________ with (your company). I’m just calling about the appointment we have today at (2 pm) to see if (corporate manager, regional manager, boss) has any questions on the proposal I emailed you last (whatever the date was). You may be on the phone or finishing up a meeting, but when you get this message, please reach back out to me. You can call me on my direct line, which is (leave number slowly). I’ll stay off the phone for a few minutes in anticipation of your call. Once again, my direct number is (leave slowly), and I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

If you don’t hear back for a day or two, leave this one the next time you call:

“Good morning (afternoon) _________, this is ________ _________ with (your company). I’m sure you have been busy, but I do want to connect with you about the proposal I sent on (date sent). _______, even if you haven’t gotten an answer from (corporate, manager, boss) yet, please do me a favor and reach back out so we can schedule a time to speak. You can call me on my direct line, which is (leave number slowly). I’ll be available most of the day, but if you get my voice mail, just leave me a message. Once again, my direct number is (leave slowly), and I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

One more thing. Follow up each of those voice mails with an email that says something very similar. The voice mail and the email work as a pair.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Now, if after leaving these messages you still don’t hear back for a week or longer, it is time for the “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” email. If you’re old enough, you’re already singing the Clash song in your head. Here is the body:

“_________, I haven’t heard back from you, and that tells me one of three things:

You’ve already chosen another company, and if that’s the case, please let me know so I can stop bothering you.
You’re still interested but haven’t had the time to get back to me yet.
You’ve fallen and can’t get up, and in that case please let me know and I’ll call 911 for you.

Please let me know which one it is, because I’m starting to worry. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing back from you.”

Are you smiling yet? It’s no wonder people respond to this one. Besides making someone smile, what makes it work is that it gives the prospect a way out. It tells them it is perfectly okay if they aren’t going to move forward, and it is always better to know that now than to keep chasing and begging. Just as importantly, it flushes out the people who are still interested and gets them to raise their hand.

The Bottom Line

An effective follow up strategy comes down to three things.

Set it up right by always getting an appointment for the next touch.
Follow the rules that keep you helpful instead of annoying.
And run a structured, scripted voice mail and email sequence so you are never improvising.

Do this consistently and you will start seeing more conversations, and more of those conversations turning into deals.

Common Questions Sales Reps Ask About Follow Up After Presentations

What is the best way to follow up with a prospect?

The best way is to make follow-up structured instead of leaving it to chance. Set a specific day and time for the next contact before your current one ends, keep each touch focused on the prospect rather than your product, and run a planned voicemail and email sequence so you always know what to say. Structure is what separates reps who reengage prospects from reps who get ignored.

How do you follow up without being annoying?

Do your research, keep the message about them and not your pitch, and add something useful when you can. Space your attempts out sensibly rather than sending the same “just checking in” note over and over. A light, low-pressure email that gives the prospect an easy way

How many times should you follow up with a prospect?

Keep going as long as you have a reason to and you are adding value. A practical sequence is a couple of voicemails and matching emails in the first week, then a light “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” email after about a week of silence. If there is still no response after several well-spaced attempts, you probably have your answer, but you will have given it a real shot.

Is it better to follow up by phone, email, or text?

The best channel is the one that matches how you met the prospect and how they prefer to communicate. Phone and voicemail work well for scheduled follow-ups, email is ideal for confirmations and sharing value, and text can be effective once you have an established relationship. Using them together, rather than relying on just one, gets the best results.

Mike Brooks

Mike Brooks is the founder of Mr. Inside Sales, a North Carolina based inside sales consulting and training firm, and author of the award winning books on inside sales: “The Real Secrets of the Top 20%,” and his new book, “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts.”