The Art of the Follow Up
On average, salespeople who send at least one follow-up email after no response reach a 27% reply rate. Those who don’t send one get stuck at a 16% average reply rate.
You don’t want that 11-point gap to cost you a major contract or prevent you from exceeding quota. In this post, I’ll show you how to send a follow-up email after no response — and get that prospect to close at last.
Why send a follow-up email after no response?
It’s simple: Following up is critical because it significantly increases your chances of getting a response.
How many times has a deal been going along without a hitch until, suddenly, it’s not? One week of silence passes, then two, and you’re left wondering what you did wrong and if there’s any way to fix it.
By this point, you’ve likely sent previous follow-up emails or left voicemails on your prospect’s inbox. Even if the situation looks bleak, it’s important to continue following up after no response.
Research shows that if you add just one more follow-up email, you can increase your average reply rate by eleven percentage points. Those eleven percentage points may look small, but they’re the difference between a yes and a no.
Follow-up emails also have a higher reply rate in general. The first follow-up email has a 40%-increase in reply rate in comparison to the first email. For instance, if your average reply rate for your first email is 5%, your follow-up email will have an average reply rate of 7%.
So don’t ever skip following up — it can cost you a closed-won deal.
When to Follow Up After No Response
At most, wait three days before following up after no response.
If you wait a week, it’ll be too long. And if you send an email on the same day, you’ll appear desperate. Send two to three emails in your sequence, and remember: never send a breakup email. Instead, leave the conversation open and return to it at a later date.
