8 Effective Strategies to Follow Up With Potential Clients

Here’s the thing – most sales don’t fall through because of a bad pitch. They fall through because no one followed up properly.

Did you know: just 2% of sales happen on the first contact. The other 98%? They only move forward if you keep the conversation going.

And yet, 44% of sales reps never make it past the first follow-up. Some forget or just give up. Others tend to overdo it – spamming prospects with back-to-back emails and calls until interest quietly fades away.

So, what’s the right way to follow up? How do you strike that balance between being persistent and being genuinely helpful?

That’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article:

• Why follow-ups are where real deals are made
  
• 8 effective strategies to follow up with potential clients
  
• How to write a follow-up email/message
  
• Real email/message templates you can use and tweak

Table of Contents

• Why Are Sales Follow-Ups So Important?
• 8 Best Ways to Follow Up with Potential Clients 
  • 1. Ask for the Best Way To Follow Up
  • 2. Determine the Next Action Items
  • 3. Get in Touch the Same Day
  • 4. Build Confidence By Offering Free Advice and Resources
  • 5. Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter
  • 6. Create Follow-Up Triggers
  • 7. Offer Value in Every Follow-Up
  • 8. Don’t Push – The Client Owes You Nothing
• Best Practices for Writing a Follow-Up Message That Works
• 3 Sample Emails to Follow up with Potential Clients 
  • 1. Sample Follow-Up Email after Initial Contact
  • 2. Sample Follow-Up Email after Sending Proposal
  • 3. Sample Final Follow-Up Email
• Make Follow-Ups Your Competitive Advantage

Why Are Sales Follow-Ups So Important?

Most sales don’t happen on the first touchpoint. In fact, research shows only 2% of deals close after the initial contact – but after the fifth follow-up, that number can rise to 80%. Follow-ups keep you top of mind, signal intent, and gradually build trust. They show your prospect that you’re serious, consistent, and invested in solving their problem – not just checking off a task.

Lets look at how consistent follow-ups actually benefit you:

• They keep you top of mind – Your prospect probably has ten other things on their plate, and your solution isn’t always their top priority. A follow-up ensures they don’t forget about you or the conversation you had. It’s a simple way to stay in their line of sight without being too pushy.

• They signal professionalism and intent – Anyone can send one email or make a phone call and disappear. Following up shows that you’re serious about the opportunity and committed to helping them – not just shooting off messages to hit a quota or check off their task list. 

• They build trust, slowly and steadily – Each follow-up is a chance to add value – whether it’s sharing a helpful resource, answering a lingering question, or just checking in thoughtfully. Over time, that builds credibility and shows you’re someone worth doing business with.
  
  For example, sending over a case study that directly relates to their problem can show you’re paying attention and understand their specific needs. 

• They give prospects breathing room – Most people just aren’t ready to make a decision right after the first call. Often they need to think it through. A well-timed follow-up helps you stay on their radar while giving them space to make a decision. 

• They help close more deals – And lastly, remember what I said earlier? Most sales don’t happen on the first try – follow-ups are essentially you taking another crack at it and giving yourself another chance to close the deal. If you don’t follow up, you’re likely leaving money on the table. 

8 Best Ways to Follow Up with Potential Clients

Following up with potential clients is where deals are often won – or lost. Whether it’s getting in touch the same day, offering helpful resources, or setting clear next steps after a call, thoughtful follow-ups build momentum and trust. Here are 8 proven strategies to help you stay top of mind and move conversations forward without overwhelming your prospects.

1. Ask for the Best Way To Follow Up

When you are in a sales discussion with a prospect, you need to understand that you’re trying to create a win-win situation. The client needs your services, and you need the business. So there’s no need to feel guilty in sending sales follow-ups.

In fact, the best way to create a win-win scenario is by simply asking the best time and mode of follow-up right after your first discussion. Your prospects are busy people, and they’d appreciate it if you showed concern for their time.

2. Determine the Next Action Items

A sales meeting, no matter how successful and effective, without clear action items, often goes to waste. Before you conclude your meeting, try to come up with at least one clear action item. You can use this to not only keep the client interested but also give you a way to stay in touch with the lead.

You can’t, of course, push the client to make a decision in the first meeting, but you do need to extract something that both you and the client can look forward to.

3. Get in Touch the Same Day

Intelligent follow-ups at the right times can have a very powerful impact on your prospective clients and keep you at the top of their minds.

This achieves two objectives:

• It clearly communicates your understanding of the meeting to the client. So if they have a different understanding of one or more issues, they can immediately clarify.
• It implicitly communicates your understanding of what the next action item is going to be.

4. Build Confidence By Offering Free Advice and Resources

Following up doesn’t always have to be sales oriented. In fact, in most of your initial meetings, the focus should be on resolving the client’s problems and fulfilling their needs instead of closing the deal.

You can do that by offering additional advice on how the prospect’s problems can be resolved effectively. Forget your product; just offer solutions that can create an immediate impact. Send them research articles, eBooks, white paper design, or other resources that can improve their understanding of the issue.

All of these confidence-building measures not only get you in the prospect’s good books but also keep you in touch with them and help you nurture the lead.

5. Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter

Almost every business professional has a LinkedIn profile these days. It’s such an effective tool for B2B sales professionals that almost 80% of all B2B sales leads generated from social media come from LinkedIn. Twitter, on the other hand, is a great place to learn about your prospect’s interests.

B2B sales outsourcing companies often leverage LinkedIn tools to build relationships with today’s buyers.. Using LinkedIn‘s advanced search feature, they can find people who fit their buyer persona and begin engaging with them in various ways.

Connect with them on LinkedIn, study their profile, and engage them in discussions where you can demonstrate your functional expertise. For more efficiency, you can learn how to automate Linkedin outreach to streamline your outreach and follow-up processes.

6. Create Follow-Up Triggers

Most sales teams adopt some kind of follow-up email sequences or triggers that are applied at different stages of the lead nurturing cycle. While the selection of follow-up modes largely depends on the preferences of your clients, I generally find the following sequence applicable to most businesses.

• Thank you email after the initial sales meeting, along with the meeting minutes and action items.
• Sales follow-up email 24 hours before the deadline for the next action item, seeking acknowledgement.
• In case of no acknowledgement from the prospect, send an SMS/call for confirmation (depending on the prospect’s preference).

If none of these work, then give your client a break. They might be busy with something more important or urgent. In this case, send a follow-up email a day after the missed action item, and inquire when the meeting can be rescheduled. You can also automate this process using an email sequence software.

Similarly, the frequency of emails can also vary depending on the time duration between different milestones/action items. For example, if there’s more than one month between two action items, send a fortnightly follow-up email with a reminder of your previous conversations.

7. Offer Value in Every Follow-Up

Your follow-ups should never be self-centered and product-focused. Your real objective is to deliver value and build trust with the prospect. Your conversations should be so valuable that the client looks forward to having a chat with you.

This is only possible when you study your prospects closely, understand their current problems, and initiate discussions that are actually valuable to them (and not only you). Offer new ideas and tell them about your client’s success stories.

And even if, for some reason, you fail to reach a win-win with the prospect and they decide to turn down your offer, be gracious enough to offer them advice and refer them to the right people who can help.

8. Don’t Push – The Client Owes You Nothing

Follow-ups are often exhausting and can eat up a lot of time. But that is no reason to show frustration and anger at your prospective clients. Don’t push them into making any decisions. They don’t owe you anything. They’re running a business, and their decisions will be based on their own interests, not yours.

No matter how slowly the whole process moves, you need to be patient and consider it a part of your job. This way, even if you fail to win business, you’d still have a long-term professional relationship that can be leveraged in the future.

Best Practices for Writing a Follow-Up Message That Works

Writing an effective follow-up message isn’t just about sending a reminder – it’s about making it easy for your prospect to remember you, understand your intent, and respond quickly. Some best practices include keeping the follow-up in the same email thread, using a clear subject line, personalizing your greeting, and ending with a specific CTA. Let’s break these down one by one:

• Keep the Follow-Up Under the Same Thread – First things first, you’ll want to make sure you follow up under the same thread as your initial pitch message or email. Keeping it in the same thread helps the prospect instantly recall your previous conversation and keeps everything in one place.
  
  If your initial sales pitch was over a phone call or in a meeting, a good practice would be to give them that context and remind them of your chat.
  
• Write a Clear Subject Line – Avoid vague lines like “Just checking in.” Use something that gives proper context, like “Following up on our meeting last Tuesday” or “Quick check-in on [project name].” If your follow-up email gets missed because of a generic subject-line, it defeats the entire purpose so make sure you get this right.
  
• Start with a Warm & Personalized Greeting – Skip the robotic intros. A simple “Hi [Name], hope your week’s going well” keep your email humanized and friendly.
  
• Mention the Clear Purpose – Get to the point quickly. Most people are busy and get dozens of sales emails a day. So ensure that you communicate what you expect from them quickly. Are you waiting for feedback? Trying to set up a call? Let them know exactly why you’re writing, right up front.
  
• Include a Clear & Actionable CTA – This is a continuation from the last point but its important to make it easy for them to respond. Say something like “Would you be open to a quick call this week?” instead of a vague “Let me know what you think.” It’s a very gentle nudge but it makes a huge difference. Try it out.
  
• Sign Off Properly – Close with your name, title, company, and contact details. If the email gets forwarded internally, your info should be right there – no digging required.
  
• Proofread Before You Hit Send – And lastly, the basics. Check for typos, awkward phrasing, or anything that feels off. A clean email signals attention to detail and professionalism.

These are all very fundamental practices everybody should follow but you’d be surprised at how many people get this wrong. Now let’s look at some sample email templates to give you some idea of what these emails and messages can look like. 

3 Sample Emails to Follow up with Potential Clients

Below are some sample emails to follow up with potential clients. Remember to personalize them based on your specific situation and the client’s needs.

1. Sample Follow-Up Email after Initial Contact

Subject: Re: Our Conversation and Potential Collaboration

2. Sample Follow-Up Email after Sending Proposal

Subject: Follow-Up on Our Proposal – [Project/Service Name]

3. Sample Final Follow-Up Email

Subject: Last Outreach – Potential Collaboration

Remember, in follow-up emails, it’s essential to be polite, professional, and respectful of the potential client’s time. Always address any concerns they might have and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the possibility of working together.

Make Follow-Ups Your Competitive Advantage

If you leave this article with one takeaway, let it be this – most sales are closed by follow-ups. That’s really all there is to the game. And by not sending follow-ups, you’re essentially withdrawing yourself from the competition. 

Make sure you follow up with prospects – and make sure you do it right. Use the tips we’ve covered in this article, stay consistent, and focus on adding value. Do that, and you’ll already be ahead of most reps out there.

If you’re serious about improving your follow-up game, make it easy for your team to stay on top of things. Hiver is an AI-powered customer support software that helps you do exactly that – with features like SLA alerts, automation, and AI email writers that keep your process tight and your leads warm.

Try Hiver for free today.