How to send a follow up email: The Definitive Guide

As per statistics, nearly 306.4 billion emails are sent and received daily by an individual. 73% of the Millenials prefer email in their business, and around 89% of marketers utilize email marketing as their primary mode to reach their potential prospects. Having a follow-up can help if your initial message is noticed. Follow-up helps the conversation get back on track. However, writing effective follow-ups is a challenging one. Only a few prospects will say yes to your initial message, and it is essential to send a follow-up sequence that will grab the prospect's attention. 

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IKO system research & study shows an 18% response rate for the first email, followed by a 13% response rate for the fourth. Finally, in the sixth follow-up message, the response rate was 27%. This shows the follow-up will improve your response rate for your outreach campaigns. This article focuses on the importance of follow-ups. This guide will help with your next follow-up after no response from people. We have included some examples and a template that you can use to keep your messages polite and efficient.

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What Is A Follow-Up Email?

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Follow-ups are a great way used to remind recipients of previous messages. It will initiate conversations with the client and make them reinvigorate previous discussions or emails. Therefore, the follow-up email needs to be short, sweet, professional, and to the point.

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A follow-up is a common step in marketing campaigns. It often encourages the recipient to take some sort of action. There are numerous reasons to send follow-ups that including the following. 

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• Follow-up could be an alert of your previous email messages sent.
• A sales follow-up email to build a sales process  & to keep prospects engaged.
• Meeting follow-up email on any important events, appointments, or meetings.
• Sending a polite follow-up after no response for your initial outreach.
• A warm follow-up on an earlier email is to generate a response. 
• Sending follow-up email after the meeting.

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The purpose of follow-ups is to boost the success rate of your previous email. A follow-up email need to be a short, concise way of reinvigorating a convo and generating a response. It is the most effective way to reinvigorate it and create a reply. 

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Perfect Follow Up Email Formats

We have seen some reasons why you might need to send a follow-up, and in this section, we shall look into how to write a perfect one. Drafting a follow-up email requires the following elements. 

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1. Follow up email subject line 
2. Greeting
3. Email Body 
4. Email Closing 
5. Sign-off/ email signature 

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Follow up Subject Line

If the follow up email subject line is not interesting, there would be a lesser response & open rates. A great sales follow-up subject line helps your email get your message in front of your prospect's inbox. Personalize your subject line with names that are more likely to get opened.

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A personalized opening line will positively impact your campaign's open & response rate. Likewise, powerful email subject lines for sales will increase your response rate. Keeping your subject line short, sweet, and simple is always good. Avoid using long sentences or paragraphs or too many words, and your subject line needs to be clear and concise.

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Email Greeting

Getting in the email is the first step to succeeding in your email. Start an email professionally, and it is good to have a formal greeting with a first name. We've shown you how to start a follow-up sample after no response to our recent email guide. Greetings and opening lines are great elements to keep your brand top of the mind of the recipients. 

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To convey the most appropriate tone, the greeting in the introduction of your email needs to be a formal one. This is typically used in formal contexts such as Dear {Name}, business communication, and use Hey/Hi on the greeting when it comes to friendly communication with familiar clients.

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Follow up Email Body

A follow-up is a fast and formal way of creating awareness of an email you've previously sent. You need to provide some belief about your purpose of email with the opening line of your message. We'll assume the previous email contained important info that you want the recipient(s) to see. The most effective way is to send a follow-up message to the initial email.

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The email opening line is the section where your reminder email starts. The header or subject line, the body of text, and the length of your email will affect your success rate. Each customer is different and creates a customized email intro using smartwriter Ai. And also using  Smartlead.ai you can start to send a message that gets replies with unlimited sender accounts and AI personalization. It lets you use Unlimited auto-rotating email accounts to scale your outreach. Yes, you heard that right, Unlimited too! 

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Email Closing / Sign-offs

You should always include closing in an email. Choosing the appropriate closing for the message is important because it either shows gratitude and acknowledgment or is informal enough to be used at the end of work emails. However, ignoring a closing in an email is unprofessional too. Therefore, choosing the right word for your closing is important.

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You need to decide which kind of ending you want to use when finishing your email. Examples include 

• Formal business email closings - regards, best wishes
• Some friendly business email closings - cheers, mate!,  best, As ever
• And gratitude email closings such as thanks in advance, thanks

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How To Write & Send A Follow-Up Email After No Response

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Follow-ups are powerful and often convert leads to customers, build relationships and help to close more business. Writing a follow-up is an important part of the business but it can be tricky. First, the powerful email has to make the recipient open it and respond to it. 

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Keep the following in mind while drafting your next follow-up. The email subject line sample needs to be eye-catching, and the message needs to be relevant and offer value to the recipients.

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Write a follow-up email that needs an objective and purpose with a subject line. Next, determine the best time to send the email, so your recipient will likely open it. Finally, we shall look at how to craft a follow-up that can food your inbox with responses, immediately boosting your open rates and conversions. 

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Why Do You Need To Send And Follow Up After No Response?

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Following up on leads is essential and can significantly increase your chances of getting a response. In general, the follow-ups have higher responses. Research shows the follow-ups a have 40% increased reply rate than the initial email.  The key to closing more deals is simple with the follow-up. It significantly improves your chances of getting a reply.

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Continued contact with your prospective clients has a better average reply rate. One reason is that the average reply rate for your first email is 5% while the follow-up is 7%. So, don't skip following up because it can cost you a closed-won deal.

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Add Value With Each Follow-Up

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With each follow-up, you should provide additional value for the prospect. It's not always easy to answer a question or find something that will pique their interest in an email response.  If they didn't get back to your initial email, there might be a lag in communication or the information provided is not enough. In such a case sending them reminders will offer the company tons of opportunities. For example, if you are a digital marketing agency, you can help prospective targets by providing proof of how your clients are growing with your help by sharing their success studies, results, feedback, and more. Check out our cold email follow-up templates without being pushy. 

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When Do you need to Follow up 

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It’s not an issue to follow up after some time has passed. Just be sure not to wait too long, like a week. You want to send two or three follow-up sequences. I recommend leaving the conversation open when ending a message.

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Persistence is one of the most distinguishable qualities of salespeople, but pestering the prospects without understanding why they aren't responding is worthless. A better strategy would be waiting three days between your first and second follow-up attempt so that you're giving them time enough for a response while also not signaling desperation or being too pushy that no one wants to work with someone desperate. 

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Send follow-ups on autopilot

It can be difficult to keep track of your follow-ups and manage to send meaningful outreach messages if you're overcommitted. Fortunately, sales automation tools can help you save time by automating the process of preparing follow-ups and scheduling them in advance.

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With Smartwriter's follow-up tools, you can set up the perfect personalized sequence to send your prospects with just one click. As a result, you'll never have a chance to forget follow-up or chances of missing opportunities. 

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How many follow-ups do you need to send?

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The email sequence is important because it will convert cold less responsive prospects into warm leads. If you perform cold outreach with an email list, then make sure that enough follow-ups offer value for people to feel engaged and not ignored.  Otherwise, they might delete your message without opening it. Before starting sequences, it is more important to note what works well with different types of audiences because some may need more aggressive approaches. In contrast, others prefer a lighter touch approach, such as sending birthday wishes once per month instead of turning them into weekly newsletters (which most users don’t). 

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With a single follow-up, you can maximize your prospects' comfort level with the offer. At the same time it's important not to annoy them by sending too many emails or ignoring their reply altogether. In this case, we found that four was just right. There were no spam messages left in people’s inboxes when they checked back later, making our outreach campaign more effective overall. Everyone got what he/she needed without feeling like his hard work went wasted due to some overbearing sales approach. 

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Diverse Your Channels For Follow-Ups

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We're here to help you effectively engage with your prospects in a way that you achieve an omni-channel performance. Doing this will help you increase your annual revenue and retain and grow your customer base. Another key component differentiating you from the follow-up game is an omnichannel approach. On the one hand, email remains the best for communication in sales and improves the overall customer experience. But don't think it's not worth investing in other channels because a multichannel approach to sales is more popular nowadays. Engage with prospects on social media or by phone if you see fit. There are no hard rules where a single touchpoint only works on the sales cycle. It is good to have a multi-touch approach at all stages of the sales journey towards becoming paying customers. 

Follow Up Email Template & Examples

In this section, we will discuss the follow-up template that helps to maximize your response rate. Here are sample follow-up templates for different situations. These review email examples and templates give you a good idea to write a custom one before writing your follow-up email. In addition, these samples provide an overview of what content you should include in your email copy.

Sales Follow Up Email Samples 

After a proposal or initial introduction, sales follow-up is the most convenient and logical approach. Therefore, it is good to have these sales follow-up email templates that help a business stand out in the crowded inbox to prevent your outreach message from disappearing from the overflowing prospect inbox. 

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Example #1

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Hey {{Name}}

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Thank you for your time and consideration. It's a pleasure to learn about your experience with [ company].

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I have promised to get back to you with some of the information [requested info] in detail. 

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Find the attachment for your kind reference. Then, kindly let me know if you have any questions.

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We can connect over a call to discuss this further.

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{Name & Signature}

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Example #2

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Hey {{Name}}

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I believe that you've got a chance to see my previous email and have looked through our website. 

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I wanted to give you an update. I’ve been working on reviewing your proposal, and any feedback you provide would be much appreciated.

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Would you like to review the proposal over the phone?

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Suppose you've had any thoughts or questions. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about our product.

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 Give me a call on [your number], and we can chat anytime.

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{Signature}

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Meeting Follow Up Email Template  

The foremost step in the sales process is contacting the potential buyers. Once you've had a successful meeting, you can follow up with them by email. Here is some follow-up email after meeting samples that you can send after an initial meeting with your prospects.

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Example #1

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Hi {{Name}}

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I hope this email finds you in place. You requested I get back to you in November, so I thought I would check in. 

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Anything else you'd like to add to my proposal? Are there any questions you have about it?

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Let me know the best time to schedule a call. I'm happy to give you a brief rundown of the ideas and answer any questions you might have.

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Regards 

{Name}

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Example #2

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Hey {{First Name}}

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I know you're busy with company responsibilities, so I appreciate the valuable time you've given to our meeting.

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Here is a summary of the today's discussion 

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[list key decisions discussed]

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Happy to chat more about the action items as the next steps. Here I’m attaching some documents for your reference that we have discussed during the meeting.

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Keen to see you at our next meeting [date & Time].

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{{Name}}

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Polite Follow-Up Email Sample After No Response

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Here are a few follow-up strategies you can try after you've failed to reply to an email. The main point that it's important to consider in the email context is sharing the recipient's perspective. For example, one tip is to acknowledge why they may not have responded to your email – "I understand that you are busy". Here's an example of a polite email follow-up to someone who didn't respond.

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Example #1

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Dear {{Name}},

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Hope all is well at your end. I reached you earlier this month on [Topic discussed before]

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I know you are busy and I appreciate it if you could review the email and reply to this as soon as possible.

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This is important, so please fast your reviewing. 

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Best regard

{{Name}}

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Example #2

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Dear {Name}

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Do you have time to review the email I sent last week [Date]?. I appreciate your prompt response.

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If there is anything you want to talk about, please don't hesitate to call me. I'll be waiting for your message.

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Yours faithfully,

{{Name}}

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Warm Follow Up Email Template 

Sending a warm follow-up after meeting at a conference, Eventor online. These follow-ups will help you build your relationship with them and potential collaborators. Here are some warm follow-up email samples that effectively build a relationship with potential customers.

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Example #1

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Hey {{Name}}

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Great speaking with you about {{Conversation Subject}} at {{Meeting Location}}. 

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I love to know how things are going with {{company name}}? We're interested in hearing more about how you're approaching [challenge]. 

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Our playbook is also available if you want to learn more about our approach.

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Best

{{Name}}

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Example #2

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Hi {{first name}} 

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Thank you for the time we spent on our recent call. It was great to learn about your company and your new plans. 

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If you increase your user acquisition through Facebook Ads further, I would be delighted to help you.

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Here I am attaching the market plan with a 3-month engagement forecast with the prices. 

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 Glad to help you if you have any questions.

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Looking forward to moving further to kick things off.

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Best,

{{name}}

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Follow Up Email Sample After No Response - Written 

Is it more essential to send a follow-up to your prospects after no response?  Research shows that sending follow-ups can boost response rates by 65.8% with a single follow-up email. Email sequences will not sell your product or services to your prospect but also remind them about that initial message. In addition, it enables sales reps to build relationships with potential buyers. These great follow-up email samples after no response help you to improve sales. 

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Example #1 

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Hello {{Name}}

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I hope you're having a good week and that our call last week was insightful for you. 

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Thanks for the opportunity to discuss your [business pain point] on our last call. I'm confident [company name] can help you [insert benefit].

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We're about exploring how our product can help you meet your goals. To do this, we want to schedule a 10-minute call with you next week.

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Feel free to book some time on my calendar [calendar link].

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Thanks

{{Name}}

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Example #2

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Hi {{Prospect Name}},

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I hope you had a chance to look over the articles I sent last week. Here are the resources I thought would be most useful, I hope they help!

• [Link 1]
• [Link 2]

This week, I'll be in touch and hope to speak with you soon. Can you spare 10 minutes on Friday to talk?

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 I’d love to hear more about the [business name] and explore how we can help you achieve [results]

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Thanks

{{Name}}

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Best Ways To Follow Up With Customers

Following up with a customer after a sale helps your business provide great customer service by retaining them. You can use multiple tactics to reach out to a customer after a sale and continue their engagement with your company. These Samples are the best ways to follow up with customers after a sale, with potential benefits for your business. Ensuring consistent and effective follow-ups makes your product or service offering stay on top of the prospective customers. Here are some best ways to follow up with customers more effectively than ever before. 

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Example #1 

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Dear {{Name}}

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I will get in touch with you again to follow up about {Topic} on the 12th of September. 

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You can find the previous message we've sent you and some of the information you might be interested in. 

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Once you find a piece of information that is relevant to you, please feel free to contact me about setting up a call or meeting

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If you require any assistance, do not hesitate to contact me.

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Best Regards 

{Name}

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Example #2

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Dear {{Client Name}}

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As discussed at our meeting, please find my contact information below. 

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I'm looking forward to working with you!

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It was a pleasure to meet with you and discuss about your organization. I look forward to working with you in the future.

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Regards 

{{Signature}}

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Conclusion 

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Effective follow-ups are integral to any sales success. However, effective following up goes beyond doing the same old calls and messages. The most successful salespeople make their following up valuable for their prospects and implicitly demonstrate a deep knowledge of their industry. 

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Successful follow-up is a crucial part of any sales cycle. Effective follow-ups are repetitive and help the sales team demonstrate a deep understanding of the customer's problems. In addition, having effective follow-up strategies can help build long-term business relationships.

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Crafting the perfect sales follow-up by using the above template ideas and making a deep connection with your prospects. Then, use these templates to send a professional-sounding outreach message that could fully complete the deal.