How Long Should I Follow-Up With Someone

A question that I get asked over and over again is ” how long should I follow-up with someone before giving up?.” The short answer is until they say yes or no.
Ask them if they are still interested in learning about your product/service and if not to give you a heads up so you won’t waste your time or theirs. If they really are interested, that message will get them to call you back. If not move on.

Today, I’m going to talk about a question that I get asked a lot, and that question is: How long should I follow-up with someone? Well, the short answer is: Until you get the ‘yes’ or the ‘no’. But I want to go into a little more detail about that today.

I keep hearing from people: “I’m leaving voicemail messages, sending emails, sending text messages, and I never hear back.” Well, the reason you’re probably not hearing back from people is that you’re probably leaving a boring message– just saying “Call me back.” You have to leave a message that provides value to that person, information that will help them, to motivate them to call you back.

You want to remind them of what your initial conversation was. So, if they were interested in your product or service, you want to remind them and say something like: “When we first met, you expressed interest in learning more about X, Y, Z; and I’m just curious if that’s still the case for you. And if not, no problem, please give me a heads up. I don’t want to waste your time or my time– we’re both very busy. So please give me a heads up and I’ll take you off my list.”
That way, you’ll get a response. Most of the time, people will feel guilty that they avoided you; and they might be interested but other things might have got in the way. So remember, people have different priorities than you. It’s your business so you’re constantly thinking about it, but for them, it’s just one other thing on their plate and it might not be at the top of their list for that week or even that month.

So just ask the question: “Are you still interested in learning more about X, Y, Z?” Just check back in. Always ask for permission, always find out what they’re thinking, and that way you won’t keep going and calling them and emailing them and wasting your time. They might just have other things on their plate that are taking up priority, but if they really are not interested, then hopefully they’ll let you know. And if you leave a message like that and you don’t hear back, then move on. But leave a testimony, leave a story of someone who had results with what they’re dealing with. Make it relevant. Always provide value on your messages, don’t leave boring messages, and you’ll be more likely to get a return phone call.