How to write sales follow-up emails that keep deals moving

You sent a promising lead a well-crafted cold email campaign. Or maybe you had a productive discovery conversation with a prospect. And then … crickets. It seemed like a perfect match, but now you haven’t heard back, and the deal stalls.

A great sales follow-up email can mean the difference between getting ghosted by a prospect and moving a deal forward. How long should your sales follow-up emails be? How often should you check in with potential clients? You want to strike the balance that maintains deal momentum without seeming like ‘that’ annoying salesperson that everyone would rather avoid. 

In this article, you’ll learn email outreach tips from sales pros and industry research to help you increase reply rates and keep deals moving. We’ll also share some follow-up email example templates to get you started.

7 tips for writing effective sales follow-up emails

There are multiple touchpoints where you might need to send follow-up messages, like after a demo, following a cold email, or when pricing discussions lead to ghosting — to name a few.

Every follow-up email needs a few essential parts:

• A subject line

• A greeting 

• A recap of your initial email or a summary of your last conversation

• A clear call-to-action (CTA) to make the next move, like scheduling a call or reviewing a proposal

Within that basic framework, there are plenty of ways to personalize your email sequences for your industry, prospects, and sales process. Let’s look at seven tips to make the most of your sales follow-ups.

1. Add context to your message 

Your instinct might be to keep your sales follow-up messages as short as possible because you don’t want to take up too much time. However, too-short emails could leave email recipients struggling to remember your previous email or last conversation.

Gong analyzed over 300,000 follow-up prospecting emails and found that longer emails are more effective at booking a meeting. The research revealed that emails between 30-150 words with direct and intentional information performed better than shorter messages. 

Morgan J Ingram, Founder and CEO at Ascension Media Productions (AMP), has developed a sales meeting process that leads to next steps 90% of the time. He sends a follow-up email shortly after the phone call to summarize the prospect’s main goals, priorities, timeline, and next steps. Adding the context is great for accountability and makes it easier for prospects to jog their memory than a short ‘Thanks for chatting, looking forward to exploring next steps!’ message.

“Running a successful sales meeting involves clear communication before, during, and after.”

Morgan J. Ingram

Chief Executive Officer at Ascension Media Productions (AMP)

2. Use a descriptive email subject line

You want as many prospects as possible to open your follow-up emails. But with an estimated 361.6 billion emails sent and received every day, our inboxes are a crowded place. Your subject line helps your meeting invitation stand out (and avoid the spam filter).

Here are some subject line best practices:

• Make it descriptive and personal. “Time to schedule a demo for [Prospect’s Company Name]?” says a lot more than “Demo call request.”

• Aim for under nine words or 60 characters to make sure the full subject line shows up on all devices.

• Avoid common spam filter trigger words and phrases like “act now,” “urgent,” “free,” “offer,” and, of course, “this isn’t spam.”

• If using emojis fits your voice and audience, feel free to include one or two (max!) emojis per subject line.

For example, if you said you would send a customer success story from a particular industry, your subject line could be ‘Here’s the info on [Industry] use cases.’

If the next step is to meet with the prospect and their leadership, you might say, ‘Available next week for a chat with your team?’ 

Or, if a prospect has gone silent after a demo, you can try a subject line like ‘Did you have any questions about [Product/Service]?’

3. Make it easy to schedule next steps

For 69% of revenue team members we surveyed during Growth Week, getting leads to actually schedule a meeting is a major pain point. Our best advice for this is two-pronged — make it crystal clear that the next step is a call and give them a simple way to schedule it.

First, you need a clear call-to-action that explains why you need to schedule a meeting and what they should expect during it. For example, you might say the next step is to meet for a 20-minute demo that covers the features that will help them hit their goals. Adding specifics about the meeting will make people more comfortable than an ambiguous ‘Free to chat?’ or ‘Let’s talk.’

“For both sides, It's always helpful to include clear, actionable next steps. Is it a conversation on their side with other decision-makers? Is it a technical discovery call with your solutions engineer? Is it a pricing conversation? That creates focus to keep things moving forward.”

Melany Furlow

Enterprise Account Executive at Calendly

Next, you need to make it a no-brainer for prospects to schedule a call with you. A Calendly study found it takes an average of 7.3 emails to schedule a meeting. In that time, your prospect might choose a competitor or lose interest altogether. 

Instead of asking if next Tuesday at 9 a.m. works for the other person and hoping for the best, use Calendly to find a meeting time. Here’s how it works:

1. You connect your work and/or personal calendar(s) to Calendly and set your available hours.

2. Calendly uses this info to show your available meeting times on your booking page. (No one can see the details of your whole calendar — Calendly only shows your open time slots.)

3. When you share your Calendly booking page, invitees can quickly see your availability. Available times are automatically shown in invitees’ time zones, so nobody has to do mental math.

4. Invitees choose their preferred time and, in less than a minute, your meeting is scheduled!

Calendly offers several options for sharing your availability. The simplest is by sending a link to your personalized booking page, so prospects can self-schedule. Another popular option is adding clickable available dates and times to an email. The Calendly browser extension for Chrome, Outlook, Edge, and Firefox makes it super simple to share your scheduling link or add your available times in Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn messages, social media, or anywhere else on the web — without jumping between apps or switching tabs.

The point is to make it as easy as possible for prospects to say ‘yes’ to next steps.

The sales team at Signpost uses Calendly to schedule meetings with inbound leads. Adding Calenly links to re-engagement emails makes it easy to turn follow-up emails into booked meetings. “Now, we can send a re-engagement email with a Calendly link in it,” says Julia Pan, Sales Enablement Manager at Signpost. “If someone’s interest is reignited, there’s no barrier to reentry.” 

Calendly also makes it easy to schedule multi-person sales meetings, like product demos and proposal discussions. For example, at Calendly, AEs and sales engineers (SEs) co-host demos. Calendly’s Collective events pool the real-time availability of both hosts on one booking page, so prospects can only select times for their demo that are open on both the AE and SE’s calendars.

“Calendly has also been a game changer for coordinating meetings with my AEs. Before having a tool like this, I would be booked over, not given notice, or booked after hours. It’s made for a much better experience for us and the customers!”

Dave Evatt

Senior Solutions Engineer at Calendly

4. Personalize your messages 

Think of your follow-up emails as conversations instead of sales pitches, and include specifics you’ve learned about your prospect’s company and pain points. You’re talking with them, not at them. 

Even simple writing swaps can make your messages feel more personal, and therefore more effective. For example, Gong found that the top sales reps use ‘you,’ ‘your,’ and ‘your team’ 29% more than average or underperforming salespeople. Even friendly intros can keep sales momentum up. Gong’s research also found that using ‘hope all is well’ as an intro leads to an increase in response rates and booking rates.

“Make it clear with your prospect that you’re on an equal playing field. We're both busy people. We both work for great companies. We’re both trying to find solutions. I’m just here to guide you toward the decision that is best for you.”

Victoria Diaz

Sales Representative at Calendly

Guide: The art of cold outreach

Learn how top sales pros book more discovery calls, get replies, land meetings, and generate more revenue — and how you can do the same.

Read the guide

5. Share helpful resources to keep the conversation going

You won’t have time during a sales call to answer all of a prospect’s questions and concerns. The post-call follow-up email is a great opportunity to build off the info you’ve already shared by including additional helpful resources.

If there’s a particular pain point that repeatedly came up, or a feature the prospect was especially interested in, send links to a few relevant resources.

Here are a few examples:

• After a discovery call: share a new piece of content or case study on your product’s ROI — potential buyers who look at user-generated content have a 161% higher conversion rate than those who don’t

• After a demo: send a copy of the call recording plus help center articles or videos related to the topics or challenges you talked about 

• After a pricing discussion: send over a battlecard showing why your solution wins out against competitors 

• After they’ve ghosted you: Invite them to an upcoming webinar, networking event, or live stream that’s relevant to them to keep your company on their mind 

When you send links to the product demo and resources in a follow-up email, share links from tools like Highspot and Gong, which allow you to track who is accessing those links. 

“I'll think I’ve been ghosted, and then get a notification that someone has watched the demonstration maybe a month or two later,” says Melany Furlow, Enterprise Account Executive at Calendly. “That gives me a reason to reach out and say, ‘Hey, I'm so glad to see this is still helpful. Are there any other questions we can answer? Should we schedule a call to talk through this?’”

6. Be thoughtful about the number and frequency of emails

Your follow-up sequence, including the timeline or trigger events you use, will vary. Some factors that impact your follow-up email sales process include:

• Inbound vs. outbound: Inbound leads may be warmer and more receptive to follow-up—cold emails not so much

• What you’re selling: Enterprise software will have more touchpoints and stakeholders than selling local lawn services to homeowners

• Your CRM data: Suggesting relevant testimonials or social proof is easier when you have some prospect details in your CRM. Without those details, you’ll have to take a more generalized approach.

No matter the sales approach, remember to be considerate about how often you follow up with prospects. Gong research proves that follow-up effectiveness decreases over time, so you’ll have to gauge when it’s time to cut your losses. The best way to dial in how often and when to follow up with sales leads is through experimentation and asking for feedback.

7. Automate follow-ups with Calendly Workflows

Email follow-ups keep deals moving forward, but you don’t have time to manually email every prospect. If sales follow-ups feel like a game of whack-a-mole, Calendly has you covered with Workflows. 

Calendly Workflows are automated emails and text messages triggered to send before and after meetings. Think of Workflows as your personal meeting communications assistant. Once you set up Workflows, Calendly automatically sends follow-up messages to the right people, at the right time. You can use Workflows to send a quick thank-you email ten minutes after every sales demo or email additional resources an hour after every discovery call.

Automating your sales follow-ups means that prospects get messages promptly, even if you’re busy in other meetings, which keeps conversations from stalling. When you use Calendly Workflows to send email and text reminders, you can:

• Start from a template or build your own. Workflows are completely customizable, so you can tailor follow-ups to fit your industry, processes, and team.

• Personalize messages for each attendee with dynamic fields, so you don’t have to manually copy and paste anything.

• Apply Workflows to multiple types of meetings — no duplicate setup or updates needed.

“Setting up a Workflow and being able to assign it to many different Event Types saves the advisors significant time and money. We even started using the thank-you email as a digital business card.”

Asiya Khan

Manager, Branch and Business Practice at CI Assante Wealth Management

Workflows are available on all paid Calendly plans. Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Calendly’s Teams plan, including Workflows!

Sales follow-up email templates 

Whether you automate your sales follow-up emails with Calendly Workflows or send each one out manually, templates are a great way to speed up the process. Don’t forget to customize these email subject lines and copy templates to match your voice, audience, and industry.

Cold email follow-up

When to send: Four days after your initial email

Subject line: Ideas to help [Prospect’s Company Name] do [Goal/Outcome]

Hi [Recipient's Name],

I hope you're doing well!

I wanted to follow up on the email I sent a few days ago about how companies like [Prospect’s Company Name] use [Product/Service] to [Goal/Outcome].

I'd love to learn more about how your team is currently managing [Process/Pain Point], and any challenges your team is facing there. 

When are you available for a quick 15-minute chat? If it’s easier, you can also choose a time that works for you here: [Calendly Link]

Looking forward to connecting!

[Your Name]
[Your Title and Company Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Inbound lead follow-up email

When to send: Three days after your original email

Subject line: How [Prospect’s Company Name] can [Goal/Outcome, ex: “close deals faster”]

Hi [Prospect Name],

I wanted to follow up on my previous message and share more details about how [Product/Service] can help [Prospect’s Company Name]

Teams like yours use [Product/Service] to:

[Goal/Outcome, ex: “Close deals faster”]
[Goal/Outcome, ex: “Reduce meeting no-shows”]
[Goal/Outcome, ex: “Save time on admin tasks”]

For example, companies like [Customer Name] have seen [Customer Result] by implementing [Product/Service]. [Link to Case Study]

Would you be available for a quick call this week to discuss how we can tailor [Product/Service] to fit your needs and help you achieve similar results? Please feel free to book a time that works best for you using this [link to scheduling page].

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

[Your Name]
[Your Title and Company Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Discovery call follow-up email

When to send: Right after the discovery call

Subject line: Great meeting you! 

Hey [Prospect Name],

Thanks again for your time today. It was great to learn more about [Goals/Pain Points] and share a little bit about how [Product] can help you [Goal/Outcome]. 

The next step is a personalized demo with your team. During the demo, we’ll walk through the [Product] features that’ll help you [Goal/Outcome], your implementation timeline, and any questions you have about the product.

Let me know when your team is free to chat, or you can use my Calendly link to choose a time that works for you all: [Calendly Link] 

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. 

Best, 

[Your Name]
[Your Title and Company Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Sales demo follow-up email

When to send: One hour after the demo

Subject line: Is there anything we missed?

Hello [Prospect Name],

Thanks again for your time today! To recap, the main use cases we covered were:

[Demo Topic 1]
[Demo Topic 2]
[Demo Topic 3]

You asked about [Topic of Prospect’s Question, ex: “security features”], so I wanted to share this [Blog Post/Video/Help Center Article] with some helpful additional info.

Are there any other topics or concerns you’d like to talk about more?

Next steps on our end would be to put together a pricing proposal for your review. You can schedule a proposal review here: [Calendly Link]

As you talk everything over with your team, I’m happy to hop on a call or answer any other questions that come up.

Talk soon!

[Your Name]
[Your Title and Company Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Get more tips for following up after sales demos to keep prospects engaged.

Stalled lead follow-up email

When to send: One month after your last email with no response

Subject line: How are your quarterly goals tracking?

Hi [Recipient's Name],

With the [Month/Quarter/Year] coming to an end, I wanted to check in and see how your team’s goals are tracking.

When we last spoke, you mentioned [Pain Point/Goal] — how’s that going? We have a new [Webinar/Blog Post] with some tips you might find useful.

If you have a few minutes this week, I’d love to reconnect and discuss how we can help. Let me know when you’re available, or you can use my Calendly link to choose a time that works for you:[Calendly Link] 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

[Your Name]
[Your Title and Company Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Keep prospects engaged and close deals faster

You know how to close deals, but your current follow-up process (or lack thereof) is getting in the way. You’re not alone — sales reps spend more than 70% of their week on non-selling duties like deal management and administrative tasks. Luckily, those problems have solutions. 

Not sure what to say? Start with a template.

Having trouble getting prospects to schedule a time to meet? Share your scheduling link or add available times right to an email.

Have too many deals in the pipeline to manually send each follow-up? Automate emails with Workflows. 

With these tips, templates, and tools, you can build relationships with prospects, keep the sales cycle moving, and close deals faster.