Closing Techniques That Make Follow-Up Calls Easier

Here's exactly how I structure my follow-ups to stop deals from slipping or ghosting at the last minute. Buyers ask themselves 5 crucial questions before they spend money. So we match our follow ups to each different question of the buying journey. The questions: 1/ "Do we Have a Problem or Goal that we Urgently need help with?" Follow up examples: Thought Leadership emphasizing the size / importance of the problem. Things like articles from Forbes, McKinsey, HBR or an industry specific publication. Screenshots, summations or info-graphics. NOT LINKS. No one reads them. 2/ "What's out there to Solve the Problem? How do Vendors differ?" Follow up examples: Sample RFP templates with pre-filled criteria. Easy to read buying guides. Especially if written by a 3rd party. 3/ "What Exactly do we need this Solution to do? Who do we feel good about?" Follow up examples: 3 bullets of criteria your Buyers commonly use during evaluations (especially differentiators.) Here's example wording I've used at UserGems 💎: "Thought you might find it helpful to see how other companies have evaluated tools to track their past champions. Their criteria are usually: *Data quality & ROI potential *Security (SOC2 type 2 and GDPR) *How easy or hard is it to take action: set up/training, automation, playbooks Cheers!" 4/ "Is the Juice worth the Squeeze - both $$$ & Time?" Follow up examples: Screenshots of emails, texts or DMs from customers talking about easy set up. Love using ones like the Slack pictured here. Feels more organic and authentic than a marketing case study. 5/ "What's next? How will this get done?" Follow up examples: Visual timelines Introductions to the CSM/onboard team Custom/short videos from CSM leadership When we tailor our follow ups to answer the questions our Buyers are asking themselves - Even (especially!) the subconscious ones Our sales cycles can be smoother, faster and easier to forecast. Buyer Experience > Sales Stages What's your best advice for how to follow up? ps - If you liked this breakdown, join 6,000+ other sellers getting value from my newsletter. Details on my website!

A rep called me frustrated. "I ask all the right questions, but they clam up after 10 minutes. Discovery feels like pulling teeth." I listened to her last call. She was doing everything "right" according to most sales training. Except for one thing. She was treating discovery like an interrogation instead of a conversation. Here's what I told her: Stop trying to get everything in 30 minutes. You're not a police detective gathering evidence. Instead, go deep on what matters most → their pain. Three questions that changed her entire approach: "What's driving this to be a priority right now?" "What happens if you don't solve this in the next 6 months?" "How is this impacting you personally?" Notice something? No questions about budget. No stakeholder mapping. No buying process. Just pain. Deep, emotional, get-them-talking pain. Here's what happened on next call: Prospect spent 20 minutes explaining their challenges. Shared things she never heard before. Got emotional about the daily frustration. Old Rep would've panicked: "I didn't get the buying process info!" New Rep said: "Based on everything you've shared, this sounds complex. Let's schedule another call to walk through how companies typically solve this." Prospect immediately agreed. Why? Because she proved she understood their world. The follow up call? Prospect brought their boss. Shared budget range. Outlined their evaluation timeline. All because the first call was about them, not about her information gathering checklist. Look, I get it. Sales methodology says you need certain data points. But prospects don't care about your methodology. They care about feeling understood. When you nail the pain, everything else flows naturally. The reps's close rate went from 18% to 29% just by changing her discovery approach. Same questions. Same product. Different mindset. Sales VPs: teach your reps to be consultants, not interrogators. The reps who master this thinking close bigger deals because they uncover the real emotional drivers behind every purchase decision. Ever noticed how your best discovery calls feel more like therapy sessions than sales calls? Strange, isn’t it? 😎 — How 700+ clients closed $950 million using THIS 6 step demo script: https://lnkd.in/eVb32BUx

When a Doctor Says They’ll Use Your Product… and Then Ghosts You We’ve all been there. You walk out of a sales call thinking you just crushed it. The doctor said, “Yeah, we’ll start using it.” Maybe even threw in a “This looks great!” for good measure. You’re already mentally logging the win. And then… nothing. No orders. No follow-up. Just radio silence. You try to reach out, but they’re suddenly busier than a trauma surgeon on a holiday weekend. You start to wonder—Did they actually mean it? Or was that just a polite way to get me out of their office? Here’s the reality: They did say they’d use it. That wasn’t a hallucination (despite the lack of hard evidence). And your job is to make sure that happens. So what’s the move? 1. Honor your commitment to honor their commitment. They said yes, so act accordingly. Don’t treat this like a weak maybe—treat it like a done deal that just needs execution. 2. Make follow-up a favor, not a favor request. Instead of, “Hey Doc, just checking in…” try, “Doc, I’m here to make sure this rolls out smoothly for you. Let’s lock in the details.” Frame it as supporting their decision, not begging for scraps. 3. Create urgency without being pushy. Remind them why they said yes in the first place. Maybe it improves outcomes, saves them time, or prevents their competition from eating their lunch. Whatever it was, reinforce it. 4. Use internal allies. Sometimes the doc is all talk, but the real decision-makers (or blockers) are staff, procurement, or admin. Find your champions inside the clinic or hospital and work with them. 5. If all else fails, call it out—professionally. If they keep dodging, try something direct: “Doc, last time we spoke, you were excited to get started. Have things changed?” Sometimes a little nudge forces a real answer. Bottom line? They gave you the green light. Don’t act like it’s still a red light. You’re not being pushy—you’re being a professional who ensures things get done. If you back off completely, you weren’t closing a deal—you were just collecting compliments. And last I checked, compliments don’t pay commissions.

I often hear sales reps say “I just don’t like following up because I don’t want to sound pushy.” 🙄 Working your pipeline isn’t “pushy.” It’s literally the job. 💪🏼 Following up is not annoying. Not following up is irresponsible. If you’re in sales and you’re scared to ping someone again, you’re not thinking about the customer, you’re thinking about yourself. Here’s how to fix that mindset: 1️⃣ Lead with empathy. This isn’t personal. They’re busy. You’re busy. You’re just two humans trying to get something done. 2️⃣ Ditch the weak opener. Never say “just following up.” Instead, try: 👉 “Wanted to close the loop on this while it’s still fresh.” 👉 “Had a quick thought after our last convo that might help.” 👉 “A few others in your space just made a move and it made me think of you.” 3️⃣ Bring value or don’t reach out. A fresh insight. A customer story. A relevant stat. A product update. Make it worth their time. Following up isn’t about pestering. It’s about helping people make a decision even if that decision is no. Let’s normalize working your deals like a pro. Not ghosting them like an amateur.