The Art Following Up
A 7 Minute read
"Just Circling Back" Is Not a Follow-Up.
It's a Nudge With No Reason.
Look in your sent folder.
Just circling back on this. Bumping this to the top of your inbox. Wanted to check you'd seen my note below.
Three emails. Zero information.
You've asked someone busy to spend attention on you three times and given them nothing in return each time.
That's not persistence. That's pestering with better manners.
Here's the rule that fixes almost all of it:
Every follow-up has to carry something new.
If the only new thing in the message is that more time has passed, don't send it.
What "something new" actually looks like
It doesn't have to be much. It has to be something.
A relevant case study → "we just finished something almost identical for a firm your size"
Something that changed at their end → they've hired, expanded, restructured, lost someone
Something that changed at yours → new capability, new evidence, new answer to the thing they hesitated over
A genuinely useful thought → the observation you'd have made if they'd hired you
A clean exit → "I'll assume the timing isn't right, happy to leave it with you"
That last one is underrated. It's the most-replied-to email most firms never send, because it removes the pressure and hands control back.
Where it usually falls apart
The usual suspects:
Follow-up as a calendar task → day 3, day 7, day 14, regardless of whether anything happened
Escalating tone → polite, then pointed, then passive-aggressive by email four
Only chasing open deals → the pipeline you can see is the smallest pool available
Stopping after a no → without ever asking which kind of no it was
Never following up at all → because it feels like chasing, which for a lot of professionals is the real blocker
The last two are where the money is.
The follow-ups are worth more than the ones you're doing
Most firms spend their follow-up energy on prospects who went quiet last month. That's the hardest group and the smallest.
Meanwhile:
People who said no. Most no's are timing. Ask which kind you got: not now, not me, or not ever. Only one is permanent, and firms treat all three the same.
Past clients. You delivered something good, then vanished. They've had two years of new problems since and no reason to remember you existed.
Referrers who sent you one client. Someone recommended you once. Nobody ever went back and said thank you properly, let alone kept them updated on what happened.
People who read everything and never respond. They exist in every list. Silent, engaged, not ready. Keep going.
None of these feels like a pipeline. All of them convert better than a cold list.
How to fix it
1. Attach a reason, always. No reason, no send. That single rule removes most bad follow-ups.
2. Ask which no it was. "Is this a timing thing or a fit thing?" People answer honestly, and it tells you exactly what to do next.
3. Diarise the no's. A timing no from March is a live opportunity in September. Put it in the calendar the day you get it.
4. Send the closing email. Give them the exit. It gets more replies than the chase did.
5. Follow up with past clients on a schedule. Twice a year, with something useful, not a newsletter blast.
6. Keep the tone identical. Email six should read exactly like email one. The moment tension enters your writing, it's over.
The bit most people skip
Here's the highest-value follow-up in professional services, and almost nobody does it.
When your contact changes jobs.
Think about what's just happened.
Someone who already knows you, has already worked with you, and already trusts your judgement has just walked into a new firm. They've got a budget, a mandate, and something to prove in their first six months.
They're the easiest sale available to you, anywhere.
And they're entirely off most firms' radar because the follow-up was tied to the company, not the person. The account went quiet, someone marked it closed, and the relationship walked out the door with no one noticing.
Track people, not organisations.
When a former client or a warm contact moves, get in touch that month. Not a pitch. A congratulations, and an offer to help them land well.
The same applies in reverse. When someone new arrives at a firm you want, that's a live trigger; they're reviewing suppliers, questioning inherited decisions, and looking for their own people.
New job, new budget, new willingness to change things.
It's the only moment in professional services where a stranger and a friend become equally reachable. Most firms miss both.
The takeaway
Following up isn't about persistence. It's about having a reason.
Carry something new every time. Ask which kind of no you got. Diarise it. Send the email that lets them off the hook.
And stop tracking companies when you could be tracking people — because the person who trusted you last year has just started somewhere new, and right now nobody's talking to them.
