Short version: more than you are doing now. Almost every business stops after one or two touches, and almost every sale happens later than that. The people who keep going, politely, win the work.
What the follow up numbers say
The pattern shows up in study after study. Roughly half of businesses never follow up a second time. Meanwhile most deals close somewhere between the fifth and the eighth contact. Put those two facts next to each other and you see the whole problem. The work is there. Hardly anyone stays in the conversation long enough to get it.
Why one follow up is not follow up
A single message is easy to miss. People are busy, the timing is wrong, the email gets buried. That is not a no. It is a not right now. Treating it as a no is how you leave money in a spreadsheet. The job is to be the one who is still there, without being annoying about it.
A simple sequence for an old quote
You do not need anything fancy. Space these out over three to four weeks.
- Touch one: reference the exact thing they asked about, ask if it is still on their mind.
- Touch two: a couple of days later, add one useful detail. A price range, a timeline, something that helps them decide.
- Touch three: answer the objection you hear most, before they raise it.
- Touch four: a short proof message. A real result, a real customer, kept honest.
- Touch five: the polite last call. Ask whether to keep them on the list or close the file.
That last one gets more replies than any other, because it gives people an easy way to say yes or to bow out. Both are useful to you.
Where it goes wrong
Two mistakes kill a sequence. Sending everything as one dull blast, and giving up early. Space the messages out, give each a real reason to exist, and let the sequence do the waiting your sales team does not have time for. If you are worried about deliverability while you do it, read why emails land in spam. If you have a pile of old quotes to run this on, start with reactivating your old leads.
See if there is money in your old list
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