How to Send Follow Up Emails to Get Customer Interviews in B2B

Meeting with early adopters to validate any kind of product is intrinsically linked with sales and following up. If you can’t get a meeting, you can’t validate your product let alone understand what problem you should be solving.

But, what if early adopters don’t respond when you reach out? Do you follow up? What do you tell them? How long do you keep going?

If you can’t get in touch with early adopters, you can’t validate your business. Landing the meeting is a critical skill for entrepreneurs. It’s something I always try to get better at.

A few months back, I stumbled on The Follow-Up Formula by Steli Efti.

Tips on How to Send Follow Up Emails

I got a lot from the book. Here are a few highlights:

• It’s when everyone else stops running, and you’re the only person still in the race. It doesn’t matter how slow you run—you are going to win because everybody else stopped running. -> The #1 skill for entrepreneurs is perseverance. Slow and steady wins the race.
• If you already had some kind of interaction and that interaction was not a clear, definite NO, then follow up as long as it takes to get a response. Never stop till you get a response. -> “Maybes” kill startups. You have limited runway, you need to operate with a sense of urgency and get to Yes (or No).
• Silence is not rejection. If someone doesn’t respond to my calls or emails, I simply assume that they are busy and that I need to follow up until they have a moment to respond. -> You need the right mindset to make follow-ups work for you.
• Don’t guilt the other person, even if they don’t immediately respond. -> Don’t let your emotions get in the way of creating successful customer relationships.
• Eliminate their guilt by making it clear to them that you don’t harbor any bad will towards them for not replying to your previous emails. Your #1 job is to make people feel comfortable responding. -> You’re building a relationship. It cant start with guilt.
• If you’ve never met the other person before, don’t follow up more than six times. -> Sales rarely close on first interaction. It’s the same for any kind of reachout.
• Followups: For a positive outcome: Email, For a quick response: Phone, For the quickest response: In person. -> Set aggressive deadlines. Switch communication method if you have to.
• Your current results in life are an indicator of your past hustle. Everything that’s going on right now in our business is the result of the work we did months or even years ago. -> Business is a cumulative process. You need to put in the work and hustle.

I’m not generally a fan of ebooks, but The Follow-Up Formula is worth reading.

It’s free, and you can get it here.

Now that you know how to send follow up emails, happy follow ups!

More on Customer Interviews

• How to Get Customer Interviews with Cold Emails – The Cold Email Guide
• How to Use Customer Discovery to Build a Startup: The Definitive Guide
• What to Expect From Cold Calling (or Cold Emailing) in B2B