Telephone follow-up: calling without the awkwardness

An email gives customers every opportunity to do nothing. A three-minute conversation provides information no email gives you: who else decides, what they find expensive, what doubts remain and whether the timing still fits. Those are precisely the things that let you adjust your quotation.

Resistance to calling is mainly our own resistance. According to research among B2B buyers, 82% are open to a conversation with a supplier who takes the initiative. Someone who requested a price themselves is naturally even more willing. You think you are interrupting; the customer usually thinks: good that you called, I had nearly forgotten.

Calling is also more honest. In a conversation, you hear within two minutes whether a case is still alive. That saves weeks of hopefully waiting for an email that never comes.

• Six to eight attempts are needed on average to actually speak to a prospect, and around eight contacts on average are needed for a first appointment. One unanswered call therefore means nothing.
• Late afternoon works better than you think. According to the same collection of figures, 38% of salespeople name 10 to 11 as the best period, while calling between 16 and 17 produces up to 71% more real conversations than other times.
• Short conversations work. 49% of successful calls last between two and five minutes. You therefore need not reserve half an hour to call.
• Speed remains the strongest effect. The verified speed-to-lead figures show that contact within 5 minutes increases the chance of reaching someone by up to 100 times compared with waiting 30 minutes, and that within the first hour you have 7 times more chance of qualifying a lead.

One caution about that final point: we found no verifiable primary research source for the widely quoted 78% claim. We therefore do not use that percentage here as an established fact. Assess the measured effects above within their research context.

This is a workable schedule for a Belgian SME. Adapt it to your sector: earlier mornings are better for contractors and installers, while offices are better approached later in the morning.

Also schedule calling as a calendar block. Two fixed twenty-minute periods a week are enough to follow up all your open quotations, and a block is much easier to maintain than a good intention to "give them a call sometime".

You do not need a sales pitch, but a structure. These four steps work for almost any follow-up:

1. Name and reason in one sentence. "Good morning, I am from this company, calling briefly about last week's quotation."
2. Ask permission for their time. "Do you have two minutes, or should I call back later?" That one question takes away almost all the tension.
3. Ask one open question, then stay quiet. "How do you feel about it now?" or "What would still need to be right for you?" Silence is your best technique here. Filling it yourself talks the customer out of the conversation.
4. Agree a next step with a date. No conversation ends with "I will hear from you". Always: "I will call you back on Thursday at 10" or "I will send the revised proposal before midday tomorrow."

Avoid reproaches and excessive minimising. Not "I have not heard anything yet" or "I just wanted to ask something very quickly, sorry to bother you". You prepared a quotation, so you have a reason to call.

Most calls are not answered, and that is normal. Work with a rhythm rather than hope.

• Attempt 1: call without leaving a message. Many people return a missed call themselves.
• Attempt 2, the same day or next day at another time: call and leave a short message with your name, your reason and one concrete question.
• Immediately afterwards, a short email or text: "I tried calling about the quotation. Would Thursday around 10 suit you better?" Combining channels clearly raises the chance of a reply, since email data also shows that 42% of all replies come from follow-up, not the first message.
• Attempts 3 and 4, spread over two weeks: each with a reason. A new reference, a changing price or a shifting schedule.

Record attempts in your CRM or even a simple list. Without that overview you call twice on the same day or, far more often, never again.

After every call, take one minute to record three things: what was said, what the next step is and when. That is the only administration that really matters. Consistently doing this lets you remember three weeks later that the customer was waiting for their business partner's approval and pick up precisely there.

Also send a short confirmation email immediately stating what you agreed. Two or three sentences suffice. That makes your agreement concrete, gives the customer something to forward internally and puts in writing when you will return.

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