--- name: follow-up-email description: Writes the follow-up email after a sales call or meeting - a recap in the buyer's words, the agreed next step with a date, and one ask - plus no-reply nudges for day 3, day 7, and a breakup email. Use when someone needs a follow-up, recap email, thank-you after a demo, or a nudge because the prospect went quiet or didn't reply. --- # Sales follow-up email A follow-up works when the buyer can forward it to their boss as the summary of the call. Recap their problem in their words, lock the next step with a date, and ask for exactly one thing. Nudges get shorter each time, never longer. Gong's analysis of 304,174 emails found that once a deal is active, asking for a specific day and time succeeds more often than an open question. ## When to use - Same day after a discovery call, demo, or meeting with a prospect. - When a prospect hasn't replied 3 or 7 days after your last email. - When you're ready to close the loop with a breakup email. - Not for first contact with someone you haven't spoken to: use cold-outreach-email. ## What you need - Call notes or a transcript, or the rep's bullet recap. If missing, ask once for the 3 things the buyer said mattered most. - The agreed next step and date. If none was agreed, propose one and mark it "[assumption]" for the rep. - The variant: same-day recap, day 3 nudge, day 7 nudge, or breakup. If not said, write the same-day recap. - For nudges: the last email sent and the date. ## Steps 1. **Pick the variant.** Our default cadence: same-day recap if the call was in the last 48 hours; day 3 nudge after 1 unanswered email, day 7 after 2, breakup after 3. Never send a 5th. 2. **Pull the buyer's words.** Take 2–3 phrases the buyer said about their problem or goal and reuse them verbatim or close to it. Their words beat your product's words every time. 3. **Write the recap (same-day only).** 3 bullets max: their problem, what they want by when, and what you agreed. No feature list. If they raised a concern, name it and say how you'll answer it. 4. **State the next step with a date.** One line: who does what, by when ("I'll send the security doc by Thursday; you'll book 30 minutes with Dana for next week"). If a meeting, offer 2 specific times, not "let me know when works": in Gong's data on deal emails, specific-time asks had a 37% success rate against 32% for open-ended ones. 5. **Make one ask.** One question or one action, at the end, easy to answer in a line. Boomerang found emails with 1–3 questions got about 50% more replies than emails with none; our default is exactly 1 so the reply is one line. 6. **Write the subject.** Same-day: "[Company] + [your company]: recap and next step". Nudges: reply in the same thread, keep the subject. Boomerang's data favours subjects of 3–4 words; keep yours close to that. 7. **Keep it short.** Boomerang's study of over 40 million emails found 50–125 words got the most replies. Our defaults: same-day under 150 words (the recap needs the room). Day 3 under 60. Day 7 under 50 and adds one new thing (a relevant example, a number, a resource), never "just checking in". Breakup under 50, gives them an easy out and keeps the door open. ## Output format ```markdown **Variant:** [Same-day recap / Day 3 nudge / Day 7 nudge / Breakup] **Subject:** [subject, or "reply in thread"] Hi [first name], [1 sentence: thanks + the one thing that stood out, in their words] [Recap bullets — same-day only:] - [Their problem, their words] - [What they want, by when] - [What we agreed / concern and how we'll answer it] **Next step:** [who does what by when] [One ask, as a question] [Sign-off] [Name] --- **For the rep:** [anything marked assumption, or a fact to confirm] ``` ## Example **Input:** Demo by Jonah (rep) with Marta Ruiz, Head of Ops at Calloway Dental (12 clinics). She said: "Our front desks spend the first hour every morning calling no-shows from yesterday." Wants it fixed before their busy season in January. Concern: does it work with their booking system, DentaBook? Agreed: rep sends the DentaBook integration notes by Wednesday; Marta brings her IT lead to a 30-minute call next week (rep is free Tuesday 11 am or Thursday 2 pm). For a later nudge, the rep has a customer result still to be cleared for sharing: Pinegrove Dental (8 clinics, also on DentaBook) cut morning no-show calls to 15 minutes in their first month. **Output:** ```markdown **Variant:** Same-day recap **Subject:** Calloway Dental + Remindly: recap and next step Hi Marta, Thanks for today. The line that stuck with me: your front desks spend the first hour every morning calling yesterday's no-shows. - 12 clinics, each losing that first hour to no-show calls. - You want it fixed before the January busy season. - Your open question is DentaBook: I'll show exactly how we connect. **Next step:** I'll send the DentaBook integration notes by Wednesday. You'll bring your IT lead to a 30-minute call next week. Does Tuesday 11 am or Thursday 2 pm work for that call? Best, Jonah ``` Day 7 nudge for the same deal: ```markdown **Variant:** Day 7 nudge **Subject:** reply in thread Hi Marta, One thing since my last note: Pinegrove Dental (8 clinics, also on DentaBook) cut morning no-show calls to 15 minutes in their first month. Still worth a 30-minute call with your IT lead before January? Jonah --- **For the rep:** confirm the Pinegrove result is approved for sharing. ``` ## Checks before you send - [ ] At least one phrase is the buyer's own words, not product language. - [ ] The next step has a person, an action, and a date. - [ ] There is exactly one ask, and it's the last line before the sign-off. - [ ] Word count is under the variant's limit. - [ ] No fact, customer result, or price that isn't in the notes; anything else is flagged for the rep. - [ ] Nudges add something new and never say "just checking in" or "bumping this". ## Common mistakes - Recapping your demo instead of their problem. They remember their pain, not your slides. - "Let me know if you have any questions" as the ask. It asks for nothing. - A breakup email that guilt-trips. Keep it light: "I'll assume the timing's off and stop here."