Why you are losing half your email leads if you are not sending chasers

Here’s something that’s good to know:

Most of your leads will come from the chaser emails you send.

Or, put another way, if you are not sending chasers you are slashing your leads and doubling the cost of each one.

Let’s cut to the chase.

We’re going to share the best chaser sequence and the best chaser templates.

And we ask just one thing.

Drop us a line when your prospecting performance doubles.

Here’s what other businesses have told us:

‘What surprised me the most was the effectiveness of the chaser emails.

I thought that if a prospect doesn’t respond to the first engagement then why should they respond to any other? But we get so many responses from our chaser emails.’
(Lars Hellestrae, Founder, Sales Agents UK)

‘Where prospecting is concerned, perseverance pays off. And perseverance is all about the follow up.

Time and time again you see huge engagement rates at the third email stage and these are the leads that turn into revenue.’

(Ana Ansell, Founder, Matrix Marketing)

Once used – never forgotten

This is what we found:

Anyone who has used chaser emails once as part of their prospecting campaign will always include them in every campaign going forward.

Why?

Simply because they deliver.

In fact, when we recently analysed 400,000 follow-up emails we discovered that:

The initial email only accounted for 23% of the total number of replies
Chasers generated 77% of our total responses
Engagement actually rose after the first email when the chasers kicked in

So far, so good.

Stats like these make it simple to grasp that you kiss goodbye to the majority of your new business ops when you sleep on your chasers.

But, for many this is where it starts to get tricky.

What should a chaser say?
How many should I send?
When should I schedule them for?
And how should I follow up on replies?

It’s okay. We’re happy to share our process and templates for you to adapt.

Let’s cut to the chasers.

The magic number

We’ve tested a number of prospecting email sequences and settled on four as the ideal.

That’s your initial email and three chasers.

But here’s the thing.

Invariably it will be email three that brings in the leads. Three really is the magic number.

Something happens when that third email lands that makes many prospects go, ‘I knew there’s a reason that I hadn’t deleted that email – I haven’t got round to it yet, but now I will.’

Here’s how our email sequences look:

Intro
Polite nudge (chaser #1)
Referral request (chaser #2)
Final break up (chaser #3)

And here are templates for our chasers. In terms of timings, leave no more than a week between them and risk coming across all auto-send if you schedule each on the same day of the week.

Chaser templates

#1 The polite nudge

Keep it simple, but do throw in a reminder of value

Hi Aneta,

I got in touch a few days back re helping you with some prospecting… just giving you a nudge on that, there’s a good chance it got buried under 100 other emails.

The SoPro approach has unique elements and can be very effective in generating conversations for you or your sales team to close.

Hoping to schedule 5 to walk you through the model…

Any good times to speak LATER_THIS_OR_EARLY NEXT week?

Best,

#2 The referral request

Requesting for help finding the right person is the perfect way to approach your prospect again without appearing pushy
It shows perseverance and continued interest – and with a splash of humour it feels human and is less likely to irritate
Crucially it also opens the door to continue your pitch with another person at the company if there is someone more relevant – this is very often the case in larger companies

Hi Carlo,

Third times a charm!

Appreciate replying to cold emails is probably not a priority, but as you can tell, I am very keen to speak with COMPANY. If I am barking up the wrong tree with you, could you point me at the right person to speak to? If I am at the correct tree, not that I’m calling you a tree, can we book in a call?

Best,

#3 The final break up

This email lets people know that they are not going to receive hundreds more emails from you – but it should also give them the option to say if it’s just that the time isn’t right now
Use humour to provoke a response – its amazing how many leads can come from this. At the very least your prospect may remember you with a smile, rather than with irritation.

Hi there Kathy,

No doubt you have a never ending “to-do” list, and I don’t want to be a pest, so one final follow up on my other e-mails. It would be awesome to take you through SoPro’s prospecting service and how we can produce leads for COMPANY, but let me know if:

You’re just not interested, and I should kindly “do one”;
I should follow up in a month when you may have more time;
A ninja hamster has been preventing you from replying.

Ninja Hamster

‘Humour is really important. Don’t try and remove any personality or humour from an email just in case you feel someone won’t like it. It’s more damaging to be really boring and grey in the emails you send out. Put a bit of colour in them.’

(Steve Harlow, Commercial Director, SoPro)

Other ways to follow up

It’s not just in your chasers that you can win more leads.

How you respond to any reply is also a way to get a bigger bang from your prospecting campaign.

And here speed is of the essence.

‘When those responses to your prospecting campaign come in you need to be ready to respond and follow up as soon as possible.

You don’t want to make someone wait when they have expressed an interest. You need to create that momentum.

One of the most important things to understand about prospecting is that you are reaching people who have an immediate pain that you can fix. So, your ability to respond at speed is essential. You need to be organised and ready to go before you start your prospecting campaign’

(Ana Ansell, Founder, Matrix Marketing)

We classify responses into four categories – and, of course, we have templates that we can quickly adapt for each.

Here are the four types:

Positives (i.e. a request for a call)
Declines and objections (effective objection handling regularly doubles our lead rate)
Future interest (get these diarised)
Referrals (follow up immediately)

And here are some proven ways to handle them.

Declines and objections #1: The soft second stab

To fairly blunt ‘no thank you’ notes it doesn’t make sense to go all guns blazing to win the prospect around.

We use the soft second stab to reply to these. Nothing too strong but nothing ventured…

Hi Sharon,

Thank you for getting back to me.

The last thing I want to do is waste your time, so if you’re good then I can appreciate there being no need to speak.

If you could do with more leads in the future, our approach is often different to what people thought once I explain it; we’re not trying to sell to companies for you. Instead we find and engage your prospects in a relationship-building way that makes them feel like you are reaching out to them yourself conversationally, personally.

Interested leads then respond directly to you, in real time.

It’s pretty clever and we recently won Tech Company of the Year in the UK from judges at Vodafone, Verizon, Facebook and Snap. So we’re quite excited!

Anyway, thanks for being a good sport and if a need in the future arises, I hope you will think of us.

Best,

Declines and objections #2: The alternative angle

If specific objections are given, we reply back with an alternative angle.

As with all objection handling make sure you follow the three steps of empathy, benefit and close.

Hi Adam,

Thank you for getting back to me.

I can appreciate you have not had the best experience with lead gen companies, I can assure you we are not all the same though!

We’ve used our own service to grow from 3 to 100 people in 4 years, and we recently won Tech Company of the Year in the UK from judges at Vodaphone, Verizon, Facebook and Snap. So we like to think we can deliver where others may have failed.

If you are open to hear about the service we provide, I would love the opportunity to explain in more detail, perhaps you have some time later this week?

If not, thanks for being a good sport and if a need in the future arises, I hope you will think of us.

Best,

Declines and objections #3: The soft correction

Often declines are made because the prospect has misunderstood the nature of your service.

If you get a few of these you should revisit your original introductory email and rewrite it to avoid this. For just one or two, however, we use a soft correction.

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for getting back to me.

I agree with you that telesales are not the best solution, SoPro offer an alternative service that will help generate leads in a more professional way.

We’re not trying to speak to companies for you, instead we find and engage your prospects via email that makes them feel like you are reaching out to them yourself personally, to start the conversation.

Interested leads then respond directly to you, in real time, and you can arrange the pithces.

It’s pretty clever and we recently won Tech Company of the Year in the UK from judges at Vodaphone, Verizon, Facebook and Snap. So we’re quite excited!

There’s lots involved, but I can give you the headlines in 10, do you have some time this or next week?

Best,

Declines and objections #4: The wiggle room

Many prospects will reply that your product or service is already covered, either in house or by another supplier.

Your response should be to find exactly where you can still add value.

Here’s an example:

Hi Ahmed,

Thank you for getting back to me.

The last thing I want to do is waste your time, so if you’re good then I can appreciate there being no need to speak.

What our service does though is allow you to spend more time speaking to prospects that have already shown interest, rather than having to go out cold to people yourself. This will free up your team to close more deals, we aren’t looking to replace them.

Anyway, thanks for being a good sport and if a need in the future arises, I hope you will think of us.

Best,

Positive responses: The ‘let’s do it’

For positive responses avoid the temptation to spell out again exactly what you offer.

Your goal with this reply is to get the meeting booked – you’ll have plenty of time to wax lyrical then.

Hi Teressa,

Thanks for coming back to me, when would be good for you to set up a call?

Currently I have the following free:

Day – time/time/time

Day time/time/time

Are you happy with a Zoom call? That way I can share my screen to show you our platform.

Best,

Future interest: The ‘it’s in the diary’

For future interest replies you simply need to acknowledge receipt and reassure the prospect it is diarised.

We advise that after a reasonable amount of time – say halfway between engagement and the proposed recontact – you reach out once more.

Often the prospect will bring a call forward – and those that don’t will have a much better chance of remembering you when the agreed date for contact rolls around.

Hi Barry,

I hope you are well.

I still have in my diary to follow up in XXXX.

Thought in the meantime you would be interested in our free tools, they can be found here: /

You can use them to find and verify emails, assess the size of your market, check the quality of your prospecting email, plus others.

Look forward to catching up in a few weeks/months.

Best,

Referrals: The same again

On receipt of a referral make sure you thank your original prospect first and then get straight in contact with your new prospect.

Make sure you mention the referrer by name and then just use your original prospecting mail and chasers to work their magic.

Hi Anisha,

Having already spoken to REFERRER at COMPANY for a quick chat re sales support, they kindly pointed me in your direction as the person most likely to benefit.

We provide B2B prospecting – as a service – for business across the UK and globally, particularly some of them more specialist domains (i.e TECH) hence the note.

This award-winning service identifies and engages prospects on your behalf, then seamlessly hands over to you or your sales team to tie up on a 1-to-1 basis. It takes the pain out of B2B lead-gen and keeps your sales guys doing what they’re good at – usually the face-to-face stuff.

Here is our 60 second explainer vid if you want to investigate.

I’m sure we can help COMPANY and I’d appreciate the opportunity to run you through a sample campaign and a couple of case studies. We’re Brighton based so perhaps a call… I can work around your diary.

How’s your diary looking THIS/NEXT WEEK for a chat?

Best,

And finally

Inevitably there will be those that have said ‘yes, let’s talk’ but have then gone strangely quiet when you suggest some times.

Don’t worry: you know the score by now.

Simply initiate a new chaser sequence.

A nudge
A follow-up with benefit
A break up

Hi Trisha,

Last thing I want to do is become a pest, so I will leave this with you for now.

If you are still interested to hear about SoPro then please do let me know.

Best,

The chase is better than the pitch

It may be counter-intuitive but your pitch is a fragile force when it stands alone.

Get some chasers behind it and it becomes a much sturdier proposition.

The chase, as they say, is better than the pitch.