16 sales follow-up email templates, and the reason most of them stop working.
Take them, they're yours. Copy, fill the highlighted bits, send. Then, if you've five minutes, the part underneath about why the good ones stop being good.
After the meeting
Sent same day, while you still remember what they said. These are the six that matter most.
[Name], good call today. You said [the specific problem they named] is what breaks first at your size.
That usually happens because [one sentence, why]. I've attached [the one relevant thing], worth about [N] minutes.
Want me to put together [the specific next step] for a team your size?
[Name], thanks for the time today.
You asked whether [the specific question they raised]. Short answer: [answer]. [One line of proof.]
If it's useful I'll [specific next step] before [the date they mentioned].
[Name], good to meet you properly.
What I heard: [their priority] matters most, [the second thing] is the constraint, and [the date] is the date that actually matters.
If that's right, the first thing I would do is [the concrete first move]. If I've any of it wrong, correct me before I go further.
[Name], thanks for having us in.
[Person in the room] asked about [the question]. The answer is [answer], and I've put it on one page so you can forward it without me in the room.
Deck attached. The part worth your time is [slide N].
[Name], here it is. I've scoped it to [the specific scope they described] at [the number they mentioned].
Two things worth flagging before you read it: [thing one] and [thing two].
If [the person who signs it off] wants a walkthrough, I can do [day] or [day].
[Name], thanks for the tour.
The thing that stood out was [the specific thing you saw]. You mentioned it costs you [the impact they described].
I've seen that exact setup before. [One sentence on what fixed it.] Worth a short call?
When it goes quiet
The hardest ones to write, and where almost every template goes wrong. Each of these gives the other person an easy way out, which is why they get answered.
[Name], [the specific thing that's new since you last spoke].
Last time we spoke you were [the state they were in]. If that has moved, this is probably worth five minutes. If it has not, say so and I'll leave it.
[Name], in my experience a proposal goes quiet for one of three reasons: the budget moved, someone else in the business has a different plan, or it just isn't the priority this quarter.
All three are fine and none of them need a long reply. Which one is it?
[Name], you asked me to come back around [month]. It's [month].
Since we spoke, [the specific thing that changed on your side or theirs], which is the bit that makes this different from the last conversation.
Worth twenty minutes, or has the plan changed?
[Name], the [document] has been with [whoever has it] since [date].
If something in it needs changing, tell me and I'll change it today. If it's sitting behind [legal, procurement, a holiday], tell me that instead and I'll stop chasing.
[Name], I haven't heard back, so I'll assume [the project] isn't a priority right now and stop emailing.
If that's wrong, reply with one word and I'll pick it straight back up. If it's right, good luck with [the thing they cared about].
[Name], we spoke back in [month] about [the thing]. You went a different way, which was reasonable at the time.
[What has changed since.] If that changes the maths, happy to talk. If you're settled, I won't chase again.
The awkward ones
Price, rejection, and the follow-up they explicitly asked you for. Most template lists skip these, which is why most template lists are not much use.
[Name], you flagged [the specific pricing concern].
Here's the arithmetic for a team your size: [the actual numbers]. [One line on the cost of doing nothing.]
Happy to be told it's not the right quarter.
[Name], thanks for telling me rather than leaving it. Genuinely.
One question, and no pitch attached: was it [the likely reason], or something I didn't see? It changes what I do next time.
If [the thing they chose] doesn't land the way you hoped, my door is open.
[Name], as promised on [day]: [the thing].
You wanted it before [their deadline], so it's here with [N] days to spare. [One line on the part that matters most.]
Anything else you need from me before [their deadline]?
[Name], you mentioned [the decision-maker] signs this off.
Rather than make you explain it, here's the whole thing in three lines they can read cold: [the problem], [what changes], [the number].
Forward it as is. If they want me on a call, I'll keep it to fifteen minutes.
Subject lines that get opened
One rule underneath all of these: the subject line should name a thing that exists in their world, not a thing that exists in your pipeline.
Use
- The [number] question
- The [thing] you asked me to send
- [Their problem], and what usually fixes it
- Three reasons this usually goes quiet
- You said [month], and [what changed]
- Anything blocking the [document]?
- One page for [the decision-maker]
- Closing your file
Avoid
- Just checking in
- Touching base
- Following up
- Bumping this to the top of your inbox
- Quick question
- Hi [first_name], are you still interested?
- Re: our conversation
- Any update on this?
The left column names something. The right column names the fact that you're waiting. That's the whole difference, and the reader sorts them in about a second.
Here's the problem with all sixteen of those, including ours.
A template gives you a skeleton: the shape of a subject line, roughly where the ask goes, how long the thing should be. That's genuinely useful and it's why you searched for one.
What no template can give you is the only part that earns a reply, which is the specific thing the other person said. Every highlighted slot above is doing the real work, and each one has to be filled from memory of a conversation you had hours ago.
So the template isn't the problem, and neither are you. The problem is that the hard part was never the writing.
What actually gets deleted, in their words
From a study of 59,259 posts and reviews by people who send and receive these emails for a living.
"But 'just bumping this to the top of your inbox' is not a follow-up. It's a reminder that you exist."
r/SaaS, March 2026"The standard bump email that says something like 'just wanted to circle back and see if anything has changed' feels like exactly the kind of thing that gets deleted before the second line."
r/sales, May 2026"My follow-ups end up generic and I know it's costing me deals."
r/sales, B2B SaaS AE, February 2026"I lost $5,000 because I forgot to follow up with a lead."
r/CRM, May 2026"Just checking in" isn't a mild irritation. It's a recognised joke on both sides of the table, and it turned up independently across at least eight separate sources. If you write it, the reader knows exactly what it means: you've nothing to add and you want something.
What to say instead of "just checking in"
The phrase isn't the problem on its own. The problem is that it's what you write when you've nothing to add. Fix the second thing and the phrase disappears by itself.
Notice what the right-hand column has in common. Every one of them either carries new information or makes it easy to say no. Those are the only two things a follow-up can honestly do once the first email has been read and ignored.
Same template. Two versions.
Identical structure. The only difference is whether the slots got filled with anything real.
Hi Sarah,
Great speaking with you today. As discussed, I think our solution could be a great fit for what your team is trying to achieve.
Let me know if you've any questions. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sarah, good call today.
You said integration with your existing CRM is the thing that worries you, timeline is Q3, and budget is around 40k.
The integration is the part I would want to prove first, so I've attached how a team on the same stack did it.
You also mentioned the VP of Ops actually signs this off. Want me to write a one-pager they can read without me in the room?
In one comparison shared on r/hubspot, deal-specific messages returned a 9.7% reply rate against 3.2% for generic ones. Same sender, same product, same template.
The hard part was never the writing.
Read the right-hand email again. Nothing in it's clever. There's no persuasion technique, no power word, no framework. It's four facts she said out loud, written down before they evaporated.
That's the whole difference, and it's a memory problem, not a writing problem. An account executive put it exactly:
"My biggest weakness is what happens AFTER the call ends... by the time I write my follow-up 4 hours later I can't remember half of what we discussed."
r/sales, B2B SaaS AE, three years in, February 2026"I was spending 18-20 minutes, per reply just trying to recall what was discussed."
r/sales, sales manager, April 2026Post-call context has a half-life of roughly 48 hours. Which means the best follow-up you will ever write is the one you write before you've forgotten anything, and the reason most people don't is that they're already on the next call.
How many follow-ups, and how far apart
The honest answer is four, and the reason isn't persistence. It's that after four you've usually run out of new things to say.
Why it stops at four. Analysis shared in r/CRM found 89% of positive replies land in steps one to three, while steps five to seven produce roughly 2% of replies and about 30% of the spam complaints. Touch five is where you start trading goodwill for nothing.
Why the gaps widen. A same-day email is expected. A day-three email is helpful. A day-three-again email is pestering. Widening the gap is how you stay in someone's mind without living in their inbox.
The rule that overrides all of it: if touch three has nothing in it that touch two did not, don't send touch three. A short sequence that says something beats a long one that repeats itself, every time.
How do you follow up without being pushy?
Pushiness isn't about frequency. It's about repetition. An email that carries something the reader didn't have before is never pushy, however many you send. An email that only says you're still waiting is pushy the first time.
So the test before you send is one question: is there one fact, document or answer in here that wasn't in the last one? If there's not, you don't have a follow-up yet. You've a reminder that you exist.
And give them an exit. Every template above has a line that lets the other person end it in four words. People answer honestly far more often when saying no is easy, and a clean no is worth more to your pipeline than six months of maybe.
One last thing, then go and send it.
If you read all that and thought "the slots are the problem", that's the thing we build. Scurry reads the transcript of the call you just had and fills them in before you've left the room, then waits for you to read it. It's not for everyone and it's not free, but the pricing is on the page.