The Art of the Follow Up

The Art of the Follow Up

Ryan Serhant said it best.

“My ability to follow up with you until you die is the entire way that I sell properties.”

Most people hear that and laugh. Then they think about it and realize he’s serious. And then they realize they’ve been doing it completely wrong.

There is a real statistic behind this. It takes 8 to 12 touch points before anyone will buy from you. Not one email. Not two follow up texts. Eight to twelve. Yet most salespeople give up after the first or second no and move on to the next lead, leaving money on the table every single time.

The reason is simple. Rejection is uncomfortable. Most people would rather protect their ego than close the deal. So they convince themselves the lead is dead, the timing is wrong, the prospect isn’t interested. And maybe that’s true. But more often than not, the prospect just isn’t ready yet. There is a massive difference between someone who is not interested and someone who is not ready. Most people treat them the same way and that is exactly where deals get lost.

Think about your own buying behavior. How many times have you seen something, been genuinely interested, and then just not pulled the trigger because the timing wasn’t right? Life gets in the way. Budgets shift. Priorities change. That does not mean the interest disappeared. It means the window just wasn’t open yet. The salesperson who is still there when the window opens is the one who gets the deal.

This is what separates the top performers from everyone else. Not talent. Not pitch quality. Not even pricing. Persistence. The willingness to keep showing up, keep adding value, and keep the relationship warm even when there is no immediate payoff.

Serhant has a framework he calls the three F’s. Follow up, follow through, and follow back. Follow up means assuming no one will ever reach out to you first. It is your job to maintain the relationship. Follow through means doing exactly what you said you would do, every single time. If you say you will send something, send it. If you say you will circle back Thursday, circle back Thursday. Small things like this build a level of trust that most people never establish. Follow back means staying in touch with past clients long after the deal is done. Your best future clients are often the ones you have already worked with.

It sounds simple. Most people still don’t do it.

The follow up does not have to be aggressive or pushy. It can be a quick check in. A piece of content that made you think of them. A note about something relevant to their business. The goal is not to beg for a meeting. The goal is to stay on their radar so that when the timing is right, you are the first person they think of. That is a completely different energy and people can feel the difference.

I just signed a client last week that I had been following up with for over six months. Every two to three weeks, a check in, a relevant piece of content, a quick touch to stay on their radar. The call that closed the deal lasted ten minutes. Six months of follow up, ten minutes to close.

The deal didn’t happen because I had the best pitch. It happened because I was still there when they were ready. Everyone else had moved on.

That is the whole game. The leads are not dead. The timing just wasn’t right. And the people who understand that are the ones who win in the long run.

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