As SDRs, our bread and butter is setting meetings for our AEs. Sometimes we get so excited for the set that we leave it to chance that the prospect actually shows up. That’s why it’s so important to perfect the follow-up process.

To perfect the follow-up, let’s first talk about an SDR’s ideal morning routine. Get your coffee and head to your workspace. Now you’re ready to check the calendar. Check to see what meetings are set for today, tomorrow, and the next day.

For today’s meetings, you should have already followed up with the prospect yesterday or the day before and made sure the meeting invite has been accepted. If you have any meeting invites that are still unanswered send the prospect another nudge.

Now you can move on to tomorrow’s meetings. If you have any meeting invites that have not been accepted, call the prospect. When you get them on the phone check to make sure they saw the meeting invite and that tomorrow is still a good day to meet. Remind them to check their spam folder if necessary.

Now you can focus on the meetings that are two days out. Rather than getting these prospects on the phone, send them an email as a friendly reminder. In that email let them know that you and your AE are looking forward to meeting them and talking about the services you have to offer. Throughout the rest of your day, keep an eye out for a reply and an accepted meeting invite. If neither come through, you are going to give them a call first thing tomorrow so you can get that accepted meeting invite.

There are many things we can use to add value to our follow-up emails that will increase the chances of prospects showing up. Let’s discuss adding videos and eGifts:

I always encourage my SDRs to send out Vidyards in their follow-up emails. Vidyard is a tool that allows SDRs to record themselves sharing a message with their prospect. This helps the prospect put a face to the name and makes things more personal.

Now that they’ve seen your face, they are less likely to feel like this is just another random sales meeting. Vidyard allows you to create an animated thumbnail which is more engaging than a static picture when glancing through the email. You’d be surprised at the number of people that show up to meetings when using Vidyard’s in an email reminder.

While this is a great tool for improving your follow-up emails, you can also use it to build rapport and explain what your product does in your regular outreach.

Another great tool for follow-ups is Sendoso. Sendoso is a sending platform that allows SDRs to send gift cards for almost anything. With Sendoso, you can send something as small as a $5 coffee card or something as extravagant as nice branded goodies with the prospect’s logo on them.

Sending out a simple $5 gift card to prospects goes a long way. Now, the prospect can come to their scheduled meeting with a nice cup of coffee on you!

Even though these tools help encourage our prospects to show up to meetings, the really important thing is the message. As SDRs, we always need to be mindful of our message when crafting our emails, Vidyard’s, notes, and more.

These tools, and so many others, are amazing but they are only helpful if we use them correctly and back them with powerful messaging.

Getting the messaging right can be hard. So when you’ve found something that gets results, turn it into a template.

Create email templates for every scenario you might encounter when communicating with your prospects. If you have email templates already created, you won’t need to take up precious time in recrafting your messaging. All you will need to do is fill in the variables and maybe something specific you saw on their LinkedIn profile and send it away!

Including something from your prospect’s LinkedIn profile in your follow-up email will show them you are truly interested in them rather than simply being interested in the meeting. More than that, LinkedIn is key when it comes to building relationships with your prospects. Everyone who is active on LinkedIn loves growing their network.

Make sure to connect with your prospect and similar people. These people will be sharing about the prospect’s company and other things the prospect may be interested in.

Give your profile more weight by actively sharing informational posts. When a prospect sees your connection request they might recognize your name from an email or phone call. If they do, they will most likely look at your page! Make sure there is content there for them to see the value you’re bringing to the table.

Even when we make sure our meetings get on the calendar, perfecting the follow-up is key to making sure those meetings happen. As SDRs, we should always be learning and improving our follow-up process. The more we learn, the more we can sharpen our skills and improve our sales outreach.

There are many tools that can help us improve our follow-up methods and our results. Keep an eye out for what’s new, what other people are using, and what’s working for them. Staying current is how we learn and get the best out of what’s available.

Always remember that it doesn’t matter if we set a meeting if we are not following up with it to make sure it happens.

Mildred Antonetty

Business Development Manager | Alleyoop

Mildred leads a team of ambitious SDRs and encourages them to grow each and every day. Outside of work, Mildred loves to travel, try new foods, and have adventures in the great outdoors.