Follow-Up Essentials for Effective Team Negotiation

A group meeting without 1:1 follow ups is like a wedding without a photographer. Sure, it happened. But if no one remembers it, what did it actually do? Reps spend hours prepping for the big meeting. Deck’s tight. Stakeholders are there. Some smiles, some nods, maybe even a few good questions. Then they send…a generic recap to the thread. And then they wonder why momentum stalls. Here’s how to turn polite applause into pipeline movement: 1. 1:1 messages are your post game locker room. Want buy in? Don’t rely on the group chat. Send tailored notes to each stakeholder. “You flagged onboarding risk...here’s how we handled that for [peer company].” It shows you listened - and it invites the next conversation. 2. Executive stakeholders don’t care about your product. They care about their scoreboard. Skip the features. Speak to what moves their metrics. “Here’s how this helps you reduce implementation time by 30%” hits harder than a 20-slide deck. 3. Surface the quiet no. Group meetings are a performance. Objections get buried. But a single DM like “Curious to get your honest take...any hesitation on your side?” can unlock the real blockers. I know of a rep who's entire deal turned when a silent stakeholder said, “Honestly, I didn’t get it.” That message led to a 15 minute call. And the win. The meeting gets the attention. The follow up gets the deal. Don’t let your pitch die in the group thread.

Here's exactly how I structure my follow-ups to stop deals from slipping or ghosting at the last minute. Buyers ask themselves 5 crucial questions before they spend money. So we match our follow ups to each different question of the buying journey. The questions: 1/ "Do we Have a Problem or Goal that we Urgently need help with?" Follow up examples: Thought Leadership emphasizing the size / importance of the problem. Things like articles from Forbes, McKinsey, HBR or an industry specific publication. Screenshots, summations or info-graphics. NOT LINKS. No one reads them. 2/ "What's out there to Solve the Problem? How do Vendors differ?" Follow up examples: Sample RFP templates with pre-filled criteria. Easy to read buying guides. Especially if written by a 3rd party. 3/ "What Exactly do we need this Solution to do? Who do we feel good about?" Follow up examples: 3 bullets of criteria your Buyers commonly use during evaluations (especially differentiators.) Here's example wording I've used at UserGems 💎: "Thought you might find it helpful to see how other companies have evaluated tools to track their past champions. Their criteria are usually: *Data quality & ROI potential *Security (SOC2 type 2 and GDPR) *How easy or hard is it to take action: set up/training, automation, playbooks Cheers!" 4/ "Is the Juice worth the Squeeze - both $$$ & Time?" Follow up examples: Screenshots of emails, texts or DMs from customers talking about easy set up. Love using ones like the Slack pictured here. Feels more organic and authentic than a marketing case study. 5/ "What's next? How will this get done?" Follow up examples: Visual timelines Introductions to the CSM/onboard team Custom/short videos from CSM leadership When we tailor our follow ups to answer the questions our Buyers are asking themselves - Even (especially!) the subconscious ones Our sales cycles can be smoother, faster and easier to forecast. Buyer Experience > Sales Stages What's your best advice for how to follow up? ps - If you liked this breakdown, join 6,000+ other sellers getting value from my newsletter. Details on my website!

The day after a customer onsite, you should call each person that you met with and do the following: 1. Thank them 2. Ask for feedback Use these conversations to: 1. Set additional demos/meetings (set multiple next steps in parallel, do not do them in linear fashion unless you want to slow down your deal) 2. Learn where you stand in the evaluation 3. Figure out who at the company actually has influence on the decision-making process If you do this right you'll go from having 1 main contact at an account to having multiple relationships driving your deal forward. You can even run this play on virtual demos if there is a big group. Big team meetings can be one of your best multithreading tools if you take this follow-up approach.