How should I follow up after sending a proposal and Loom video?
Follow‑up cadence matters. I recommend reaching out every 48 hours rather than daily or hourly, giving prospects breathing room. After sending a Loom video, you still need to send a written proposal they can sign. The proposal creates a transformation event, but remember that signing doesn’t guarantee payment—clients can still disappear. Define a clear transformation and use it as a trigger for automation, such as sending a follow‑up if payment isn’t received within X days. When crafting follow‑up emails, keep them concise and value‑focused. Example scripts: “Hey Pete, just checking in on the proposal. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Nick.” or “Hey Pete, I noticed you haven’t opened the proposal yet. I wanted to bring it to the top of your inbox.” Add value by sharing industry news or free resources, but avoid changing the scope of work. Consistency and adding value are the 80/20 of successful follow‑ups.
Treat follow‑ups as a normal part of the process, not a big deal. Send them consistently – the follow‑up itself is most of the battle. Use simple, boring messages like “Hey Pete, just checking in on the proposal. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Nick,” or “Hey Pete, just wanted to make sure you had a chance to look at the proposal; I see it’s still unread in PandaDoc, so I’m bumping it to the top of your inbox,” or “Hey Pete, I’m juggling a few proposals right now and wanted to make sure you’ve had a chance to review this before I commit to someone else.” Add value without changing the scope: include relevant industry news, mention similar clients who are seeing good results, share a roadmap, or point out a new opportunity, but don’t actually alter the original offer.
You should aim for a retainer or monthly subscription instead of sending a new proposal every time. Bundle your deliverables into a recurring package—e.g., X systems per month, a weekly strategy call, daily Slack availability, etc. You can also charge hourly, but a retainer minimizes friction on follow‑up projects and keeps the relationship smooth. Include any legal terms like IP, NDA, or unsolicitation clauses in the agreement.
The main issue is that your 7‑, 14‑, and 30‑day follow‑up cadence is too long for today’s average internet user. Shorten it to roughly every 48 hours. In Instantly, change the ‘send next message in’ setting from 7 days to 2 days. Next, improve your follow‑up subject lines: avoid automatic ‘Re:’ lines, which perform poorly, and instead use fresh, personalized subject lines—add the prospect’s first name, keep it casual and lowercase—to boost reply rates. In the body of each follow‑up, reference the previous email and include a brief ‘cliffnotes’ recap so the prospect can quickly remember the context. Start with only two follow‑ups in your campaign; test the reply rates. If they’re decent and deliverability stays healthy, add another follow‑up after a week, then continue adding them weekly only while you see improvement. This gradual approach can potentially double your reply rate without hurting deliverability. Finally, make sure your pitch for selling expensive glass artworks to architects, developers, and contractors is strong, as the niche itself is interesting but needs a compelling offer.
Nick says spending an hour on follow‑ups is normal and part of the game; in his door‑to‑door marketing days, most outreach time was spent on follow‑ups, and they later moved to cold calling and phone sales, with the first two hours of the day spent following up on warm leads. He explains that money is in the follow‑up because even slight interest is hard to get from a cold offer, so you want to squeeze that interest as much as possible. Regarding automating follow‑ups: if they’re templated, you could automate, but he prefers personalizing follow‑ups when possible, especially if the prospect showed personalized interest. He notes that free automation tools exist (like connecting via make.com or using Claude routines) but at scale you’ll need to do more, implying paid solutions are necessary.