Recap
Reflect back their goals, pain points and words, not your pitch. This proves you were listening rather than waiting for your turn to talk.
“You mentioned you are spending too much time in sales and it is slowing your ops team’s growth.”
Follow-up
Agency sales follow-up: the call went great, then what?
Agency sales follow-up is the stage where an interested prospect becomes a decision, and most agency deals are lost here, after the call, not during it.
Agency Sales Playbook treats follow-up as part of the delivery. A bland "just checking in" email undoes trust you built on the call. Every follow-up should recap what the prospect said, show relevance to their situation, and help them past the friction between interested and yes.
Last updated: · Published by Tim Kilroy
What should I send after an agency sales call?
Send a personalized recap, the same day if you can, built on three parts. Miss one and the email falls flat. Most salespeople recap their own pitch; strong ones recap the prospect's words.
Relevance
Tie your offer to their specific situation. Do not resell; they heard the pitch. Show how it applies to them, not the generic version.
“That is why our process starts by documenting what already works in your sales calls.”
Resolve friction
Guide them through what sits between interested and yes: an internal approval, a timing question, a budget conversation with their boss.
“Would a one-page summary help when you take this to your CFO next week?”
Definition
Follow-up, per Agency Sales Playbook
In the Agency Sales Playbook, follow-up is a planned stage of the agency sales process, not a bolt-on you do when you remember. It starts the moment a discovery or sales call ends and runs until the prospect signs or clearly says no. Each touch adds something: a recap in their words, a relevant example, an answer to an internal question, or a resource that helps them sell the idea to their boss. Template the structure so speed is easy. Never template the words, because personal follow-up is the whole point.
Numbers
Follow-up by the numbers
Figures cited in Tim Kilroy's Agency Sales Follow-Up Playbook:
- 80% of sales require five or more follow-ups after the first meeting.
- 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up attempt.
- 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
- 3x more likely to close with personalized follow-up than generic templates.
Separately, Leads at Scale reports that 93% of conversions happen after six or more follow-ups, yet most reps quit after one or two.
How many times should an agency follow up?
Plan for more than feels comfortable, and make each touch useful. A practical cadence: a recap the same day, a relevant resource or example a few days later, a check on internal approval the following week, then a clear question about timing. Stop when you get a decision, including a no. A clean no is information you can use in your win/loss review.
If follow-up keeps stalling at the same point, the problem is probably earlier in the process. Run the leak test on the agency sales funnel page to see which stage is losing deals.
Follow-up questions
How many follow-ups does it take to close an agency deal?
Often more than most agencies send. Tim Kilroy’s Agency Sales Follow-Up Playbook cites that 80 percent of sales require five or more follow-ups after the first meeting, while 44 percent of salespeople give up after one. Leads at Scale reports that 93 percent of conversions happen after six or more follow-ups. Each follow-up should add value, not just "check in."
See this answer in the full FAQWhat should a sales follow-up email include?
Every follow-up should include a recap of what the prospect said, in their words, and a clear tie between your offer and their specific situation. It should then help them past whatever friction sits between interested and yes, such as an internal approval or a timing question. A bland "just checking in" email can undo the trust you built on the call.
See this answer in the full FAQHow fast should an agency follow up after a call?
Fast. Tim Kilroy’s follow-up playbook cites that 35 to 50 percent of sales go to the vendor that responds first, which makes speed a trust signal. Aim to send a personalized recap the same day while the conversation is fresh. Template the structure, not the words, so speed never turns into a generic email.
See this answer in the full FAQWhat is the 3 3 3 rule in sales?
There is no single agreed definition of the 3 3 3 rule; different trainers use the phrase for different heuristics about timing, research or messaging. If someone on your team uses it, ask them to write down exactly what it means. For agencies, a more reliable rule is counting a deal in a stage only when the prospect has done something observable.
See this answer in the full FAQWhat are the 7 golden rules of sales?
There is no universal list of seven golden rules; it varies by author. For agency sales, the principles this playbook keeps returning to are: diagnose before you prescribe, discovery is not a sales call, recap the prospect’s words, follow up fast, count prospect actions not your activity, write the process down, and review every win and loss.
See this answer in the full FAQ