How to follow up without being pushy and close more deals

You give them the price. They say they need to think about it. They need the financing. You book another appointment. They don't show. They don't text back. Most closers freeze right here. I built a system for it instead.

I'm Christian Polk. I've closed $9M+ in sales, and the follow up framework below is a huge reason why. If you're stuck at $7k to $25k months, I promise you, part of the problem is sitting in your pipeline right now, not in your lead flow.

Anyone who tells you not to follow up hasn't been in sales long

I need to say this clearly.

Anybody who's telling you that you don't need to follow up in order to make the most amount of money you need to be making in sales are just showing their cards that they really haven't been in sales for that long.

Lead flow ebbs and flows. No matter what offer you're on. If you're only living off inbound leads with no pipeline of people who are going to close later, you are fully dependent on marketing to feed you every single month. That's a terrible position to be in.

I'd rather learn from guys like Ryan Serhant, who's been in the game for decades and sold over a billion dollars in real estate. He followed up with one lead for seven years. No CRM automation, no software doing it for him. Just him staying on it. After seven years, that one follow up turned into a couple million dollars in commission.

That's the game. Follow up is not optional if you want to make real money in sales.

The follow up process starts on the call, not after it

Here's a mistake a lot of closers make. They think follow up is some separate skill you figure out after the call ends. Wrong. It starts at the end of the sales call itself.

The only reason you should ever be following up with a prospect is a logistical issue. That means:

• They don't have the money
• They don't have access to the money
• They don't have the time right at that moment

Fear and decision making process objections are different. Those get handled on the call itself, not pushed into a follow up sequence. If you're struggling with those, go watch my last video where I break that down.

What to do when the real issue is money

Money objections are the most common logistical issue you'll run into. Here's exactly what I do.

First, always try a funding option. If your company doesn't offer one, get them signed up for a credit card. I like the American Express Everyday Blue Cash card. Instant approval, 15 months interest free.

If there's truly no money and no credit, your job is to fight for them. You can't buy into their limitation that they can't find the money, because if you do, they stay stuck in the exact situation they called you to get out of.

Here's the reframe I use:

There's a difference between being broke and being poor. Being poor is a mentality, and poor people stay poor because they don't do anything about it.

Then I ask if they believe someone in a worse financial spot than them has ever figured out a way to get the outcome they want. They'll say yes. Then I ask what allowed that person to do it. I'm getting them to admit it's possible and that resourcefulness is the answer.

Then I ask directly, are you willing to get resourceful to get this outcome? You should get a yes here. If you don't, your discovery and objection handling earlier in the call wasn't solid enough.

From there, dig into the "why though." Any time someone takes a step in your direction, ask them why. It entrenches the belief deeper.

Building the game plan

If you've got a lower ticket option, downsell. If not, get a down payment or build a game plan around how they'll find the full investment.

I'll say something like:

Hey man, cool. I appreciate you being willing to be resourceful, because as long as you don't give up on yourself, I'm not gonna give up on you.

Then I ask what time frame feels reasonable to come up with the investment. Whatever they say, I challenge them to cut it in half. If they say three months, I ask if we can push it to six weeks. Most people say yes when you put a little pressure on it.

From there you build the actual plan together. Selling a car, asking family, picking up Uber or DoorDash shifts, a part time job. You're not doing this for them, you're holding their feet to the fire while they find their own solutions. Most people have problems and never actually sit down and solve them. You're the one making them do it.

Once the plan is set, ask how often they want you checking in. Most people say weekly, every two weeks, or monthly. Put it in your CRM or calendar and call them exactly when you said you would.

Your pipeline is leaving money on the table right now

Think about your pipeline in stages: seven days out, two weeks out, one month out, one to three months out, three plus months out. Your entire job as a closer is moving people down that line toward seven days out, because that's where deals close.

Do the math with me. If you're getting $500 per sale and you've got nine people sitting in your pipeline who are close but not quite there, that's $4,500 you're leaving on the table. Just from not following up.

Five minute conversations every few weeks with these people is one of the highest ROI moves you can make. You're building an ecosystem around yourself instead of depending entirely on fresh leads.

The ghost SOP for when they don't show

Say you booked them for Friday because they get paid Friday, and they just don't show. Here's what I run.

First, the principles:

• People forget, stuff happens, it's not personal
• Take your emotions out of it
• Always assume they got busy
• Get them on a call, not a text thread, objections are hard to handle over text
• If they text or email first, call them
• Make every text or email about getting them on a call, in their best interest

If they said something like "we talked to my wife and decided it's too much money," I'll call, get no answer, then text something like, "No worries, just so you know we can be flexible on the investment to make the numbers work. Worth a five minute chat to look at the numbers?" I'm dangling a reason for them to hop back on the phone.

Get out of your comfort zone. Don't get in your head about being pushy or needy. Drop your ego and put in the work.

People don't know you. They're not thinking about you. They've got their own life going on. You will make more money being persistent than being timid.

Here's the actual cadence I run for the first week:

• Day 1: Call twice (do not disturb blocks single calls a lot of the time), then text something simple like "..?"
• Day 2: Call twice, then text with humor. Something like "everything good? starting to wonder if you got abducted by aliens"
• Day 3: Call, then send a gif or meme, keep it light
• Day 4: Text and email, "Hey, I tried to get back to you but didn't hear back... where should we go from here? I'm available the next few hours"
• Day 5: Call, then send a more direct meme like "not sure if you're busy or ignoring me"
• Day 6: Call, then shift to sending value, a client win, a result, a time frame
• Day 7 and beyond: Keep sending value and memes, drop the call volume, but never fully stop

After day five, they already know you're trying to reach them. At that point you're just staying top of mind with value until whatever is going on in their life clears up.

Be everywhere. If five contacts across call, text, and email don't work, find other channels. Different number, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. Just stay on it.

Don't overcomplicate the message

The biggest mistake I see is people overthinking what to actually say. It's simple.

Hey, how are things going? Where are we at from the last time we chatted? Have things changed?

That's it. Keep it basic, straight, and to the point and you will close more deals from your existing pipeline than you think.

The bottom line

Follow up isn't some annoying extra task. It's where a huge chunk of your income is hiding right now. Fight for people who have real logistical issues, build real game plans with them, and run a simple, human cadence when they ghost you. Stop taking it personally, stop overcomplicating the message, and start treating your pipeline like the asset it actually is.