Workflow
Follow-up emails you only have to approve
Ask Cedric who you should follow up with. He reads your sent mail, finds the threads that went quiet, drafts each follow-up, and sends the ones you approve.
Benjamin Ben HattarMost deals and intros don't die with a no. They die in silence, because you sent the proposal, they didn't answer, and nobody wrote again. The follow-up is two lines. The hard part is remembering who needs one.
So skip the list. Ask one question in Slack, "who should I be following up with?", and Cedric goes through your sent mail. He comes back with the people waiting on you or gone quiet, a draft for each, and a button. You read, you approve, the emails go out from your address.
- One question in Slack replaces the follow-up list you never keep.
- He reads each thread before drafting, so the email picks up where the conversation stopped.
- Every email waits for your yes. "Send all" sends exactly the drafts you read.
- Ask once a day, or have him bring the list every weekday morning.
8:30 on a Tuesday
One question, three drafts.
Jonas Keller9:14 AM
@Cedric who should I be following up with?
CedricAPP9:15 AM
Three people. Priya at Halcyon got your proposal 6 days ago and hasn't replied. Tom at Brightline is still waiting for the pricing sheet you promised on Thursday. Marc at Beacon said "let's talk after the board meeting", which was yesterday. A draft for each is in the thread. Sara at Northwind wrote "back to this in January", so I'll bring her up on 5 January instead.
What counts as a follow-up
You wrote last. A proposal, an intro or a question, and no answer after three working days. Change the number if your deals move slower.
You promised something. "I'll send it Thursday" is in your own email, and Thursday passed with nothing sent.
They named a date. "After the board meeting" or "next week". When it passes, the thread comes back. When it's months away, he offers a reminder for that day.
A deal went quiet. With HubSpot connected, deals with no activity for two weeks can join the list, and he drafts from the email thread behind them.
Newsletters, receipts and automated mail stay out. So do threads that ended with a no.
Set it up
- 01
Add Cedric to Slack
Install him in your workspace. Ask in a direct message, or in a channel like #sales if the team shares the job. You start with 100,000 free credits, about $50 of work, and no card.
- 02
- 03
Ask the question
"Who should I be following up with?" Add a window if you want one: "from the last two weeks".
- 04
Approve
"Send all", "send Priya's", or "make Marc's shorter, then send". You can edit and approve in the same reply.
- 05
Make it daily
"Every weekday at 8:30, tell me who I should follow up with and draft the emails." You approve the schedule once. Each email still asks.
Tell him to stay quiet on days with nothing to chase, so the morning message always means something.
Teach him your rules once
Everyone chases differently. Say it once and it sticks in the workspace memory, for you and for anyone else on the team who asks. A few rules worth stating:
"Never write 'just checking in'. Every follow-up adds something: a date, a link, a question." "The second follow-up is shorter than the first." "After three with no answer, stop and tell me." "Investors get one follow-up, never two."
What stays with you
Every send. He drafts, you approve. Once an email is out, it's out, the same as if you had pressed send.
The judgment call. Some silences need a phone call or a different person on the thread. He can point at the thread. Deciding what to do with it is yours.
FAQ
Yes. The follow-up goes out from the inbox you connected, in the same thread, so the reply comes back to you.
He reads the whole thread first, so a follow-up you sent yourself counts. The next one is shorter, and it still waits for your yes.
Yes. Ask in a shared channel and anyone there can approve. Keep that channel to people who should be emailing customers. How approvals work has the rest.
That is a different job, a recap of what was said. See how to follow up after a sales call.
Free to start, no card.