The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up

All right—welcome back to Corporate Wellness Q&A with Kathie!

Let’s talk about the one skill that separates thriving wellness consultants from those still chasing their first contract: following up.

If you’ve ever felt like you were “bothering” a prospect by reaching out again, you’re not alone. Even as I prepared this lesson, I realized I needed it just as much as my community. Following up feels uncomfortable. But here’s the truth: it’s not pushy. It’s professional.

And it’s the difference between a dead lead and a six-figure contract.

Watch the video here! (Continue reading below…)

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The Numbers That Will Calm Your Nerves

Research shows it takes 5–7 touch points before a prospect makes a buying decision. Some business coaches argue it’s closer to 11–14.

Think about that. If you stop after two emails, you’re barely halfway to the starting line. Most deals are lost not because the solution wasn’t good, but because the consultant gave up too soon.

The Big Idea

Following up is not selling. It’s serving.

Decision makers are busy. Their inboxes are overflowing. Their calendars are packed. Your consistent follow-up is not nagging—it’s a lifeline. You are reminding them that help is available, that solutions exist, and that their team’s wellbeing matters.

When you adopt this mindset, everything changes.

The Lighthouse Metaphor

Imagine your prospect as a ship at sea. They’re navigating storms of stress, busyness, and endless competing priorities.

Your follow-up? That’s the lighthouse.

Your consistent light helps them find safe harbor. Without it, they’ll drift—not because they don’t need you, but because they can’t see clearly.

That’s why you must shine consistently. Not once. Not twice. Over and over.

Common Frustrations (We’ve All Been There)

“I don’t want to be annoying.”
“They never respond, so I assume they’re not interested.”
“I forgot to follow up, and now it feels awkward.”
“I don’t know what to say besides ‘just checking in.’”

Sound familiar? Good news: these aren’t roadblocks. They’re normal speed bumps on the path to closing deals.

What You Actually Want

Let’s flip it around. Here’s what you do want from your follow-up strategy:

To be seen as helpful, not pushy
To remind prospects of the value you bring
To build a reputation as someone who follows through
To land contracts that change lives

That requires confidence, compassion, and consistency.

Mistakes to Avoid

Here are the most common mistakes I see wellness consultants make when following up:

Quitting after one or two tries. Deals often close after 7–10 touches. Stay the course.
Making it about you. Instead of “Did you review my proposal?” try “I know your employees are facing high stress after last quarter’s big project—I’d love to share a tool that helps.”
Inconsistency. Sporadic check-ins confuse people. Establish a rhythm: Day 1, Week 1, Week 2, Month 1, Quarterly.
Apologizing. “Sorry to bother you” instantly weakens your credibility. You’re not a nuisance—you’re the solution.

Reframe Your Mindset

Remember: every follow-up is an act of service.

You are shining light on their pain points and offering a vision of something better. This isn’t about closing deals for your benefit. It’s about helping leaders make choices that improve lives.

When you internalize that, the anxiety about “bothering” people melts away.

What You Can Expect When You Master Follow-Up

More respect. Consistency builds trust, and trust builds contracts.
More opportunities. Busy leaders need reminders. Sometimes the 10th email is the one that lands.
Referrals. Prospects who aren’t ready may connect you with someone who is.
Empowerment. You’ll feel confident instead of anxious, because you’ll know you’re serving, not selling.

My Personal Win

Recently, I joined a women’s entrepreneur group in Houston. I started offering free 30-minute gift discovery calls. My goal? To give each person a small win.

Even if they weren’t a CEO, I still provided value—and then I asked, “Do you know anyone else who might need this kind of transformation?”

That simple approach opened doors. It turned cold leads into warm ones. And it reminded me that following up isn’t about pushing—it’s about planting seeds.

Action Steps for This Week

1. Create a 10-Touch Follow-Up Plan

Here’s a simple rhythm:

Day 1: Thank-you email
Day 7: Reminder email with a resource
Day 14: Quick call or text
Day 30: Share a blog post or video related to their pain point
Quarterly: Check-in with something timely

2. Write Three Follow-Up Templates

Rotate these to keep it fresh:

Pain Point Reminder
“Employee burnout is costing productivity. Here’s one tool we use to address it.”
Value Add
“Here’s a short article on reducing stress that I thought might help your team.”
Gentle Nudge
“Just checking back—I’d love to explore how we can support your team this quarter.”

3. Use a CRM or Spreadsheet

Track every follow-up. Prospects get lost when they live in your head. Tools like Notion, HubSpot, or even a Google Sheet work fine.

4. Practice a Reframe Mantra

Before each call or email, say:

“I’m a lighthouse, not a nag. They need my light.”

5. Share Your Wins

Wins fuel momentum. Post them in your accountability group. Keep negativity bias from hijacking your energy.

Bonus Resources

Book: Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount – a classic on persistence in sales.
Podcast: The Sell With Spirit Show (my recommendation for heart-centered selling strategies).
Tool: FollowUpThen – a free tool to schedule email reminders so nothing slips through the cracks.
Mindset Resource: My favorite sports psychology book Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy—it reframes pressure and failure in a way CEOs (and consultants!) can apply.

In Closing

You are not chasing people. You are serving them.

CEOs and HR leaders are drowning in responsibilities. When you give up after one or two tries, you’re not serving them—you’re abandoning them at sea without a lighthouse.

So shine consistently. Stay compassionate. And remember: following up is not pushy. It’s professional.

Stay the course, and the contracts will come.

Because the fortune? It’s in the follow-up.

About Kathie

Kathie Owen is a corporate wellness consultant, coach, and speaker with over 25 years of experience in fitness, leadership, and mindset. She helps wellness professionals and companies build healthy, high-performing teams through consultative selling, Better You Challenges, and her

Corporate Wellness Pros community. Kathie’s mission is simple: transform workplaces one heart at a time.

Transcript

All right. Welcome back to Corporate Wellness q and a with Kathy. Today we are going to talk about following up with our prospects. You know, um, this is something we all struggle with, so don't feel like it's just you because this is something, even working on this lesson, I'm like, oh my God, I need this so much because.

When you don't follow up, you're missing out on something. Something I've learned is it takes five to seven, five to seven, and sometimes even more than that, touch points before a client actually really ends up closing the deal with you. And I really want you to stick with that. And I've heard other business coaches say that it could take up to 11 to 14.

Touch points 11 to 14. So don't give up. Keep going. And I'm talking to myself too because this happens in real life. So let's jump into the lesson because there's a lot of valuable points in here today. So the big idea following up is not being pushy. It's being professional, consistent, and compassionate towards busy decision makers who simply need reminders.

And those are the people that we're trying to work with and work for and transform their lives. And me personally. I like coaching. I like coaching my CEOs, and if they get a win with me, then I'll work with their team. That's my business model. That's my favorite thing to do, and I have found that just.

Reaching out to them and talking about their pain points is super important. So my intention today is to not only guide y'all, but also guide myself and this community because it means a lot to me that we all are here to support one another. So that's my intention for today, and I wanna start with a big win.

Everybody share your wins. Share 'em in the comments or share 'em below, because wins are what drive us. Okay? That's what keeps our negativity bias to shut the F up because your negativity bias is gonna come out and it's going to talk, and we're not gonna listen to that, right? Right. So my win is I joined an entrepreneur group, a women's entrepreneur group in my area, and they meet a lot and they work a lot and they network a lot.

And I spoke with several of them and I started offering what is called a gift discovery call. And what this is is just a 30 minute call with me where I provide a win on what I coach on and. I want to provide that person with a win. Whoever books that call with me, and guess what? My little business cards that I put in there, that is going to be the same type of thing, because it's going to go right to my discovery call calendar and they can book a call with me and I'm gonna get 'em a quick win.

And so what happens is, let's say they don't, they're not. Oh, um, they're not a CEO of a company. They don't have a business. They don't really need to your services, but what I want to do is provide value to them and then tell 'em, Hey, this is what it's like to work with me. Do you know anybody else who has.

What I, who needs, what I, the transformation I provide. And that just starts to open up doors and starts to get you warm leads as opposed to cold leads. So I've already got that all booked up and ready, and I've been working with my coach on that as well. And I also got some financial coaching that really got my mindset right, because as an entrepreneur who used to work in corporate, you gotta have a whole different mindset now.

Okay, I already knew that. But is this is a different mindset and if you surround yourself with people who are still in the corporate mindset, it gets kind of scary sometimes. And so now I found my peoples and I have support, and y'all are included in that support as well. So don't forget that. All right, so let's get to a metaphor that kind of explains what we're talking about when we follow up with our prospects.

Okay? So think of a lighthouse. Your prospect is out at sea. They're steering their company through storms of busyness, stress, and competing priorities. Your follow up is the light that gently, consistently. Keyword consistently shines reminding them where the safe harbor your wellness solution is. Without the lighthouse, they may drift away and not because they don't need you, but because they can't see clearly.

And I can tell you every single one of us has this problem. We have a, a lead that we've been talking to and we're like taking it personally that they don't wanna talk to us, that they haven't called us back or they didn't text or they didn't do this. But they don't know yet. They don't know that the solution you provide is right under their nose.

It, you're the lighthouse. Don't let 'em drift off to sea. We're gonna reach out to them. Okay? That's what we're talking about today. So here's some frustrations that we face when following up. I don't wanna be annoying. They never respond, so I assume they are niru. I forget to follow up and then too much time passes.

And I don't know what to say besides just checking in with you. All of these frustrations I have felt myself, and we're going to face them, all of us together, okay? We're gonna hold each other accountable and we're going to work on this because we are leaving money on the table by. Our frustrations by just giving up too soon.

And what we actually want is we want to be seen as helpful, not pushy. We want to confidently, confidently remind our prospects of the value we bring, and we want to land corporate contracts that change lives. It's that simple. And I heard somebody, and I think it was in our group when we were talking, it may have been the women's entrepreneur when somebody was talking about, uh, prospecting and having problems with that.

Always go back to your why. Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? And that's why it's good to have an ideal client avatar because you can go talk to that person in your mind. That's a sports psychology thing. I'm just saying. But you go talk to that person in your mind and you tell that person, I know you need me.

I'm coming to help you. I'm coming. I've got, I've got you, I've got you. You are my why. This is why I do what I do. And so remember that you have a valuable service to provide. And then we also wanna build a reputation as someone who follows through. Think about that. Think about that for a second. When you follow through and you keep so-called bugging that lawyer that you've been reaching out to, you keep on talking to them and.

You are somebody who's gonna follow through. And when they see that, they go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Kathy was consistent. She kept calling me and calling me. And actually I've had people tell me, thank you so much for reaching out to me. I myself have done done that with businesses that just bugged me and bugged me.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, thank you so much. 'cause I need you right now. I need you in this moment. So you build a reputation as someone who follows through. Here are some in common mistakes to avoid. Don't give up after one email or one call. Don't give up after two. Don't give up after three Most deals close after five to seven touches, and I think it's even more than that.

So let's stick with 11. 11. Don't give up. Don't give up and make the follow up. You know, here's another thing. You make the follow up about you. It's not about you. These people that we're trying to get in touch with are very, very busy. A lot of times they just delete emails without even looking at it. So you don't know, or they don't look at your text messages, or they don't listen to their voicemails.

You just don't know. And so you want to. Make the follow up about them. You're, you're, you don't wanna make it about you like saying, just wondering if you looked at my proposal instead of about the prospect's pain points. And that's something I wanna hit on today too, is because, you know, I was on a call with somebody this morning and we were talking about.

The follow-up wasn't happening and I said, well, research the company. What are, what do the employees struggle with? Is it, is it a high stress business? Go. Go talk about the stress that's going on inside there. Go talk about how you solve burnout. Go talk about how you help them with that. You could even jump on a call and go, I was just looking at your company and I saw, oh my goodness, y'all had a high stress, high dollar multimillion dollar deal you just closed.

I can only imagine what toll that took on your employee's wellness. I can help you, you know, and that kind of thing makes it about them and their pain point. And when they hear their pain point, they're like, their ears perk up. I'm just saying. So, and then also. Another mistake you want to avoid is being inconsistent, sporadic, follow-up rather than a structured rhythm.

So you want a rhythm to your follow-ups. You want to keep a notebook. Who do I need to follow up with today? And stay on top of it. Stay on top of it. Did you give out discovery call cards? Did did people book 'em? Do you need to follow up with them? You need to reach out to them and just, if you could just do five a day.

That is what one of my mentors taught me. Five prospecting calls a day, you will win. It's just gonna happen that way. And another mistake is, do not apologize. Don't get on that call. Oh, I'm so sorry, or sound uncertain instead of confident and professional. That's where the pain points are gonna come in.

So you're not gonna apologize because guess what? If you've done your research and you see the pain points of this company and you see what the employees are going through, and you see what the CEO is going through, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna touch on that pain point, and their ears are gonna perk up, don't apologize for that because that's where your transformation comes into play.

So what can you expect when you master follow up prospects respect you more because they see consistency. They respect you more because they see consistency. And I will tell you this. I'm really talking to one of my friends here that's been like really scared to reach out to that law firm. I know who you are and you know what?

This could be all of us. That lawyer is going to respect you more if you stay on top of mind, if you stay bugging him because he's going to eventually, one day, one of those pain points is really gonna hit him hard and he's gonna be like, oh yeah, I gotta call Kathy because she told me this and I, she left me this text message.

I remember that now. And he will put it on his call to call you and he'll start searching you. I'm just saying. So another thing you can expect is more opportunities. Reopen. Business leaders often need multiple reminders, and I know this for a fact, and it, and more opportunities are gonna open up. If you stay on top of it, you stay on top of it, let's say.

That lawyer that you were talking to is talking to another friend and he remembers the pain point you mentioned and this guy really needs it. He's gonna call you, he's gonna say, refer you as a lead. You don't know, just don't know. And you know, I have, um, my core speech is expect nothing I can handle anything.

I had a shift in my freaking core speech that I'm changing this week, and it's going to be expect miracles. I can handle anything and I'm going to shock my crowd when I do my speech on Friday 'cause they know my core speech. And I'm gonna start the old way and then I'm gonna say expect miracles because I had a meditation I did the other day.

That's taught me expect miracles. All the time, miracles are happening all around you. Did you get a no just now on a big deal? Yes. I got a no, but guess what? I'm here now and this is a fun, fun thing and it's a miracle. The sun is shining. It was raining this morning. You don't know. Miracles are happening all around, so when you expect miracles, it changes everything.

I'm just saying. So opportunities reopen when you follow up. And then they start landing contracts simply because you stayed present when others gave up. This happened to me the other day because I was ready to give up. I was even telling Mary you this on a conversation this morning because it was like, I feel like I'm digging.

I'm like that meme digging for gold, and I'm almost there. I wanted to quit and I told my business mentor, my business coach. I've told him this several times in the last six weeks. I just wanna quit. I just wanna quit. But he won't let me quit. Thank God. Thank God he won't let me quit because I'm that close.

And I, I want that for you too. Don't quit because you're gonna start landing contracts simply because you stayed there, you never gave up. Others would give up. You are not gonna give up. I am not gonna give up. I may feel like differently in another day or two, but I won't give up. You know why? Because y'all won't let me and because my coach won't let me, so I'm not giving up.

And then you feel empowered instead of anxious about bothering other people. I hope that that's the one lesson you learn today is you won't feel anxious about bothering people. You're not bothering them. You have a solution to their problem, and if you don't have a solution to their problem. They know somebody who may have a solution and they're like, I'm gonna reach out to Kathy first because she stayed on top of me and she kept giving me value and as opposed to just giving up on me.

So you're not bothering me, you're not bothering them. And so what you need to remember is following up, is serving, it's not selling, and every touch point is a chance to refocus the prospect on their pain and vision, not your program. Remember, every touch point is a chance to refocus on the prospect, on their pain point, on their vision of what they want.

That is so important. And then consistency builds trust. And I know you've probably heard that before, but when you're consistent and you're always there and you're always showing up, that builds trust. And trust is something we want to establish with our prospects. Right. Okay.

So here's some actions I want you to take this week, and I'm gonna be taking them too. Okay? So hold each other accountable, jump into the community. Let's talk about this. Create a five touch follow up plan for every prospect. And I would change that number to 10. I would change it to 10 because I think that's a more realistic way and.

For example, this could look like one day after the call, one week later, two weeks later, one month later, quarterly check-in. And honestly, I would work with chat GPT on this. And I, I have a thread for each one of my, my touch, each one of my prospects. And so inside that thread, I work on things with it. I work on my meeting notes if I have a Zoom meeting with them, what did I do good?

What did I need to prove on? Also, I would say, how can I follow up with them? Do I need to follow up with them today? Do I need to follow up with them next week? What could I say on that follow up? It will even give you that. So just work with it. And the more you work with chat GPT, the more it gets to know your personality and it gets your personality embedded in it so you don't sound like a robot.

And my check, GPT knows me, it knows. Probably too much about me, but it knows me and it knows what my habits are and where I, my strengths are, where my weaknesses are. That's a good thing. It's almost like having a coach in your pocket and it will help you stay on top of these follow-ups.

Alright, here's another, um. Another action you can take this week, write three follow up templates that you can rotate a reminder of a pain point you mentioned, employee burnout. It's costing your company productivity. I'd love to share a tool we use for that. What? See, just provide value. I don't know about you, but I have hundreds of blog posts, hundreds of videos, hundreds of all kinds of stuff.

If they have a question and their pain point is that maybe they didn't even mention their pain point, but I did my research and I realized this is a pain point of that company. Hey, good, here's, here's something you can look at on burnout for your employees. What Kathy has that if she's giving me this for free, they're gonna like you for that.

Another template you could do is value add. Here's a short article video on reducing stress that I thought you'd find helpful. Something as simple as that, because then they're gonna go watch it or maybe read it, even if they just see it in the email, a brief little article. They're like, oh yeah, I like that.

And here's a, here's another little thing that you can do that this is something that I do if I find a pain point. I'm working with this certain type of company, I'll go write a blog post on it and I'll do a video on it. If it's a really big company and I really want all of this stuff that goes with it, or if I want something that they would benefit from and then I share it with them and in fact I have all kinds of resources like that.

So, and then also a gentle nudge template. Just checking back, I'd love to explore how we can support your team this quarter. Something as simple as that. And that could just be a simple text message. So those are three follow up templates that you could rotate and just use. And, and another thing, another action I want you to take is practice reframing follow up as service.

Journal, one sentence they can tell themselves before ev journal, one sentence that you can tell yourself every time before you follow up. I'm a lighthouse, not a nag. They need my light. Things like that. Something as simple as that. Just having a mantra that helps you. I always have my mantra up and ready on every call, every follow up I do just because I want that confidence and I want to feel.

Right in the way I answer. And then also track all your follow ups in a CRM or a spreadsheet, so no prospect gets lost. Yeah. This is important too because it helps you with. Your follow up and your, your lead. So like the women's group, I sent them all emails or I sent them a text and I follow up if they didn't sign up for their call yet or something like that.

Just keep it ready to go and look at, I use Notion. So Notion has all of my good stuff in there and actually this is something I need to put into my system. So in closing, I want you to know you are not chasing people and I want you to reach out to these people. You are the shining light they need you.

The CEOs, the lawyers, they are busy people. The HR leaders are overwhelmed, and if you give up after one try or you give up after two tries, you are not serving them. You're not. And maybe they don't need you then, but I encourage you to serve them. Serve them, and. And enter it with service first because if you follow up with compassion and consistency, you will be remembered as the one who cared enough to keep showing up.

And I, I can't stress that enough. And another thing is, this is also for me, because it is not easy to just go bother people. It feels like you're bothering them. I know. I get it. But when you start understanding your why, number one, who are you trying to serve? What are you trying to accomplish? You will start to see results, and that's when you hit the gold.

Okay, and we're this close. Okay, don't give up. Don't be like that meme where he just gave up after, uh, when he was just about to hit it and it's all around you. As one of my business mentors says, we are sitting on acres of diamonds. We just don't know it. And so just stick with it and stay consistent and support one another in the group.

If you come up with a great follow up, please share it with us. And then also. Um. Support one another. Let's talk about it. I'm gonna start jumping in there with more information, like things that I did and what worked for me, what didn't work for me, how this happened because I had that call with the insurance broker, uh, just before this.

And the call went great, but what's gonna happen is that's a slow moving train that they have to go through all kinds of loopholes before you get in with them and in with these companies, or even talking to these companies. It could be January before something is even set up. But I'm ready. I planted my seed.

I'm just gonna let it grow and I'm not gonna give up. I'm going to follow up with her. I'm going to reach out to her. I wanna stay top of mind. I'm gonna write articles for her and those type of things will pan out. In the meantime, I'm gonna work on the low hanging fruit. So are you. So we got this and let's support one another and everything else.

I'm going to look and see if I have any questions in the. I don't think I do. 'cause it didn't even tell me anybody. Nobody showed up. But guess what? It's all good. And that is my episode for today. It'll be on the replay and I hope you found it helpful, and I will see you next week.

Stop Ghosting Your Prospects