--- title: The Secret to Phone Call Follow Up - Excuses - CCSalesPro description: In today’s post I want to talk about something that very few sales people do well which is phone call follow up.  Too often I hear sales people kill a good prospect in their pipeline by calling them without a clear objective and then rambling until their prospect finally says, “No.”  The secret to effective […] image: https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/phone-call-follow-up-photo-e1480963671938.jpg --- Blog # The Secret to Phone Call Follow Up – Excuses In today’s post I want to talk about something that very few sales people do well which is phone call follow up. Too often I hear sales people kill a good prospect in their pipeline by calling them without a clear objective and then rambling until their prospect finally says, “No.” The secret to effective […] [ James Shepherd ](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/author/james-shepherd) Dec 5, 2016 --- In today’s post I want to talk about something that very few sales people do well which is phone call follow up.  Too often I hear sales people kill a good prospect in their pipeline by calling them without a clear objective and then rambling until their prospect finally says, “No.” ** The secret to effective phone call follow up is making an excuse for the call and then moving forward deliberately towards your objective.** In most cases, your objective is simply to get another face to face meeting so you can close the deals.  If that is your goal, all you need is an excuse to stop back by.  Here is an example follow up phone call.  You can design your own script but make sure to use words like, “drop off” “carefully consider” and “swing by” to make it impossible for your prospect to say “no.” Me: “Hello Susan?” Customer: “This is she.” Me: “This is James Shepherd, I met you last week on Tuesday, how are you doing today?” Customer: “Good” Me: “Real quick the reason for my call is that I know you had expressed an interest in our tablet point of sale system and I completely forgot to drop off the brochure on that technology solution. Sorry for dropping the ball on that, are you going to be available tomorrow around 4pm if I came by to drop that off so you can carefully consider the options that we have available.” Have a great day! James Shepherd ***Read previous post:  [Always Open the Can of Worms, After They Say “Yes”](https://www.ccsalespro.com/always-open-can-worms-say-yes/)*** > [Always Open the Can of Worms, After They Say “Yes”](https://www.ccsalespro.com/always-open-can-worms-say-yes/) ***Read next post:  [3 Keys to Selling Merchant Services to a Franchise](https://www.ccsalespro.com/3-keys-selling-franchise-merchant-services/)*** > [3 Keys to Selling Merchant Services to a Franchise](https://www.ccsalespro.com/3-keys-selling-franchise-merchant-services/) [Blog](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/tag/blog) [![https://www.ccsalespro.com/2026](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/images/blog%20sidebar/Vertical%20Mastery%20Webinar%20ad.jpg "https://www.ccsalespro.com/2026")](https://www.ccsalespro.com/2026) [![https://fullstackpayments.com/download-app](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/images/blog%20sidebar/FSP%20vertical%20ad.png "https://fullstackpayments.com/download-app")](https://fullstackpayments.com/download-app) [![How to Sell Merchant Services eBook](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/images/blog%20sidebar/ads-for-website-2.jpg "How to Sell Merchant Services eBook")](https://www.ccsalespro.com/how-to-sell-merchant-services-in-6-steps) [![GetIsoAmp.com](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/images/blog%20sidebar/ads-for-website-(1).jpg "GetIsoAmp.com")](https://getisoamp.com/index.php/request-demo/) ## Similar posts Blog ### [3 Sales Strategies that Work with Any Product or Service](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/3-sales-strategies-work-product-service) Yesterday I shared my favorite opening pitch which is a petition, today I want to share 3 additional prospecting strategies to grab your prospect’s... James Shepherd Sep 1, 2017 Blog ### [Fear of Phone Calls – Avoid This Prospecting Handicap](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/fear-phone-calls-avoid-prospecting-handicap) Fear of cold calling on the phone is a prospecting handicap that you must avoid. Sometimes this fear is not blatantly obvious. Sales people may know... James Shepherd Mar 30, 2018 Blog ### [The Plain Truth for Sales Professionals. Be Willing to Be Uncomfortable to Gain Success.](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/plain-truth-sales-professionals-willing-uncomfortable-gain-success) Do you know what one specific, all-important task sales people do? I’m going to help those of you who haven’t realized this yet: SALES PEOPLE MAKE... James Shepherd Dec 15, 2017 ### Get notified about new blog posts Enter your email to have each new CCSalesPro blog article delivered straight to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time. ![CCSalesPro logo white on dark](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/cc-sales-pro-footer.png) Text "Free" to (814) 482-2090 to get my latest eBook [![Facebook](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/icons/social-icon-facebook.png)](https://www.facebook.com/ccsalespro) [![LinkedIn](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/icons/social-icon-linkedin.png)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/ccsalespro/) [![Youtube](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/icons/social-icon-youtube.png)](https://www.youtube.com/user/CCSalesPro) [![Soundcloud](https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/icons/social-icon-soundcloud.png)](https://soundcloud.com/merchant-sales-podcast) - [Home](https://www.ccsalespro.com/) - [Blog](https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog) - [Podcast](https://www.ccsalespro.com/podcast) - [Training](https://www.ccsalespro.com/training) - [Partners We Trust](https://www.ccsalespro.com/companies-we-trust) © 2026 CCSalesPro, Inc. All rights reserved. Various trademarks held by their respective owners. CCSalesPro, Inc. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "James Shepherd", "url" : "https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/author/james-shepherd" }, "dateModified" : "2023-05-02T22:43:33.669Z", "datePublished" : "2016-12-05T13:56:18.000Z", "headline" : "The Secret to Phone Call Follow Up - Excuses - CCSalesPro", "image" : [ "https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/phone-call-follow-up-photo-e1480963671938.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.ccsalespro.com/blog/secret-phone-call-follow-excuses", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.ccsalespro.com/hubfs/ccalespro%20-%20white%20background-2.png" }, "name" : "CCSalesPro" } } ```