You just finished an initial consultation. The client left after saying, “I’ll think about it and let you know.”

Should you follow up with the client? Should you call or write or what?

Here’s the deal: We are hesitant to follow up. We rationalize our hesitation by telling ourselves that we’ll be “pestering them,” that we’ll “look desperate,” or that we’re being “overly pushy.” It’s our resistance to selling our services that holds us back.

Quick story: When I was a young lawyer, I bought insurance—lots of insurance. I’ve got life, disability, etc. The salesperson was amazing at separating me from my money. I finally told him to just take my checkbook and do what he needed to do. I lost the ability to resist. Most of my income now goes to the insurance company.

At each of our meetings, this insurance guy pushed me to give him the names of lawyers to whom he could sell his insurance. I gave him every single person I knew, and he continued to push. He was relentless.

I had the opportunity to watch him sell to one of the partners in the firm where I was employed. Of course, I had given him her name, and he started calling her. She came to me and yelled at me for giving her name to him, and she didn’t return his calls. Giving him her name wasn’t really a good career move.

He called her once each day for a week and left a message. Then he called each day for the next week. Then he called each and every single day for a year.

What happened?

She finally met with him, and she bought insurance. I’m wiling to bet she still has the insurance today.

Was he desperate? Probably. Was he pestering her? Yes. Was he overly pushy? Totally.

Did it work? Yes.

Should you be the insurance guy? I don’t know, but it worked. It worked so well for this guy that he stopped taking new customers years ago so he could service his existing customers. In fact, he started culling the less profitable accounts so he could focus on his high net-worth clients. Yep, I think it worked pretty well.

Should you be that persistent? To tell you the truth, I doubt you have the ability to be that persistent. I don’t have it, and I don’t know anyone other than the insurance guy who can perform like that. If you’ve got it in you, then I say go for it.

But if you’re more like most of us, then I’d suggest you do more follow-up than you’re comfortable doing. When I get questions about how much follow-up to do, the question usually focuses on whether a second or third phone call is warranted. It’s rarely about making 200 phone calls to the same person. I’m confident that you can go much further than you are now without looking desperate, pestering, or being overly pushy.

Most of us are so unwilling to go very far with follow-up that I think we can easily go as far as we’re willing to go without creating backlash.

My advice is to go for it. Do as much follow-up as you can tolerate, and then do a bit more. See what happens. The proof, after all, is in the pudding. If it’s working, then keep doing it. If, after pushing, you find that it’s not working, then stop. Most of us have very little to lose by going beyond our comfort zone. Go for it, and let me know what happens.