Intro:The 4th Pillar in a successful Salesperson is the Follow Up process. Follow up is universal for any sales job and even customer Service.  When you take the time to get to know someone by building a profile of their needs and then you present them options to meet those needs you have to follow up with them to make sure they understand what you proposed as well as to show them what they can expect when working with you. 
Your product or your pitch will never be so great that just the thought of owning it will draw them back to you. Certainly if the prospect is in a point in the sales cycle where they need to buy you will get your answer right away but usually they believe they will take time to consider all of their options, weigh the pros and cons and then make a monumental good decision. However we know that usually they will just procrastinate until the last minute or be so confused over the options they will just pick one based on what the last representative told them. 
We have an ethical obligation as insurance agents to inform prospects of the options but ultimately they will choose something and if we are not close by or even on the phone when they make that decision you don't have any real ability to sway whether they are going to go with you. 
Following up puts you in the prospect's mind. Even if the products between you and another company are the same whoever follows up the most and builds the rapport and trust will be in the room or phone when they decide and thats the place you want to be.
Key Attributes: 

1. Collect X Dates: Know when they will be making a decision again. If you don't get the sale or you don't get all of their business you need to know when these policies renew and set yourself a reminder. 
2. Utilize Heroic Notes:You need to be taking notes throughout the process and they need to make sense to someone else reading them. You will not remember your short hand 6 months from now and be very clear for yourself for later. You want the client to not realize you are taking notes. 
3. Fail: I have something here about a third car if needed. Did I need to add an additional car for this time?
4. Win: So I wanted to ask did your mother end up moving in with you? You mentioned she has her own policy but you might consider adding her to your policy?
5. Set Reminders: If you use a monthly folders system great but preferably something with notifications like Google Calendar or a CRM that has built in customer profiles.

Closing:Your Success in Sales is directly linked to your follow up process and it is a process. You can not decide to follow up one way with one client and then not with another. You need a system that you can follow. You can spend forever looking up programs and automated emails systems and those are all great but they are worthless if you don't use them. Pick something even if its your Google Calendar and start making the decision to “Always Follow Up”. Set the expectation early once you present the quote as to when you are going to follow up. If they tell you that they will make the decision and then call you back. Great that's what their decision is but you still follow up anyway. Once you realize that every time you follow up is a free shot to them to complete a chore for the week or year then you will start seeing that you are not bothering them but providing value. 
I want to also take a second to let you know that I appreciate you following this podcast because this week is all about following up… Get after it.