The Follow-Up Problem: What Happens Between First Contact and Closed Deal

The majority of sales teams learn to do two things well: kick-start an initial conversation or close once a prospect is ready to sign on the dotted line. It's what's in between these two points, however, that continues to doom sales to massive potential revenue losses. Someone shows interest, you get them on the phone, they're intrigued but says they need to think it over/talk with management, and poof! Or maybe you check in with them a week later and get no response. They ghost and the lead disappears.

This is the middle ground in which salespeople lose interest, valuable time, and prospective revenue. It's not that they were terrible leads or an improper product; it's just that without someone actively managing what's in between this waiting limbo, which can span weeks or months, people gradually fall out of interest.

Why There's a Gap to Begin With

The entire process of selling takes place via heavily-manufactured means. People rely on paid ads, proper web design, and sometimes outreach to secure leads. The information in between is often semi-automated or completed by a team with little cohesion. Otherwise, why would companies spend so much time and effort generating interest and hiring salespeople for closing with little time spent teaching how to engage someone who isn't ready yet?

The process is as follows: a lead comes through the door, someone reaches out to them and speaks with them about their interests, and since they aren't able to sign at that moment (i.e., need money first, need to research other options, too many other priorities without a functional deadline), they're added to a CRM with reminders to engage later. At this stage, later engagement comes here and there as check-ins that neither retract nor grow interest.

Time doesn't help with this either. B2B buying is not 24-hour quick. Even the easiest products or services take months from first conversation to signed deal; digital subscription companies might get 30-90 days. Larger-scale projects take six months or longer. In that time, people switch jobs, interests shift, or they completely forget that they were ever thinking about your product since they've spoken with twelve others since.

The Cost of Poor Follow-Up

When this stagnation occurs in the middle ground, the revenue issue stacks up quickly. Per lead generated, think about how much money has been spent getting them to this initial point. If you're paying £50 or £100 or more to get someone to schedule with you just for them to ghost when you send them a request to follow up two weeks later, that's half of your expenditures on sales-down-the-drain.

But it goes further than the acquisition cost. There's time spent by your team getting on the phone with someone who takes their call and is genuinely interested. There's opportunity cost for having this money in your pipeline and not being able to capitalize on it because someone ghosted. And there's competitive cost, once you lose touch with someone, chances are they've reached out to someone else and they're actively searching for a solution again.

Thus, businesses try automation. They set up email sequences that automatically get sent out at automatic times. And while automation has its place in the sales cycle, this area has none. Emails cannot feel the room. They cannot change based on what's happening with that person since they've engaged. They cannot answer questions relative to their curiosity when they suddenly become interested and want an insight of information instantly. Many companies benefit from working with a lead nurturing agency to provide both customizable frameworks combined with nurture, actual humans, to get them over the line without going cold.

What Should Actually Occur

A system needs active management in between that first connection and final closing discussion. This means getting to know how someone is feeling about their place in the cycle and how best they can move forward from there. Are they still rounding up information? Find strong case studies to send them. 

Find insights about the problem they defined as necessary that your product could fix that isn't as pressing yet. They're just inquiring for now. Perhaps they're investigating their options now - send them things that help differentiate your approach/solution without a hard sell, but find different methods of engagement that'll help engage.

If they're looking for financing now, however, it's best for them to at least see you in person while they're waiting for approval so you're top of mind when it finally comes through.

These temperatures also matter. Not all interest is created equal; someone who opened the proposal three times last week has a different signal than someone who hasn't engaged in 30 days. Thus, follow up with the appropriate engagement level; higher-intent prospects more frequently may require check-ins with substance while lower intents just need to be made aware you can help when they're ready to buy.

Furthermore, the touchpoints need value. "Just checking in" e-mails are tossed aside like nothing because they're not offering anything of merit. "Since we talked last time about [insert pain point], here's an article related" or "Here's a webinar coming up addressing something we both thought you might be struggling with," or "We've added a new feature since our last conversation which solves your problem" gives then opportunities to respond. Each connection should be an opportunity for either valuable information or movement toward resolution.

Building Systems That Actually Work

Those that manage this successfully facilitate connective structures of what's good follow-up look like at various points in their pipelines, which means defining what's available at two weeks, as in two weeks approach, you sent this attachment, if they've gone quiet for 30 days, want to get back on my calendar, how about a call, what's engaging at 30 days through if it's still not positive it's just declined?

It's also important to track engagement sufficiently, not just you've opened my email but you've expressed buying signals, you're asking about implementation or asking questions about price terms for contract submittal, those are movement behaviors which signal they're active for a purchase and those signals should elicit answers differently.

Response times matter more than people think; if someone finally responds after they've been quiet for a while, an immediate connecting response could solve rekindled interests if unfortunately they're still lost, this requires either dedicated staff tracking this level of follow-up for calls/emails.

Getting the Timing Right

Timing always matters; there's such a thing as overkill meaning when is enough enough? If you've reached out every week for three weeks regarding an acquisition price turn-downs since your answer doesn't sit right with someone who truly needs more time, you're likely losing them.

It's taken well-meaning but you're forgotten; you must maintain visibility without being obnoxious.

This is especially important for longer sales cycles, monthly times blend check-ins with something of substance, in case down to a situation then quick outreach, you feel me since my GM wants another offering like multiple choice, but let's see if she said no.

Shorter cycles require weekly contact which moves them along quicker toward buying vs just thank you messages.

The Revenue Contained Within Your Current Pipeline

Most companies already have revenue tied up in their current pipelines far more than they realize; those who said no but could be winners down the line; those who said no but could not properly gain traction because follow-up wasn't frequent or meaningful enough.

Fixing follow-up doesn't take magic; it takes appreciating that the space between connecting for the first time and ideally closing a deal is where all conversations should balance systems thinking/revenue generation consideration as there's millions left on the table after closed acquisition generated companies learn too late how qualified leads evaporated from what they generated prematurely but never closed.