In the B2B industrial and service environment, there is a brutal statistic: Companies lose more money on leads they ignore than on leads they never generated.
Imagine this scenario: You invest thousands of dollars in an expo or digital campaign. You generate 50 qualified leads. Your sales team contacts them once. 10 respond, 40 don't. Of the 10, you close 2. What happens to the other 48?
Most companies abandon them in an inert database, assuming they "weren't interested." The reality, backed by Harvard Business Review studies (Oldroyd et al., 2011), is that speed and persistence are the determining factors of closing, not just initial interest.
Your prospect's silence is not a "no"; it is a "not now." And within that silence hides 60% of your annual revenue.
The problem isn't a lack of desire, it's a lack of a system. According to research on lead response management, the lifespan of an online lead is extremely short without immediate intervention.
Aggregated B2B industry data shows a critical gap between salesperson effort and buyer reality:
This means almost half of your sales force is leaving money on the table before even starting to compete. Implementing a Client follow-up system is not optional; it is the only way to capitalize on your marketing investment.
Recovering a forgotten prospect is more profitable than generating a new one. Here are 3 Sales Management strategies to reactivate your database:
When a prospect has been silent for weeks, send an email assuming the file is closed.
If the client isn't ready to buy, don't pressure them; educate them. Move them to an Inbound Marketing list where they receive value bi-weekly without direct sales pressure.
Quarterly, an external consultant should review loss reasons in the CRM. Often, "Price" is actually "Lack of value follow-up."
You don't need more leads, you need to close the ones you already have. At TIS Consulting Group, we design leak-proof sales processes.
Audit your commercial process today: Learn about our Sales Management and Follow-up service and transform your pipeline.