Where do your leads leak?
Leads leak in four places: never recorded, never answered, never followed up and never closed out. Answer three yes or no checks for each place and the tool counts the gaps. The place with the most gaps is where I'd start, and a tie goes to the earlier place, because a leak upstream shrinks everything after it.
Where your leads leak
[ WORST ] Your worst leak is leads never answered, with two of three checks missing. It ties with leads never followed up, and the earlier place comes first because a lead lost there never reaches the next one. The fix is a first reply drafted within minutes and approved by a person before it sends.
| Place | Missing | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Never recorded | 1 of 3 | One intake list that every channel feeds, with duplicates caught on the way in |
| Never answered[ WORST ] | 2 of 3 | A first reply drafted within minutes and approved by a person before it sends |
| Never followed up | 2 of 3 | A follow-up schedule that stops itself when the lead answers |
| Never closed out | 0 of 3 | A booked call or proposal date on every interested lead, plus a regular pass over leads that went quiet |
Bring these answers to a free call. I'll map where your leads go today and tell you which leak I'd fix first.
BOOK A FREE CONSULTATIONThe four places a lead dies
- 01Never recordedThe lead never lands in one place someone checks, so a form fill, a message or a missed call goes unanswered. The fix is one intake list that every channel feeds, with duplicates caught on the way in.
- 02Never answeredThe lead lands, then waits too long for a personal answer to what they asked. The fix is a first reply drafted within minutes and approved by a person before it sends.
- 03Never followed upThe first reply goes out, and nobody follows up when the lead goes quiet. The fix is a follow-up schedule that stops itself when the lead answers.
- 04Never closed outAn interested lead never gets a booked call, a proposal or a reason to come back. The fix is a booked call or proposal date on every interested lead, plus a regular pass over leads that went quiet.
How this is calculated
Each place has three yes or no checks, and a yes means the practice is in place. Every no counts as one gap, so each place scores from zero to three.
The place with the most gaps is your worst leak, as long as it has at least one. When two places tie, the earlier one wins, because a leak upstream starves everything after it. A lead that was never recorded can't get a slow reply.
Assumptions and limits
- The answers are yours, and the starting answers are an example.
- There is no benchmark. The tool compares your four places with each other and with nothing else.
- It counts missing practices. How many leads each gap costs depends on your volume, and the response-time tool puts a figure on the first-reply leak.
Questions
What do I fix first?
Start with the worst place the tool names, and inside it, the check you answered no to that is quickest to put in place. If leads go unrecorded, fix that before anything else, because every later fix depends on the lead landing somewhere someone checks.
What counts as a first reply?
A personal answer to what the lead asked. A message that only says you got their note doesn't count, because it answers nothing they asked.
Why does follow-up leak?
Because nobody owns it. The first reply has an obvious trigger in the lead's message. A follow-up needs someone to notice that a lead went quiet, and in a busy week nobody does.
Do I need a new CRM to fix this?
Often not. These gaps can close inside the tools you already use, once each step has an owner or runs on its own. I'd change the CRM only if it can't hold every lead in one place.
Related
- The four places a lead diesLeads drain out of a pipeline in four places: never recorded, never answered, never followed up and never closed out. How to count each one this week.
- The lead-response bottleneck: how fast to answer a new leadHow fast to answer a new lead, why a slow reply hands the decision to someone else, and a system that drafts from your rules for a person to approve.
- The follow-up bottleneck: why follow-ups fall through the cracksFollow-ups slip when the next step lives in someone's head. They hold when every open lead carries a next step, a date and a drafted nudge a person approves.
- What do slow replies to leads cost you?Multiply your leads, the value of a won client, your close rate and your own estimate of leads lost to slow replies to see the revenue at risk.