🏴‍☠️ Your Sales Problem Isn’t Leads. It’s Follow-Up.

Every founder thinks they need more leads.

But 9 times out of 10?

The real issue is follow-up.

Here’s what I see inside founder-run sales teams every week:

• 45 leads in the pipeline

• 3 get a follow-up within 48 hours

• 12 are marked “interested” but never hear back

• 5 are sitting in someone’s inbox

• And 25 never get qualified in the first place

You don’t have a pipeline problem.
You have a process problem.

And when buyers or investors look under the hood?
They see it immediately.

Best Links

💰Sales: Your sales people don’t want to be coached, but they need to be coached. Here is a solid place to start (Link).

🌟 Industry Trends:
The 900 lb gorilla, BizBuySell, is partnering with a capital provider to help business buyers close. Never have I seen lack of capital be the barrier in a successful close…it’s usually a very risky business acquisition. (Link)

🍏 Extra Credit:
M&A activity is up YoY worldwide (Link)

The best founders aren’t just closing deals.
They’re building a repeatable system that closes without them.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Speed to lead: Every inbound gets touched within 12 hours

• Segmentation: You’re not wasting time on bad-fit leads

• Attribution: You know what channel they came from and why they’re converting

• Follow-up cadences: Automated, but customized. Not generic spam.

• Sales ops dashboard: You can tell what’s working in 5 minutes

If you ever want to sell your business or raise capital, this is non-negotiable.

Because follow-up is your close rate.

And your close rate is your company value.

A few months ago, I was trying to figure out LinkedIn DMs.

Great niche, strong offer, but a tornado sales process with multiple VAs.
We tried a manual process first, that’s where the gold is.

But then it sprawled into never-ending follow ups with unqualified leads, forgetting follow-up steps, and wasted time. Truly my fault at an SOP level.

We rebuilt the entire pipeline using Clay, a CRM, and Lemlist with simple logic.
Created a scorecard. Trained a team member. Added 2 automations.

In 60 days?

We were booking calls with our target customer without touching lead volume.
And the pipeline was fuller than ever.

I now check sales metrics, not pray for pipeline.

That’s what buyers want.
That’s what investors back.

Your action items this week: Sales System Reality Check

1. What % of inbound leads get a reply within 12 hours?

2. Can your team qualify leads without you?

3. Do you know your lead source, cost, and close rate for the last 30 days?

4. Is your follow-up automated, or does it rely on feelings or logic?

Then ask:

If I walked away for a month…
Would our close rate go up, down, or stay the same?

Be honest.
Fix what breaks.

See you next week.

-Kinza