I asked her what happens after she sends a quote.
She paused. “I never do chase ups.”
Why not? “I’m not a pushy person.”
A few minutes later she mentioned two prospects. Both had loved the first conversation. Both had said they wanted to go ahead. Both had gone completely quiet, and nobody had followed up.
(I may have put my pen down at that point.)
This is the story of one of my Brown Paper Strategy Workshops, a business strategy session I ran earlier this year. I’ve kept my client anonymous, but I think a lot of you will recognise yourselves in it.
Meet my client
She runs a growing professional services business with a small team. She’s built it on trust: most clients come through referrals and word of mouth. One of her social media posts had recently taken off, and enquiries were landing almost every day.
This workshop was a little different. Most of mine happen at my kitchen table in Hockley, but this time I went to her. Her diary was packed, and if you’re within about a 30-minute drive, I’m happy to come to you. That covers most of Essex. The brown paper and coloured pens travel well.
She booked a business strategy session because the business was growing fast, she was carrying most of it in her head, and she wanted to know where to put her energy next.
What I Heard
Every workshop write-up I send starts with “What I Heard”. Before we talk about where someone is going, I play back where they really are.
She’s built a business people trust. Her growth came from reputation, referrals and relationships, not hard selling. That’s a real strength, and rarer than you’d think.
Demand wasn’t the problem. Leads were arriving by phone, through the website and from social media. The gap came after the first conversation.
Her first conversations were brilliant. She listens, spots things other people miss and leaves prospects feeling looked after. They told her so.
Then the quote went out, and nothing happened. No reminder, no follow-up, no system. Every lead, quote and deadline lived in her head.
’Not pushy’ was quietly costing her clients. Her warmth is a big part of why people like her. But she’d decided that following up meant pressure, so warm prospects were drifting away. I understand that completely. Nobody wants to be the person clogging up someone’s inbox. But in thirty years in retail head office, including ten as a Customer Success Director, I learnt that silence rarely means no. It usually means busy.
Where she wanted to get to
Point A: plenty of enquiries, great conversations, and quotes disappearing into inboxes.
Point B: every lead visible, every quote followed up in a way that still feels like her, and more of those great conversations turning into clients. Without turning into someone she isn’t.
So the question became: what’s the quickest route from A to B?
The priorities from her business strategy session, and why
1. Tell them it’s arrived
The same day the quote goes out, send a short message: “Just to let you know your quote is in your inbox. It might have landed in spam, so give me a shout if you can’t find it.” I do this every single time.
She’d already seen it work without realising. One quote had bounced, so she messaged the prospect to check. He replied straight away: he’d got it, and he was thinking about it. The conversation was open again.
We agreed she’d set up a dedicated business number for these messages, so they don’t get lost among personal messages.
Business lesson: a two-line “it’s in your inbox” message isn’t pushy. It’s good manners, and it keeps the door open.
2. Three gentle touch points, then close the lead
If there’s no reply, she now has a simple rhythm, roughly three days apart:
1. A value drop: something useful with no ask attached. A new rule that affects them, a result for a similar client, a tip about their industry. She already makes this kind of content for social media, so she can build a bank of them.
2. Meet the team: who they’d be working with, with a photo of the team together.
3. Any questions? Including the three questions she’s asked most often.
Then, if there’s still nothing, she closes the lead. Emails go Monday to Friday only, because nobody needs a quote follow-up on a Sunday. I also suggested putting a “valid until” date on every quote. Not a short one, as it’s a big decision, but enough to prompt one.
And those two quiet prospects? I suggested a light “How’s business?” message, no pressure at all. I told her I’d bet on two replies along the lines of “So sorry, it’s been mad busy.”
Business lesson: following up isn’t pushy. It’s good service. People get busy, not uninterested.
3. A quote that does the selling
Her quotes went out as an email with bullet points, rewritten from scratch every time. They were absolutely fine. But fine wasn’t showing how good she is.
We sketched out a short quote pack instead: a front cover with the client’s name and logo on it; What I Heard, playing back what they said they need; how we can help, with one version for brand-new businesses and one for those moving from another provider; meet the team; the investment, with the key terms; and what happens next.
Only three of those pages change each time. When I worked with retailers around the world, nothing went up on the screen without the client’s branding on the front. It says: this is about you. The “What I Heard” page does the same thing, and it shows you were listening.
Business lesson: if your quote ends with “let me know what you think”, that’s exactly what you’ll get. Tell people what happens next.
4. Get it out of your head
Every lead, quote, follow-up and deadline lived in her memory. That works until it doesn’t, and with enquiries arriving daily, it had stopped working.
She needs one place where the whole team can see every lead, what stage it’s at and what’s due. Something that can send reminders, and eventually some of those follow-ups. It doesn’t need to be the Rolls-Royce option. It needs to be something that suits the business and that she can afford.
Business lesson: if it only lives in your head, it only gets done when you remember. A system remembers for you.
What we parked
Sometimes the most useful part of a business strategy session is what you decide not to do.
A big marketing push. Her marketing was already working. Pouring more leads into a leaky follow-up process would just create more tumbleweed. Fix the process first, then go all guns blazing in the autumn.
A permanent hire, for now. Short-term help to clear the backlog came first, then building a cash buffer before recruiting. Following up takes time, and she needed some back.
A new side venture. Exciting, but it would take brain space she doesn’t have right now. It’s never a no, it’s just not right now. (I said this knowing I had a call that afternoon about an event I had absolutely no time for. Do as I say…)
A paid advertising opportunity. Possibly worth it, but only once she’s clear what she wants from it: new clients, or credibility. Both are valid. They’re just measured differently.
Bringing it all together
She didn’t have a sales problem. She had a follow-up problem, and following up is simply good service.
The warmth that makes her great in that first conversation doesn’t have to disappear when the quote goes out. A same-day “it’s in your inbox”, three gentle touch points, a quote that tells people what happens next, and one place to see it all. None of it is pushy. All of it is her.
The growth was already happening. She just needed to stop letting it slip through her fingers.
Watch this space…
I’ll be catching up with her for her three-month momentum call, and I’ll share how she’s got on. Did those two quiet prospects come back? (My money’s still on yes.) Is the quote pack doing its job?
And if she’s busy when I get in touch? Then I’ll follow up. Gently. Three touch points, weekdays only. I’d be a terrible example otherwise.
In the meantime, if your enquiries are landing but your quotes are disappearing into inboxes, this is exactly what my Brown Paper Strategy Workshop is for. It’s two hours at my kitchen table in Hockley, with brown paper, coloured pens and Buck greeting you at the door. Or, if you’re within about 30 minutes of me, I’ll bring the brown paper to you. You get a written plan within one working day, then a 30-day check-in and a three-month momentum call to keep the momentum going.
January dates are filling up. Book a discovery call and secure your slot.
If you enjoyed this Real Client Story, you might also like More ideas than hours, the story of a business owner whose new business took off faster than she expected, with more ideas than she had hours to build them.
