Ask most owners how many people said yes to a conversation last quarter and they can tell you, roughly. Ask what happened on those calls and the answer is usually somewhere in their head. That's where outcomes live in a small firm. It's also why nobody else can follow up on them, and why the owner ends up judging the whole effort on a feeling. Feelings run pessimistic in a slow month.
You don't need a big system to fix this. You need one list of every open conversation, a dated next step on each line, and fifteen minutes a week to read it. A spreadsheet is plenty. Below is the version I'd start with. A downloadable spreadsheet has it set up, with dropdowns and a few example rows.
What goes on the list
Anyone you are in a real conversation with about work: someone who replied, said yes, took a call, received a proposal, or said "not now" with a reason. Not everyone you know, and not everyone you've written to once. If a person has no conversation with you, they belong on a contact list, not here.
The columns
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Name | The person, first and last. |
| Company | Their firm. |
| Role | Their title, or what they actually do. |
| Source | Where the conversation came from. Pick one: Past client, Referral partner intro, Client referral, Former colleague, Old prospect, Inbound, Event, New outreach, Other. |
| First engaged | The date the conversation started, meaning the first reply, not your first message. |
| Stage | Where it stands. Pick one (definitions below). |
| Ball in | Whose move it is: Us or Them. If it's Us, it's late until it's done. |
| Next step | One concrete action, written as a verb. "Send two times," not "follow up." |
| Next step due | A date. Every open line has one. No date means no next step. |
| Last contact | The date of the last message or call either way. |
| Call outcome | Two lines, written the same day as the call: what they need, and what happens next. |
| Referred by | Who made the introduction, if anyone. You'll want this when it's time to say thank you. |
| Estimated value | Rough annual value if it closes. A guess is fine; blank is not. |
| Notes | Anything else worth remembering: their words, their timing, their constraints. |
Stage definitions
| Stage | Means |
|---|---|
| In conversation | They've replied and you're talking, but no call is agreed. |
| Said yes, not booked | They agreed to a call and there's no date yet. This stage should never hold anyone for more than a day or two. |
| Call booked | A date is on both calendars. |
| Call held | The call happened. The outcome column must be filled. |
| Proposal sent | They have a written proposal or price. |
| Won | They've agreed to work with you. |
| Not now, revisit | They said not now with a reason. Next step due is the revisit date. |
| Lost | They chose someone else or decided against it. Note why. |
| Closed, no reply | You followed your cadence and closed the loop honestly. |
The weekly 15-minute review
Same time every week, on the calendar like a client meeting. Mine is a weekday morning before client work starts. Five steps, about three minutes each.
- Sort by Next step due. Anything past due gets done today or re-dated with a reason. A date that keeps moving is telling you something.
- Filter Stage to "Said yes, not booked." Every name here gets a booking link or two times today. This is the most expensive line on the sheet.
- Filter Stage to "Call held." Every row needs an outcome and a next step. If the outcome is only in your head, write the two lines now while you still remember.
- Filter Ball in to "Us." These are the people waiting on you. Count them. If the number grows every week, the problem isn't effort, it's that every reply routes through you. Agree in advance what a good reply looks like for the common cases, so someone else can send most of them.
- Glance at Source for the month's wins and calls. Over a quarter this tells you which kinds of relationships actually produce work, which is better information than any guess about your ideal client.
That's it. The review is short on purpose. A tracker that takes an hour a week gets abandoned in a month. One that takes fifteen minutes survives a busy quarter, and a busy quarter is when you need it.
A few rules that keep it honest
- One line per person. If they come back a year later, update the line; don't start a new one.
- Every open line has a dated next step. Even if it's "check back in March."
- Write the call outcome the same day. Two lines or a voice note you transcribe later. Blank outcome columns are the most common way trackers die. I've watched call-result columns fill up through a spring and go blank by summer.
- Don't track activity here. Messages sent and posts published belong somewhere else. This sheet is only for conversations.
If you want to see where your conversations are most likely leaking, the Pipeline Leak Self-Check takes about ten minutes.
Eric Burr, Lamprophony Enterprises, St. Louis