Most owners I work with don't need more leads. They need to stop losing the ones they already have. The trouble is that a leak is quiet. Nobody decides to drop the person who said yes, or to skip the follow-up after a good call. Client work fills the week, and the thread goes still.
This is the short version of what I look at in a Pipeline Leak Audit. Ten questions, two for each of the five places owner-led firms tend to lose business. Answer with what actually happened in the last few months, not what your policy says should happen. Your last real cases are the honest answer. Policy is usually more flattering.
Score each question 0, 1, or 2. It takes about ten minutes.
Leak 1: The yes that never gets booked
1. When someone says yes to a conversation, how soon do they get a way to book it?
- 0 - Whenever someone gets to it. Sometimes days, sometimes it slips entirely.
- 1 - Usually within a day or two, though it depends on the week.
- 2 - The same business day, and one named person is responsible for it.
2. Could you list everyone who said yes in the last 90 days and still isn't on the calendar?
- 0 - No. I'd have to guess.
- 1 - Probably, with an hour of digging through email and messages.
- 2 - Yes, in a few minutes. It's all in one place.
Leak 2: The follow-up that never happens
3. When a warm reply comes in, how long does it usually wait for an answer?
- 0 - Often a week or more, especially when client work is heavy.
- 1 - Two to four days.
- 2 - The same or next business day, most of the time.
4. Does every open conversation have a dated next step?
- 0 - Very few do. I follow up when I remember.
- 1 - The important ones do. The rest float.
- 2 - All of them, and I look at the list every week.
Leak 3: The meeting that ends with no next step
5. How do your first conversations with a prospect usually end?
- 0 - Warmly, with something like "let's stay in touch" or "I'll send you some information."
- 1 - With a next step we both agree on, but no date attached.
- 2 - With the next step on both calendars before we hang up.
6. Where are the outcomes of your last ten sales conversations written down?
- 0 - Mostly in my head.
- 1 - Some notes, scattered across email, a notebook, and memory.
- 2 - In one place, written the same day as the call.
Leak 4: The dormant list nobody reworks
7. How many of your past clients have heard from you personally in the last twelve months?
- 0 - Few or none, unless they reached out first.
- 1 - Some, when I happened to think of them.
- 2 - Most of them, on a schedule I keep.
8. What happens to the prospects who said "not now"?
- 0 - Nothing. They're somewhere in my inbox.
- 1 - I go back to a few of them now and then.
- 2 - Each one has a date to revisit and a reason to write when that date comes.
Leak 5: The referral partner nobody nurtures
9. Can you name the people who sent you work in the last two years, and say when you last spoke with each one?
- 0 - I could name some of them. Not the dates.
- 1 - I know the names. The dates would be a guess.
- 2 - Both, and none of them has gone more than a quarter without hearing from me.
10. Do your referral partners know what to listen for?
- 0 - They know roughly what I do.
- 1 - They know my services fairly well.
- 2 - They know the specific situations and phrases that should prompt an introduction, and I report back on every intro they make.
Scoring
Add the two answers for each leak. Each leak scores from 0 to 4.
| Leak | Questions | Your score (0-4) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The yes that never gets booked | 1 and 2 | |
| 2. The follow-up that never happens | 3 and 4 | |
| 3. The meeting with no next step | 5 and 6 | |
| 4. The dormant list | 7 and 8 | |
| 5. The referral partner nobody nurtures | 9 and 10 |
- 0 or 1: leaking. Business you already earned is walking out this way.
- 2 or 3: partly holding. It works when you have time, and fails when you don't.
- 4: holding. Leave it alone for now and spend the attention elsewhere.
A total out of 20 is tempting, but it hides the thing that matters. One leak at 0 costs more than two leaks at 3. Look at the lowest score first.
What a low score usually means, and the first fix
Leak 1: the yes that never gets booked
What it usually means. Nobody owns the gap between "yes" and a date on the calendar. The yes arrives, a handoff is meant to happen, everyone gets busy, and each person assumes someone else has it. On one campaign I worked on, about seven people said yes and offered times in the spring. None of them were booked. Nobody dropped them on purpose.
The first fix. Every yes gets one owner and one deadline: a booking link or two specific times, sent the same business day. Then go back through the last 90 days and find the yeses still waiting. Own the delay plainly and offer a time. Some will have moved on. That's still a better morning than finding new strangers.
Leak 2: the follow-up that never happens
What it usually means. Every reply routes through one busy person, and client work wins every tie. I've seen warm replies wait six to ten days for exactly this reason. The owner wasn't careless. The owner wanted to see each reply first, which is reasonable, and was carrying a full client load, which is the point of the firm.
The first fix. Agree in advance what a good reply looks like for the common cases (a yes, a question about price, a "not right now") so most replies can go out the same business day, and only the unusual ones wait for you. Then give every open conversation a dated next step, even if the step is "check back in March."
Leak 3: the meeting that ends with no next step
What it usually means. The call went well, so it felt finished. Or the call happened and the outcome lives only in your head, which means nobody can follow up on it but you. On one firm's tracker I found about a dozen booked calls with no outcome written down anywhere.
The first fix. Two habits. Before any first conversation ends, propose the next step and put it on both calendars while you're still talking. After the call, write two lines the same day: what they need, and what happens next. A voice note counts.
Leak 4: the dormant list nobody reworks
What it usually means. Your past clients and old prospects are the warmest people you know, and nobody is responsible for writing to them. When I've compared the two directly, plain notes to people an owner had actually worked with drew replies about half the time. Connection requests to well-chosen strangers were accepted about one time in nine, and accepting isn't replying.
The first fix. Pull a list of past clients and "not now" prospects from the last three years. Write to five this week, one at a time, starting from the real history you share. Not a newsletter. A note that could only have been written to that person.
Leak 5: the referral partner nobody nurtures
What it usually means. Your referrals arrive on their schedule instead of yours, because your partners are trying to remember everything you do. They don't need to. They need to recognize the moment a contact says something that calls for you.
The first fix. Write down the three or four phrases a good client says before they need you, and one line on why an introduction helps that person. Give that to your best two referral partners this month, and tell them what happened with the last intro they made.
If you scored low on more than one
That's common, and it's usually one cause showing up in several places: you sell and you deliver, so the business development gets whatever time is left. Willpower won't fix that. A small system will.
The Pipeline Leak Audit does this properly with your real cases and your own numbers, and gives you a written map of where the money is leaking and the one fix worth doing first. It's $1,500, fixed scope, and credits toward the engagement if you go further. If you'd rather talk first, book a fit call.
Eric Burr, Lamprophony Enterprises, St. Louis