Early in my career, one of the sales trainers at a new job said something that stuck with me.

He said, “The customer will buy when you’ve demonstrated that you’re meeting all their requirements, and when they’re ready to spend the money.”

This was in the context of selling TVs and stereos in retail, where the goal was to close the customer on the first go-round. But they also recognized that not everyone can be closed on the spot. So we were encouraged to maintain our own CRM (customer relationship management) systems and follow up until either a) we closed the sale or b) they told us to leave them alone and stop calling.

Back then, my CRM was a binder full of loose-leaf notes and invoice reprints. Later, it lived on a Palm Pilot. The actual mechanics of your CRM matter less than actively working the leads in it — and following up daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

When I’m coaching salespeople, I talk a lot about the importance of follow-up when working the leads in your CRM system.

Below is my favorite infographic, which details how many times a lead typically has to be contacted before they finally buy:

Now, I have no scientific basis for the validity of this chart, but it jibes with my lived experience — and it certainly sounds true.

It’s been my experience that if a prospect isn’t ready to buy today, it pays to stay in touch until they are.

To date, my personal record for follow-up before a prospect was finally ready to make a deal was seven years from first contact to a signed dealer agreement.

That’s … an outlier. Most contacts sign much sooner than that. But it underscores the need to keep touching base and checking in. Doing so lessens the likelihood they’ll forget about you and go buy somewhere else.

Now, some leads are going to take forever to get to yes. Some will ghost you and never respond. Others will leave you in limbo for what feels like years — and sometimes it really is years.

But don’t give up. Even if you deprioritize them and only touch base monthly or quarterly, you should still do it.

Why does this matter?

I’m so glad you asked.

Recently, a bunch of leads got back to me that had never — ever — gotten back to me before. Out of nowhere, they popped up in my inbox or picked up the phone and called, wanting to get set up as resellers.

It’s not like they knew one another (that I know of) and coordinated this — like wearing pink on Wednesdays.

These were all leads I had deprioritized. I hadn’t given up on them, but I was calling, emailing and checking in with much less frequency.

And then one day — maybe because Mercury was in Gatorade or something — they all independently decided, “I should call that Lee guy back!”

That’s not entirely true. There was actually one lead I had given up on. So having them show up out of the blue asking for an updated price list and a dealer form was an unexpected treat.

But my point still stands: Stay on top of your leads.

One of my old sports coaches had two rules:

1. Show up
2. Don’t quit

Doing just those two things every day sets you up for success.