Funnels get talked about in percentages and worked on in vibes. We wanted receipts, so we followed 1,400 consecutive quotes across three shops from first contact to final outcome.
Where quotes actually die
| Stage | Share of losses | Median time in stage |
|---|---|---|
| Quoted, never touched again | 58% | — |
| Price objection, no counter | 17% | 2 days |
| Timing slipped, no re-contact | 14% | 9 days |
| Lost to competitor | 11% | 4 days |
| Recoverable with process | ≈ 72% | — |
Read that top row again. The biggest leak isn’t pricing, competition, or the market. It’s silence. More than half of everything lost was simply never spoken to twice.
The two follow-ups that recover
First: a rate touch inside the same week — a refreshed number, not a “just checking in.” It re-opened 1 in 4 silent quotes. Second: a day-45 touch tied to the customer’s original timing (“you mentioned June”). Lower volume, but it converted at nearly the rate of fresh leads, at zero acquisition cost.
Nobody loses a deal they’re still talking about. Deals are lost in the gaps between conversations.
Instrument your own funnel
You can’t manage the leak you can’t see. Every quote needs a stage, every stage needs a timestamp, and “no next touch scheduled” should be a visible, embarrassing state — not the default.