The problem
Partners sold in the gaps between billable work. Proposals went out and quietly aged; follow-ups happened when someone remembered; the “pipeline spreadsheet” was three versions of the truth. Deals didn’t get lost to competitors — they got lost to silence.
Jonas felt like the firm’s memory. Every unanswered proposal was a tab open in his head, and he knew revenue was leaking — he just couldn’t say where, which made it feel like his fault alone.
The turning point
A prospective client called to say they’d signed elsewhere — “you never followed up after the proposal.” The proposal was good. The follow-up simply belonged to nobody. Jonas didn’t need more CRM ceremony; he needed the follow-through to be owned by a system instead of his memory. The firm started with a spreadsheet upload, not a migration.
The plan
- 1Upload the pipeline spreadsheet — no CRM overhaul, no consulting project.
- 2Give every open pursuit a next step with an owner and a date.
- 3Set response time rules so an aging proposal escalates instead of expiring.
What that looked like in the product
- Uploaded the spreadsheet in the Imports area; the import report showed exactly which rows mapped cleanly and which needed a second look, so nothing fake entered the board.
- Every pursuit became a deal with a Synq Score and a visible next step; ones with no recorded activity for weeks stood out immediately instead of hiding in a tab.
- Set response time rules so a proposal with no reply, or a warning with no action, escalates to Jonas before it goes cold — not after.
- Partners start the week in the Pending inbox: every follow-up, warning, and waiting decision in one list, cleared in one sitting between client meetings.
What stopped happening
The silent expiry: a winnable engagement lost not on merit but because the follow-up lived in someone’s head during a busy delivery month. In this scenario, that proposal resurfaces with a warning and a deadline instead of resurfacing in an apology call.
How it works now
- The pipeline stopped being Jonas’s memory and became a board anyone can read in a minute.
- Every proposal has an owner, a next step, and a clock — busy weeks no longer decide which deals survive.
- Partner meetings talk about which pursuits to push, not “whatever happened to that one?”
Before and after
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the pipeline lives | Three spreadsheets and four memories | One board, one evidence timeline per pursuit |
| Follow-up discipline | Whenever someone remembers | Response time rules with escalation |
| Setup investment | “Someday, after the CRM project” | One spreadsheet upload, live the same day |
“We didn’t lose deals to better firms. We lost them to our own busy season. Now the follow-up has a deadline that doesn’t care how billable my week is.”
Illustrative scenario — a composite persona walking through real product capabilities, not a named customer or a verified result.