“Sales never follows up our leads”

Head of Demand Generation · CRM and sales software

A Head of Demand Generation who says sales never follows up their leads is frustrated about a broken hand-off, and doubts that a tool can fix a people problem. Don't take sides between marketing and sales. Find where the hand-off breaks: ask what happens to a lead in its first hour, and who owns it at each step.

What the buyer says

Sales never follows up the leads we send them. A new tool won't fix that.

How to handle it

Listen

Hear "never" and "won't fix that". There's frustration with the sales team, and a belief that the problem is behaviour, not tools.

Acknowledge

Agree that no tool fixes a hand-off on its own, and that leads going cold is painful for the team that generated them.

Explore

Ask what happens to a lead in its first hour: where it goes, who sees it, how it's assigned and what tells a rep to act. Ask which leads do get followed up, and what's different about them. Ask how sales and marketing agree what counts as a good lead.

Respond

Focus on the step where it breaks. If your product helps there, for example with routing, timing or visibility, show exactly how. Be honest that agreeing ownership between the two teams still matters as much as the tool.

Say this
“That's frustrating. Leads going cold waste everything your team did to win them.”

Say this
“What happens to a lead in its first hour?”

Say this
“Which leads do get followed up, and what's different about them?”

Variations

CMO: “We hand over plenty of leads. Sales just doesn't call them.”
Head of Sales Development: “Half the leads marketing sends us aren't real buyers.”

Questions people ask

How do you respond when marketing says sales never follows up their leads?

Don't take sides. Ask what happens to a lead in its first hour, who owns it at each step and which leads do get followed up, then show how your product helps at the step where the hand-off breaks, and be honest that agreed ownership matters too.

Why do sales teams not follow up marketing leads?

Common reasons are slow or unclear routing, leads the sales team doesn't trust, and no agreed definition of a good lead. Fixing the hand-off usually needs agreement between the teams as well as better tools.