How Better Follow-Up Helped Increase Win Rate from 7% to 20%

The Challenge

Managing leads through Outlook and spreadsheets created several challenges:

Leads were easily lost or forgotten when ownership changed.
There was little visibility into where opportunities stood in the sales process.
Estimators struggled to prioritize proposals and deadlines.
Sales leadership lacked an efficient way to ensure every estimate received consistent follow-up.
The company had no reliable way to measure sales performance across the pipeline.

As Jerry explained:

"We would lose track of leads because somebody's assignment—we'd lose the assignment on it. It was really frustrating, and we really couldn't follow up properly."

The Solution

The team implemented Followup CRM to centralize their sales process and create accountability throughout the organization.

With Followup CRM, they were able to:

Track every lead from initial opportunity through close.
Assign ownership and eliminate lost opportunities.
Give estimators clear visibility into their workload and proposal deadlines.
Hold the sales team accountable for consistent follow-up.
Use reporting to measure performance and guide weekly sales meetings.

Jerry also uses Followup CRM's reporting tools every week to review completed activities, upcoming opportunities, and overall team performance.

“Since we’ve made this change, there’s so much visibility through the sales process that we’re just on top of every single lead.”

Jerry Thiel

President, G.W. Thiel, Inc.

The Results

Within the first year of using Followup CRM, the company experienced significant improvements in sales performance.

Win rate by revenue increased from 7% to 20%.
Proposal win rate increased from approximately 20% to 35%.
Improved accountability across the estimating and sales teams.
Complete visibility into every opportunity in the sales pipeline.
Consistent follow-up on every estimate submitted.
Weekly reporting provided actionable insights for sales meetings and forecasting.

Improved Accountability Across the Team

Followup CRM helped establish ownership throughout the sales process.

Estimators can easily see the projects they've committed to, prioritize their work, and ensure proposals are delivered on schedule. Meanwhile, sales leadership has confidence that every opportunity is being followed up on consistently.

"Our estimators can see their jobs, what they've committed to, and make sure they're scheduling their time and hitting their proposal dates. As a sales leader, I can keep track of the follow-ups, making sure that every project we've estimated is getting a return on that investment."

Jerry Thiel

President, G.W. Thiel, Inc.

Better Visibility with Reporting

Weekly reporting has become an important part of the company's sales rhythm.

Using Followup CRM's built-in reports, Jerry reviews:

Sales activity from the previous week
Upcoming opportunities
Team performance
Pipeline progress

The reports provide the visibility needed to make informed decisions and keep the entire team aligned.

"We have a weekly sales meeting, and I use the reports to show what we've done over the past week and what's coming up. Those reports come in very handy."