How I Built a Lead Follow-Up System That Runs 24/7
Leads are perishable. If you don’t follow up quickly and consistently, you’re losing money. The problem? Manual follow-ups are inconsistent, slow, and impossible to scale.
Here’s how we built a fully automated lead follow-up system that nurtures prospects, books calls, and stays active 24/7 — without hiring a sales team or relying on memory.
Step 1: Capture the Lead
It all starts with a form — whether it’s Typeform, Gravity Forms, or your site’s native form builder. The moment a visitor submits their info, that data is sent to:
- Google Sheets (as a central database)
- Our CRM (Pipedrive)
- An automation trigger (via Zapier or Make)
Bonus tip: Use hidden fields to capture UTM parameters, referrers, or source campaigns for better attribution.
Step 2: Qualify Automatically
We run the lead through a Google Apps Script connected to our sheet to calculate:
- Deal size (based on company size + selected services)
- Lead score (behavioral + demographic factors)
- Custom tags (e.g. "high urgency", "return visitor", etc.)
This score determines what kind of follow-up sequence they get.
Step 3: Trigger the Right Follow-Up Flow
Depending on the score, one of several actions happens:
- Hot leads: Auto-book a Calendly call link + immediate Slack alert to a human rep
- Warm leads: Kick off a 3-email drip (via ActiveCampaign) offering a case study or testimonial
- Cold leads: Receive a 5-part nurture sequence over 3 weeks
All emails are dynamically personalized with the data they submitted. No human input. No manual sorting.
Step 4: Monitor and Nurture Over Time
Every few days, we run a script that:
- Checks engagement (opens/clicks)
- Moves leads between segments
- Triggers win-back campaigns for inactive leads
We also generate a weekly report that shows new leads, booked calls, and conversion percentages — emailed automatically to the sales team every Monday at 8am.
Tools We Used:
- Google Sheets – lightweight CRM & data layer
- Zapier – glue between apps (form > email > CRM)
- ActiveCampaign – for email automation
- Calendly – auto-scheduling
- Slack – instant alerts
- Google Apps Script – custom logic for lead scoring & routing
Results
- Response time cut from 1 day to under 2 minutes
- 3X increase in booked calls
- Zero follow-up tasks on anyone’s to-do list
It’s the equivalent of hiring a full-time assistant who never sleeps — except we built it once, and it runs on autopilot.
Want This System in Your Business?
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