Following up on "not now"
Somewhere in your CRM is a list of prospects who liked you, took the meeting, saw the proposal and said the timing was wrong. Contract runs until the fall. Budget frozen until the new year. Each was a specific reason, and each quietly expired while nobody followed up.
Not now is the warmest lead you have. Following up feels awkward after months of silence, so it gets snoozed again, and the prospect signs with whoever called first. The fix is a follow-up that proves you listened.
Gather first: every closed-lost or paused deal from the last 12 months, with the reason and date.
The prompt:
Help me follow up with prospects who said "not now" in the last 12 months, starting with the ones whose reason has expired.
What experienced MSP sellers know:
"Not now" is a timing answer. Contract runs until the fall, budget frozen until the new year, waiting on a new office: each reason comes with a date.
Most of those dates pass in silence, and the prospect signs with whoever called first.
The follow-up that works names the exact reason they gave. That proves we listened, which no generic check-in does.
Closed-lost and paused deals from the last 12 months: [prospect, reason given, date, contact, last touch]
What we offer now that we did not then: [details]
Do this:
Sort the list by whether the stated reason has now passed, and put those at the top.
For each prospect at the top, write a three-sentence email that names their exact reason, notes the date has passed and asks one easy question. No recap of our services.
For the rest, give the date to follow up and the trigger to watch for.
Where the CRM note is too vague to name a reason, list the prospect separately for me to check with whoever ran the deal.