Reaches out · The Silent-Lead Follow-Up

The Silent-Lead Follow-Up

The play-by-play for an internet lead who has not responded at all.

The structure is the standard Todd set: every day has a move, nobody improvises silence. The tuning comes from the communication study — our own customers, our own messages, measured across 7,744 of them. Where the two disagreed, the customers won.

The rules that ride over every day

The moment the customer replies, this cadence ends. You are in a live conversation: answer the actual question inside the hour, with a real number or a real car, and end by proposing a time. Visits are won in live exchanges, not in cadences.
Texts under 200 characters — one thought, one question. A video always rides behind a short text that says what it is. It is never the message.
Calls land in the 9–11 AM window. Nothing goes out after 7 PM.
Every touch carries a reason the customer cares about. "Just checking in" is retired.

Lands in → the Opportunity Review Assistant's lead stage — the appointment call

Day by day

Day 1

IQR, then the face-to-a-name video — behind a short welcome text: who you are, that you emailed, and that you'll call if you don't hear back. Then the call, in the 9–11 window.

Day 2

A 30-second walk-around video behind a one-question text ("Want me to check anything specific on it?"). Then the call.

Day 3

The money text: a real number in writing — price or payment. No video today; different muscle. Then the call.

Day 4

Availability, plus the tailoring line, kept word for word: "If for any reason you have decided this is not the right time or not the right car, please let me know and I will tailor communication."

Day 5

The plain question — one line, five seconds to answer: "Still looking at the [vehicle]?" or "How many miles on your trade?"

Days 6–7

Deliberate quiet on text. One call attempt in the 9–11 window. The threads that turned into visits were never carpet-bombed — the quiet is part of the play.

Days 8–10 change the play

Pick one: a different vehicle option (one photo, one line: "this one might actually fit better"); a manager takeover with a sharper, specific offer; or go straight to the break-up below.

Days 10–14 · The break-up

Todd's message, moved up: "I've reached out a few times and haven't been able to make contact. Still in the market for the [vehicle]? If so, where do we go from here? If this isn't the right time, let me know and we'll suspend the follow-up."

Long-cycle

The lead moves to the long-cycle pool: at most one touch per month, and only with real news — a price drop, a new arrival that matches them.

What changed from Version 1 — and the evidence

Video every day → video on days 1–2, always behind a text Texts whose message was a video link replied at 34% — the worst move measured. Short texts replied at 71%. Videos still work — as a kept promise behind a message, never as the message.

Fifteen touches in week one → about eight Customers who visited got five touches in their first week. The ones who never visited got twelve — more videos, more quotes, more everything. Volume was the losing pattern, measured across every thread.

Week-5 break-up → day 10–14 Every chase past day ten with zero inbound produced nothing — our longest (36 days, 14 texts, 6 voicemails) produced nothing every time. The saved energy belongs on fresh leads.

Added the clock 11 AM connects at 50–53%; 8 AM at 27%; nothing sent after 7 PM earns same-day anything.

How we will know if this is right

The system now measures this cadence from the data itself — adherence step by step, and reply and visit rates per store. The evidence above is from Montana; if Alberta's and BC's numbers say different in 90 days, the cadence changes. That's the loop: teach, do, measure, coach — applied to our own playbook first.