---
title: "How Many Times Should You Follow Up With a Lead?"
description: "The 80%-after-5-follow-ups stat is real, from a 1942 survey of under 40 salespeople. What actually stops leads going cold, and what it costs to fix."
canonical: https://buildmydigital.co.uk/blog/how-many-times-should-you-follow-up-with-a-lead/
---

The 80%-after-5-follow-ups stat is real, from a 1942 survey of under 40 salespeople. What actually stops leads going cold, and what it costs to fix.

Source: https://buildmydigital.co.uk/blog/how-many-times-should-you-follow-up-with-a-lead/

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# How Many Times Should You Follow Up With a Lead?

15 September 2026 · Build My Digital

The short answer: there is no reliable modern number, and the one everyone quotes is shakier than it sounds. You have probably seen the claim that 80% of sales happen between the fifth and twelfth follow-up, credited to something called the National Sales Executive Association. That statistic is real. It also comes from a 1942 survey of a single Long Island sales chapter, sample size under 40, measuring door-to-door visits, not calls, texts or email. We build [funnels](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/funnels/) that handle the follow-up automatically, so we went looking for where the number actually came from before we quoted it to anyone. Here is what we found, and what actually stops a live enquiry going cold.

**Key takeaways**

- The "80% of sales need 5 follow-ups" statistic traces to a 1942 survey of under 40 members of one Long Island chapter, published by the association's own successor body, [SMEI](https://smei.org/sales-statistics/).

- That 1942 survey measured door-to-door sales visits. SMEI's own page states the sample size and warns the figure has been "copied and pasted" across blogs ever since.

- There is no trustworthy modern figure for "how many follow-ups it takes." What predicts a booking is having any structured follow-up sequence at all. Most local businesses do not.

- We do not promise a percentage increase in bookings. What we build is the mechanism: enquiry, follow-up, booking, wired together and quoted in writing before we start.

- A funnels bundle, conversion page, follow-up sequence and booking wired together, starts at **£499**. The pieces are also priced individually on the [pricing page](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/pricing/).

## Where "80% need 5 follow-ups" actually comes from

The claim shows up everywhere: sales training decks, agency blogs, LinkedIn posts with a stock photo of a handshake. Usually it is stated flat, no source, as though it were settled research. Some version of it usually reads "80% of sales require five follow-up contacts" or "80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact."

[SMEI](https://smei.org/sales-statistics/), the organisation now named Sales & Marketing Executives International, actually addresses this on its own site. It confirms the figure is real and traces it to its own history: "In 1942, the Long Island, NY chapter of NSEA (now SMEI) surveyed their members to determine the ratio of calls made to sales made." The same page adds the detail nobody quoting the number carries forward: "the sample size was less than 40."

One regional chapter surveyed fewer than 40 of its own members in 1942, before direct-dial long distance existed, let alone email or text. The association has published that provenance itself since at least 2021, and the number still gets repeated as current advice regardless.

## What the number was actually measuring

A "call" in 1942 meant a salesperson physically turning up at a business. The survey asked members to report, from memory, the ratio of visits they made to sales they closed. That is a self-reported estimate from a single industry, a single region and a single era, not a measurement of how a UK customer responds to a text message or an email in 2026.

Follow-up still matters. This particular number just can't tell you how much, because it was never built to answer that question for the situation you're actually in.

## So what actually works?

There is no clean replacement number to swap in. Sales trainers like Alex Hormozi have built a following on the idea that persistence beats a perfect pitch, [summarised as "the money is in the follow-up."](https://nikofischer.com/alex-hormozi-lead-generation-blueprint) That's a reasonable operating philosophy for anyone chasing enquiries. It is not a study, and neither are the specific touch counts that get attached to it online.

What we see, building sites and follow-up systems for UK local businesses, is simpler and less quotable: the businesses that book more jobs usually just have any follow-up sequence at all beyond the first reply. An enquiry that gets one email and then silence loses to one that gets a reply today, a check-in in three days and a reminder before the quote expires, whatever the "right" number of touches turns out to be.

## Where UK local business funnels actually leak

Most businesses we look at do not have a leads problem. They have a leaks problem, and it shows up in the same three places.

**The first reply is slow or manual.** A form submission sits in an inbox until someone has time. By the time you reply, the customer has already called someone else.

**A missed call gets nothing.** The phone rings while you're on a job, it goes to voicemail, and that's the end of it unless the customer tries again. We build [missed-call text-back into our AI agents](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/ai-agents/) so the customer hears from you within seconds even when you can't pick up.

**The follow-up after the first contact never happens.** Someone asks a question, gets an answer, and goes quiet. Nobody chases the quote, so it dies from inaction rather than a genuine no. A short [email sequence](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/email-marketing/) that checks in automatically catches a meaningful share of these before they go cold.

## What we build and what it costs

A funnels bundle, a conversion page, instant reply to enquiries, missed-call text-back, a follow-up sequence and booking wired to every button, starts at **£499** depending on what you already have. Every piece is also priced individually on the [pricing page](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/pricing/):

| Piece | What it does | Price |

| Conversion page | One page built to turn a click into an enquiry | £299 |

| Email marketing setup | Platform, branded template, welcome sequence | £199 |

| AI agents (chat, missed-call text-back) | Answers and replies while you're on a job | from £499 |

| Funnels bundle | All of the above, wired together | from £499 |

We don't promise a lift in bookings, because nobody honestly can before seeing your numbers. What goes in writing before we start is the fixed price and exactly what gets built.

## Check what your own site actually does

Run your site through our free [30-check scan](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/scan/) to see whether the basics, a clear next step, a way to capture an enquiry, a fast reply, are actually in place. No email required.

## Common questions

### Is the "80% need 5 follow-ups" statistic completely made up?

No, it's real, just badly dated. SMEI's own site confirms a 1942 survey of under 40 members of its Long Island chapter produced the figure, measuring door-to-door sales visits. It has been copied across blogs and decks ever since without that context.

### So how many times should I actually follow up?

There's no reliable modern number to give you. What matters more than a specific count is having any structured sequence at all beyond the first reply, since most local businesses stop after one message and lose the enquiry to inaction rather than a real no.

### What is a "funnel" for a local business, in plain English?

The path from someone finding you to booking with you, with nothing leaking: a page built to convert, a fast reply to every enquiry, a follow-up that doesn't rely on someone remembering, and booking wired to every button.

### What does the £499 funnels bundle include?

A conversion page, your enquiry and missed-call follow-up wired together, a follow-up email sequence, and booking connected. The individual pieces are on the pricing page; bundled together they start at £499 depending on what you already have in place.

### Do I need to be running ads for this to matter?

No. Most leaks happen after someone has already found you, through a slow reply, a missed call, or a quote nobody chased. Fixing the follow-up usually pays back before you spend a pound on [Google Ads](https://buildmydigital.co.uk/google-ads/).

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