Lead follow-up sheet, with an owner and a next action on every row.
One row per open enquiry: who they are, where the lead came from, when it arrived, who owns it, what stage it is at, when they were last contacted, what happens next, on what date, and anything worth remembering. Then a short review block that finds the leads that have gone quiet. Copy it as CSV and work it in the morning.
The template, filled with an example
The example carries four fictional enquiries with an as-on date of 4 October 2026. The staleness of each lead is calculated from the dates shown rather than typed in, so you can check it.
Illustrative example only. Every company, person, source, stage, and date on this page is invented. No conversion rate, win rate, or response-time benchmark is claimed anywhere on it — the example is four rows chosen to show the structure, not a picture of a real pipeline.
Header block
- Sheet period
- 01-10-2026 to 04-10-2026
- As on
- 04-10-2026
- Prepared by
- Sample Sales Coordinator (example)
- Owner of this review
- Sample Sales Manager (example)
- Stages in use
- New, Contacted, Qualified, Proposal sent, Negotiation, Won, Lost
- Leads on this sheet
- 4 open enquiries
- Review cadence
- Every working day, 09:30, before the team starts calling
- Next review
- 05-10-2026
Open leads
| Lead name | Source | Received | Owner | Stage | Last contact | Next action | Next action date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sample Client Textiles (example) | Referral from an existing client | 2026-09-21 | Sample Sales Executive A (example) | Proposal sent | 2026-09-28 | Call for feedback on the proposal sent on 26-09-2026 | 2026-10-06 | Wants the same supplier shortlisted as last year. Decision expected before Diwali. |
| Sample Retailer Trading Co (example) | Website enquiry form | 2026-09-28 | Sample Sales Executive B (example) | Qualified | 2026-10-02 | Send the three-warehouse stock and pricing options in writing | 2026-10-05 | Needs a comparison against the incumbent supplier on delivery days, not only price. |
| Sample Client Services Private Limited (example) | Trade show, booth enquiry | 2026-09-12 | Sample Sales Executive A (example) | Contacted | 2026-09-19 | Second call — first call did not reach the decision maker | 2026-10-05 | Number came from the registration desk. Ask the gate contact for the procurement name. |
| Sample Client Hospitality (example) | Inbound call, no prior contact | 2026-09-05 | Sample Sales Executive B (example) | New | 2026-09-05 | Qualify the enquiry, then either quote or mark Lost with a reason | 2026-10-02 | Unqualified for three weeks. If it is not qualified this week, close it with a reason. |
How stale each lead is, from the dates above
| Lead name | Last contact | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Sample Client Textiles (example) | 2026-09-28 | 6 days since contact — healthy |
| Sample Retailer Trading Co (example) | 2026-10-02 | 2 days since contact — healthy |
| Sample Client Services Private Limited (example) | 2026-09-19 | 15 days since contact — slipping |
| Sample Client Hospitality (example) | 2026-09-05 | 29 days since contact — overdue for a touch |
A touch going quiet after 7 days is a trigger for this review, not a rule. Set it to the interval your buyers actually respond at — a long-cycle industrial enquiry and a walk-in retail enquiry will not share one.
Review
- Leads with no contact in the last 7 days
- 1 of 4 — the 29-09-2026 last contact
- Leads whose next action date has passed
- 1 of 4 — Sample Client Hospitality, due 02-10-2026
- Leads with no named owner
- 0 of 4
- Leads with a next action but no date
- 0 of 4
- Lost this week, with a reason
- 1 — budget moved to next financial year
- Agreed at this review
- Two calls booked, one written options note, one close-or-push decision
Lead follow-up sheet (CSV — illustrative example data) Field,Value Sheet period,01-10-2026 to 04-10-2026 As on,04-10-2026 Prepared by,Sample Sales Coordinator (example) Owner of this review,Sample Sales Manager (example) Stages in use,"New, Contacted, Qualified, Proposal sent, Negotiation, Won, Lost" Leads on this sheet,4 open enquiries Review cadence,"Every working day, 09:30, before the team starts calling" Next review,05-10-2026 Lead name,Source,Date received,Owner,Stage,Last contact,Next action,Next action date,Notes Sample Client Textiles (example),Referral from an existing client,2026-09-21,Sample Sales Executive A (example),Proposal sent,2026-09-28,Call for feedback on the proposal sent on 26-09-2026,2026-10-06,Wants the same supplier shortlisted as last year. Decision expected before Diwali. Sample Retailer Trading Co (example),Website enquiry form,2026-09-28,Sample Sales Executive B (example),Qualified,2026-10-02,Send the three-warehouse stock and pricing options in writing,2026-10-05,"Needs a comparison against the incumbent supplier on delivery days, not only price." Sample Client Services Private Limited (example),"Trade show, booth enquiry",2026-09-12,Sample Sales Executive A (example),Contacted,2026-09-19,Second call — first call did not reach the decision maker,2026-10-05,Number came from the registration desk. Ask the gate contact for the procurement name. Sample Client Hospitality (example),"Inbound call, no prior contact",2026-09-05,Sample Sales Executive B (example),New,2026-09-05,"Qualify the enquiry, then either quote or mark Lost with a reason",2026-10-02,"Unqualified for three weeks. If it is not qualified this week, close it with a reason." Review question,Answer Leads with no contact in the last 7 days,1 of 4 — the 29-09-2026 last contact Leads whose next action date has passed,"1 of 4 — Sample Client Hospitality, due 02-10-2026" Leads with no named owner,0 of 4 Leads with a next action but no date,0 of 4 "Lost this week, with a reason",1 — budget moved to next financial year Agreed at this review,"Two calls booked, one written options note, one close-or-push decision"
The notes column is deliberately last and deliberately free text. It is the only place on this sheet where something unstructured belongs, and it is where a new owner picks up a lead without asking the previous one. The example writes “wants the same supplier shortlisted as last year” and “decision expected before Diwali” — the kind of detail that decides how you open the call, and that no pipeline column will ever hold for you.
How to fill it in
Four steps, and the last one is the only one most sheets skip.
Fix the stage list once, in the header
The example writes the seven stages it uses into the header block. Write your own list there so two people in your office use the same words — “proposal” and “proposal sent” are two different filters in every spreadsheet ever built.
One row per open enquiry, and nothing closed on it
A lead that is won, lost, or dormant does not belong in a follow-up list, because its presence dilutes the count. Move it out and record why, which is what makes the number on the header block mean something.
Write the next action as an instruction, not a topic
“Call for feedback on the proposal sent on 26-09-2026” can be done. “Follow up” cannot be checked by anyone, including you, at the next review.
Work the review block, not the list
The four questions at the bottom — what has gone quiet, what is overdue, what has no owner, what has no date — are the meeting. Reading forty rows aloud wastes the time the sheet was meant to save.
When to use this, and when to stop
A follow-up sheet is the correct size of tool for a team where one person knows every open enquiry by heart. It stops being the right size the moment that stops being true.
When this template is the right tool
- You have a manageable number of open enquiries and currently keep them in a notebook, a chat pinned message, or a single spreadsheet.
- You want one agreed list so a follow-up does not depend on which salesperson you ask.
- You are still learning which sources produce enquiries that convert, and the answer is not visible from where the data currently sits.
- You need a list you can work through in the morning without re-deciding what to do each time.
When you have outgrown it
- Leads change hands when someone is on leave, and the next action leaves with them.
- The same company appears three times — as a lead, a contact, and a customer — and nobody can say which is the real one.
- A lead becomes a client and the enquiry history stays in the spreadsheet while the project starts somewhere else.
- Nobody can say what was quoted to a lead six months ago, or who agreed it.
The same process in NoxOrigin
On the record, not on a sheet reviewed by whoever remembered to open it. A lead has a source and an owner; an opportunity carries the stage and the dated next action; and when ownership changes — or when the owner leaves — the next action stays on the record, still assigned and still dated, instead of leaving with the person. Stages are yours to configure rather than a vendor funnel you adopt for its own sake, and when a lead is promoted it becomes a company record that outlives the enquiry, so the next engagement starts with the previous project, invoice history, and payment state already on it. This sheet remains the right thing to hand a new salesperson on their first morning, because every field on it maps to something the system already holds.
- Customers & CRM in NoxOriginLeads carry a source, an owner, a stage, and a dated next action on the same record the project and invoice will attach to.
- Lead follow-up softwareOwnership, pipeline stages, reminders, and customer history — the same two columns this sheet is built on, enforced by the record rather than by a daily review.
- Lead follow-up plannerWork out a follow-up schedule for open leads with an explicit next action and date for each enquiry, before you build the sheet around it.
- Lead response time calculatorWork out what slow first replies may be costing you in rupees each month, using your own assumed cool-off time.
- CRM migration templateFor the day you move this list out of a spreadsheet and into a system — write the field mapping down before you import anything.
- Quotation templateThe next document once a lead becomes a real opportunity, with line items, HSN or SAC, and the GST split.
Lead follow-up sheet questions
What actually makes this sheet work?
Two columns: a named owner, and a next action that carries a date. Everything else on the row is context. A lead list without those two is a directory — useful for looking someone up, useless for knowing what to do this morning, which is the only question a follow-up sheet exists to answer.
How many leads should be on one sheet?
As many as one person can genuinely work in a day. The example carries four, which is small on purpose: it is a worked example, not a capacity claim. If your real list is forty rows and nobody is deleting from it, the sheet has become a place leads go to die rather than a work list. Old, unqualified leads should be closed with a reason so the count stays meaningful.
Should a lost lead stay on the sheet?
No, but the reason should. The example's review block counts one lead lost this week with a stated reason, because the reason is what tells you whether the next similar enquiry is worth pursuing. A lost lead with no reason is a number that teaches you nothing.
What is the last contact date actually for?
It is the column that makes silence visible. The example computes days since contact from the dates shown, so a lead that has not been touched for three weeks looks like what it is — a lapsed enquiry — rather than sitting in a list next to one contacted yesterday and appearing equally alive.
Does this replace the CRM?
No. It is the smallest honest version of what a CRM does for a team that can hold the list in one file. It becomes worth replacing when leads have to be reassigned, when several people touch the same enquiry, or when a lead becomes a client and its history has to follow it into a project and an invoice.
Make the follow-up a field on the record, not a person’s memory.
If a holiday or a resignation empties half the list, the list was holding knowledge rather than state — which is the part worth fixing.