⏳ The 48-Hour Cliff

You generated 100 MQLs this week.

You assigned them to Sales.

You check back on Friday. 40 of them are still marked "New."

They haven't been called. They haven't been emailed. They are just sitting there, rotting.

Data shows that if you don't contact a lead within 48 hours, your chance of closing them drops by 80%.

This is the "Black Hole."

Sales reps get busy. They focus on the "hot" deals and forget the "new" leads.

You can't fix this by yelling in a sales meeting. You fix it with System Accountability.

You need a "Staleness" Workflow. It acts as a "Robot Manager," tapping the rep on the shoulder (and then escalated to their manager) if a lead is ignored.

Here is how to build the safety net.

🩺 Diagnostic 1: The "New" Status Trap

The Symptom: Leads sit in "New" forever.

The Root Cause: No definition of "worked."

The Fix: The Exit Criteria.

Define: A lead is only "worked" if the status changes to "Attempting to Contact" or "Connected."

The Workflow:

Trigger: Lead Status = "New" AND MQL Date was > 24 hours ago.

Action: Send Slack Notification to Rep: "⏰ This MQL is 24 hours old. Call now."

🩺 Diagnostic 2: The "Ghost" Rep

The Symptom: A rep is on vacation (or lazy), and leads pile up.

The Root Cause: No escalation.

The Fix: The Manager Alert.

Trigger: Lead Status = "New" AND MQL Date was > 48 hours ago.

Action: Send Email to Sales Manager: "Rep [Owner] has ignored [Lead Name] for 48 hours. Please intervene."

Result: The manager reassigns the lead immediately.

🩺 Diagnostic 3: The "Fake" Update

The Symptom: Reps just change the status to "Attempting" to stop the nagging, but don't actually call.

The Root Cause: Relying on manual updates.

The Fix: Activity-Based Triggers.

Don't trigger off the status. Trigger off the work.

Trigger: Last Activity Date is unknown AND MQL Date > 24 hours.

This forces them to actually log a call or send an email to satisfy the workflow. They can't cheat the system.

🩺 Diagnostic 4: The "Recycle" Bin

The Symptom: Leads are worked for 2 days, then abandoned.

The Root Cause: No "Return to Marketing" path.

The Fix: Automated Recycling.

Trigger: Lead Status = "Attempting" AND Last Activity Date > 14 days ago.

Action: Set Lead Status to "Recycled."

Action: Enroll in "Nurture Sequence."

Result: Sales pipeline stays clean. Marketing gets a second chance.

SLA is not a Promise. It's a Workflow.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) written on a PDF is useless.

An SLA built into HubSpot Workflows is enforceable.

If you automate the "nagging," your relationship with Sales improves. You aren't the "bad guy." The system is the bad guy.

Not sure how to build the "Manager Escalation" logic?