You’ve Got Leads, But No Sales... What’s Going On? with Amy Traugh
- Amy Traugh
- Sep 17
- 12 min read
🎧 The Metrics Maven: Data Driven Business Growth Strategy for Solopreneurs is streaming on all platforms. Listen here. Also streaming on YouTube.
Why Leads Aren’t Buying (And What to Do About It)
If you’re generating leads but they’re not converting into sales, the problem isn’t your offer or your sales skills. It’s the missing step most business owners overlook: nurturing.
The Overlooked Step Between Leads and Sales
Most entrepreneurs are hyper-focused on two things: generating more leads and closing more sales. But there’s a gap in the middle that often gets ignored, and that’s where the problem lies. Leads don’t automatically walk themselves over to the sales side — they need nurturing.
Think of it like dating. If someone asked you to marry them on the first date, you’d panic, laugh, or run for the door. Why? Because there’s no trust or foundation. The same thing happens in business when you skip nurturing. You’re asking someone to make a big commitment before they’re ready.
Why Nurturing Gets Skipped
So many business owners skip nurturing for three main reasons:
1. Instant Gratification
We live in an on-demand world where we want results fast. It’s tempting to think more leads equals more sales. But speed isn’t the same as strategy. Without nurturing, those new leads will just sit in limbo, unready to buy.
2. Lack of Clarity
Entrepreneurs often overcomplicate nurturing. They believe it has to involve tech-heavy funnels, daily posting across every platform, or fancy automations. But the truth is, simple is sustainable. Even a weekly email or consistent Instagram Stories can be enough to build trust.
3. Fear of Being “Too Much”
Many business owners hold back because they don’t want to annoy their audience. But silence actually erodes trust. Think of meeting someone at a networking event and not hearing from them for months until they suddenly pitch you. Consistency isn’t annoying — it’s reassuring.
Three Simple Ways to Start Nurturing Today
The good news is nurturing doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are three strategies you can put into action right away:
1. Create a Consistent Follow-Up Rhythm
Send a short welcome sequence (2–4 emails) when someone opts in.
Commit to sending at least one email per week.
Engage with new followers genuinely, not with pushy DMs.
Decide on a posting schedule that feels sustainable.
2. Share Value That Solves Real Challenges
The fastest way to warm up a lead is to show them you understand their struggles better than they can describe themselves.
Do market research or ask clients what challenges led them to buy.
Create content that speaks directly to those struggles.
Connect your advice back to how your solution solves their problem.
3. Invite Low-Pressure Engagement
Not every touchpoint needs to be a pitch. Build relationships by keeping it light and approachable.
Add questions at the end of emails to spark replies.
Use polls in Instagram or LinkedIn stories.
Share behind-the-scenes moments to stay relatable.
Mix in non-sales calls to action like “comment your takeaway” or “DM me if you’ve felt this too.”
The Bridge That Turns Leads into Buyers
If you’re frustrated that your leads aren’t converting, chances are it’s not about needing more leads or better sales scripts. The real issue is the missing nurture step.
When you consistently follow up, share value that speaks to your audience’s challenges, and create approachable, low-pressure ways to engage, everything shifts. Leads stop ghosting you. Sales calls feel warmer. And conversions rise — without changing a single word of your pitch.
It’s simple. It’s sustainable. And it works.
If you're ready to finally ditch the data drama and create a simple, repeatable process for growth, this is exactly what we do inside Metrics Mastery.
Get started for free at amytraugh.com and let’s build a business that’s backed by strategy, not stress.
Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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Transcript for Episode 435. You’ve Got Leads, But No Sales... What’s Going On?
- Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)
What if I told you the reason your leads aren't buying probably has nothing to do with your offer or even your sales skills?
It's a missing gap that almost every single business owner skips over. And it is the exact thing that is creating the gap between lead generation and sales.
In this episode, we are digging into what that missing step is, why so many business owners overlook it, and three simple, actionable things that you can start doing today to close the gap.
This episode is going to finally help you connect the dots so that leads aren't just coming in and vanishing.
They're actually moving forward and buying. So let's zoom out for a second. Whenever I'm onboarding a new client, the very first thing that I do is I take a look.
And after doing this for hundreds of clients, I've noticed a pattern that happens over and over and over. Most business owners are laser focused on two things, getting more leads and closing more sales.
But here's the problem with that. Leads don't magically walk themselves over to the sales side. There is that middle step that is often overlooked, and that step is nurturing.
Think about it like dating. If you met someone at a coffee shop, first date, and they immediately said, hey, will you marry me?
You'd probably either laugh, panic, or maybe even run for the door. Why? Because you really don't know them. There's no trust.
There's no foundation. There's no connection. And in business, when we skip the nurturing step, that is exactly what we're doing.
We're asking someone to make this huge commitment before they've even had any time to act. Now I know what you might be thinking, but Amy, I do post content.
Isn't that enough? My answer is not really. Posting content is great, but nurturing is about intentional connection, not just noise.
It's about creating and cultivating a space where your audience feels so understood, where they start to believe that you get them even better than they can even explain themselves.
Let me give you a client example. So had a client once and she was really frustrated because she had leads.
She had tons of leads in her world. Her email list was huge. had a great social following, but they weren't converting.
And she kept saying things like, I think I just need another sales script. But when we looked even closer, it wasn't her sales calls at all.
It was that she literally had zero plan for what. Leads were coming in and they sat there untouched until she pitched them on a webinar.
It's like inviting someone to dinner and then ignoring them until you hand them the check. Of course, they're not going to stick around.
But once she started to add nurturing, simple emails that told her story, helpful, valuable tips to help her audience work through their challenges, and engaging check-ins, really everything shifted, people stopped ghosting her.
And when they were booking sales calls, they were warm and ready to buy. What did this do? It allowed her conversion rates to double without changing a single word of her pitch.
So this overlooked step, nurturing, it's the bridge. It is the piece that turns a cold lead into a warm, ready-to-buy client.
And without it, your funnel will always leak. Because no matter how many leads you have pouring in at the top, if they're not converting to sales, your energy and effort is wasted.
So why are so many entrepreneurs missing this step? There are a couple reasons that this happens all of the time.
And the first really comes down to instant gratification. Because we are living in an on-demand world. We've got everything at our fingertips.
Amazon Prime, DoorDash, Google, highlights you see on social media. We want everything fast, including sales. So it becomes so easy to think that, okay, if I just generate more leads, then I'll get more sales.
But speed isn't the same thing as strategy. I once worked with a client who was constantly launching new freebies, running challenges, pouring money into ads, because she thought she had a leads problem.
But the problem was, is her conversion rate was staying flat. Why? She had zero strategy. Once those leads opted into her list, she was ignoring them.
It's almost like inviting someone to a dinner party. I used this example in the last episode where you're inviting them, but then when they're actually there, you ignore them.
This is what's happening time and time again. So once we added those nurturing touch points to her funnel, the same number of leads gave her more sales.
This wasn't about creating more leads and generating more leads. It was about giving her leads the right amount of time to warm up and in a strategic manner.
And next, you know, this gap happens all the time because of lack of clarity, right? So many business owners don't actually have the plan.
They're focused on getting the lead. And this talks about what we just said, you know, when we stop at lead generation with
No nurturing strategy in place. We miss the boat. We start to overcomplicate it because we think that it needs to be this tech-heavy funnel system with all these automations posting three times a day across 10 different platforms.
It feels overwhelming because we're overcomplicating it. So we end up doing nothing at all. But this doesn't need to be complicated.
Keep it simple. Simple is sustainable, and sustainable is what actually works. It can be something as easy as a weekly email or showing up every day in your stories.
It's about knowing what works for you. What is sustainable for you? And finally, it comes down to a fear of almost being too much.
And this is the sneaky one because we're taught. To not be allowed. We don't want to annoy our audience.
So what do we do? We tell ourselves these stories and we end up pulling back. And we show up sporadically.
We wait. We get in our head and we don't take action. But in that silence, you're actually eroding trust.
It's just like if you met someone at a networking event, exchanged business cards, and then never actually heard from them until months later when they're like, hey, will you buy my thing?
Would you? I wouldn't. You probably forgot who they were or feel like they only reached out when they wanted something, right?
Consistency really isn't annoying. It's actually reassuring. It's building that subconscious trust because it's showing your audience that you're dependable and you're here to help them, not just to sell.
And it's important to remember that even if they're not engaging with your content, even if they're not opening your emails, they're seeing you because you're consistently showing up.
That's That's You're staying top of mind. So once you see these caps, you can easily fix them and get less frustration.
And the cool part is, is that it doesn't have to be this huge overhaul. Again, you don't need to be complicated.
So let's talk about three super simple strategies that you can start using today to nurture, to fill that gap in your funnel.
So step one, create a consistent follow-up rhythm. Again, consistency builds trust, period. When someone comes into your world, whenever they opt in, whether that's joining your email list, downloading your freebie, following you on social media, they need to hear from you.
And they need to hear from you consistently. So what can you do? Well, You can set up an email sequence, just a short welcome sequence, automate it, three to four emails, I mean, heck, even two to three, that introduce who you are, highlight how you help, and just stay committed to sending out at least one email a week.
Another easy way is that if someone starts to follow you, engage with them. Don't just pitch yourself, literally just say hello, I'm glad you're here, I see you.
You can ask a simple question to start a conversation if it feels good to you, but just be genuine, don't be weird about it.
Think about when you get those creepy DMs in your messages, I get them all the time, hey, we want to feature you on this, that, and the other, no, you want me to pay to be featured, I get it, or you want me to buy your $10,000 course, I don't even know who you are.
Put yourself in your clientele. And lastly, decide on a posting schedule that feels sustainable to you, whether it's two times a week, whether it's five times a week, whatever works for you.
Consistency matters more than volume. The goal is that your leads expect to hear from you and feel connected to you.
That's what builds the trust. So that's step one, create a consistent follow-up rhythm. Step two, share value that solves their real challenges.
The fastest way to warm up a lead, I'm going to share this with you, it's to show them you understand their problems better than they can even explain them.
Instead of sharing random tips over and over and over, focus on the challenges that they are facing right now before.
How do you figure that out, right? You're probably thinking like, okay, this is great, but how do I figure that out?
Market research calls, look at your current clients, those that have opted into you, what has made them buy from you.
And if you're not sure, ask them. Brainstorm, really dig deep into what is that specific frustration that makes someone realize, I need help.
And then what you can do is start to create content around these challenges. So for example, if you're a business coach, maybe one tipping point where they really get hung up is where clients say yes on discovery calls, but don't actually follow up.
They ghost you afterwards. So start to create content that speaks directly to that moment and how to fix it.
And then start to connect the dots. Tie your content back to the bigger picture of how your solution addresses those struggles.
You don't want to just give advice. You want to show why this matters to them. Because when your audience sees that you get it, this builds so much trust that you're the help person that can help them solve their challenge.
And then they start to believe that they are capable. And step three, invite low pressure engagement. So I'm going to say this twice.
Not every interaction needs to be a pitch. Again, not every interaction needs to be a pitch. In fact, the more approachable you feel, the more just authentic.
This makes it easier for leads to lean in and connect with you. This builds relationships and relationships lead to sales, right?
So some low pressure strategies you can try. Email replies. So I like to call them a hand raiser. Like enter emails with a simple question like, hey, hey, reply and let me know if this resonated.
So what does it do? It opens that email up into a two-way conversation. It makes you a human. So you're not up on this pedestal that's so high and mighty that they feel like almost intimidated by you.
Put polls in your stories on Instagram or do a poll on LinkedIn. Ask easy, fun questions. And they don't always have to tie to your offer because lighthearted questions lower the barrier to your engagement.
Here's something as simple as like, do you like coffee or... Or... Or do you use a paper planner or a digital planner?
Literally, this builds connection. And when we have people engaging with us, what does it do? It boosts the algorithm.
So it's a win-win. So you're kind of getting more visibility without having to do the weird, like, icky stuff.
You're not having to pitch. Share behind the scenes. Give a glimpse into your day, your workspace. This makes you relatable.
And it builds trust. Yes, you don't have to be picture perfect. Messy is perfection. That's real life. And then also, you know, mix in calls to action that aren't sales related.
So you comment with your biggest takeaway. Send me a DM if you've ever felt this too. Share this out to your story.
The really big goal here is simple. We want to create opportunities for small touch points that deepen connection. Because the more your audience interacts with you, the more natural it feels when you eventually make an offer.
It's the obvious next step. And when you use these simple and sustainable strategies, you've got this solid bridge that nurtures leads into warm, ready-to-buy clients.
So if you have been frustrated by the leads that never convert into the sales that you want, I want you to pause and really take the time to reflect on what we talked about today.
Usually, it's not an issue of more leads. It's not that your sales skills are lacking. Nine times out of ten, the real disconnect is missing the nurture step that bridges the gap.
When you build in consistent follow-up, shares value that... speaks directly to your audience's struggles and create low-pressure opportunities for engagement.
Everything changes. Suddenly, leads stop slipping through the cracks. They don't sit in limbo. Instead, they warm up. They trust you.
They view you as the solution. And they're excited to take that next step with you when you make an offer.
The beautiful part is it doesn't have to be complicated. So this week, I want you to take action. Pick one of the strategies we talked about and put it into action.
Maybe it's setting up a three-email welcome sequence. Maybe it's writing down the top five challenges your audience faces before they buy from you.
Maybe it's running a poll in your stories. Don't overthink it. Just start because this is what builds momentum. So to...
So we need... Take the time to do this. Message me over on Instagram at Amy Traugh. Tag me so that I can know you're taking action and I'll share you out in my stories because I would love to support you.
And if this episode resonated with you, this is exactly what I love helping clients with inside my signature program, Metrics Mastery and One-on-One.
Visit amytraugh.com to get started for free. And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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