A reply is where the real work starts.
Since 18 September 2026 every reply across our client programmes has gone through the same reply desk, on email and LinkedIn. Here’s what five and a half weeks looked like.
Speed
4,209 replies came in across 14 client programmes. 26% of the replies we sent were in Dutch or German.
Our median time from their reply to ours was 22 minutes. 64% went within the hour and 85% the same day.
To be honest, faster answers didn’t convert better in our data. We answer fast anyway. It’s good manners and it keeps the conversation moving.
Turning a Yes Into a Meeting
28% of interested conversations became a meeting: 116 of 412.
75% of those meetings were booked within 24 hours of the first yes. The median was 3.6 hours.
What helps:
- Two real times, one morning and one afternoon, two or three working days out.
- No booking link in the first reply.
- “Any time works” is a yes. Pick a slot and send the invite.
The Third of Meetings Most Teams Miss
34% of our meetings (38 of 111) came straight after a message most teams never send:
- 24 after a follow-up to someone who’d gone quiet.
- 8 after a reply to a polite no.
- 6 after a check-in weeks or months later.
A partner at a UK private equity firm went quiet in April. A short check-in at the end of September got a yes the next day. The first call was missed, so three light rebooking notes landed a date in November.
An occupational health lead in the UK public sector said they had no room until December. We offered two specific December dates instead of a reminder. One was accepted the same day.
The No’s
A third of real people’s replies were a no. About a third of those came with a reason: a clash with an event date, not now, or “we do it in-house”.
One gracious reply to those polite no’s, with no pitch, produced 12 meetings from 297.
A flat no gets left alone.
More on how we run outbound end to end in the setup playbook.