Follow-Up Is Where Deals Go to Die

Not because people don’t care.
Not because they’re lazy.

Because no one is clearly on the hook.

The deal waits.
The task lingers.
The customer assumes you moved on.

“I Thought Someone Else Had It”

This is the most expensive sentence in business.

It shows up after:

Everyone assumed responsibility existed.
No one could point to it.

Implied ownership works when:

It breaks when:

The system doesn’t collapse loudly.
It just stops catching things.

When leaders push for “better follow-up,” they’re treating the surface.

The real issue is structural:

Without those answers, follow-up depends on memory and goodwill.

That doesn’t scale.

Emails sent.
Notes logged.
Tasks created.

All of it looks like progress.

But progress requires movement toward a decision.
Activity alone doesn’t create that.

Ownership does.

When ownership is explicit:

The question shifts from: “Did anyone follow up?”

To: “Why didn’t this move when it should have?”

That’s a solvable problem.

Pick any active deal or task and answer one question:

Who owns the next step, and by when?

If that answer isn’t immediate, the system already failed.

Not the person.

If follow-up in your business depends on someone remembering, it will keep failing at scale.

Describe one place where ownership is implied instead of enforced. That’s where control breaks down.