WaiBase Blueprint
Every lead followed up within 5 minutes
How a 20-person B2B company brings in leads and never lets one slip through again, without hiring anyone.
Nico Waiboer, WaiBase, August 2026, version 3
Why this document
No sales pitch, just the complete setup exactly as I build it for clients: from bringing leads in to the follow-up that runs on its own afterwards. Everything in here you can build yourself. If you'd rather have it done for you, you'll find how to reach me at the bottom. But first: the content.
The problem everyone recognizes
At most B2B companies of 10 to 100 people, it goes like this:
- A lot of work goes into visibility, but visitors leave the website without leaving a trace
- When an inquiry does come in, someone sees it and thinks “I'll get to that later”
- Later becomes tomorrow, tomorrow becomes next week
- By the time anyone makes contact, the lead has already talked to two competitors
Nobody does this on purpose. It happens because bringing in leads and following up depend on loose ends: on someone remembering, in between everything else.
And this isn't a feeling, it's been measured. The average B2B company takes 42 hours to respond to an inquiry, and 23% never respond at all (Harvard Business Review, 2011). Meanwhile, whoever calls within 5 minutes is 21 times more likely to qualify the lead than whoever waits half an hour (MIT/InsideSales, 2007). Not because that company is better, but because it got there first.
The setup in five layers
This is the system as I build it. Five layers, each with its own job. New in this version: layer 1. Because follow-up starts with leads coming in.
website chatbot, LinkedIn outbound, email outbound, triggered by buying signals
reply = sequence stops immediately
Layer 1: make sure leads come in
The best follow-up sequence is worthless if nothing comes in to follow up on. That's why the system starts with three supply routes that work as one:
Your website. Give visitors an easy way to ask a question, without a form with eight fields. A smart chatbot catches questions that would otherwise never be asked, including in the evening and on weekends
LinkedIn. Don't wait around, approach your target audience directly: connection requests and short, personal messages to the people you want to talk to
Email. Cold email at scale, with a separate sending domain so your main domain stays clean and your messages actually land
The three routes work fine on their own, but the real difference happens when they come together: every reply, from every channel, lands in the same place and enters the same follow-up. No separate list per channel, no difference in speed.
Start with a signal, not a list
For the outbound channels there's one rule that makes the difference: don't start from a cold list, start from a buying signal. A sign that a company has a reason to move right now. Three examples:
A job opening for a sales or marketing role: that company is building for growth
A new manager in the role you serve: they want to make their mark in the first few months
Someone visiting your website or profile multiple times: they're already looking
The same message at the right moment delivers a multiple of the same message at a random moment. Timing beats volume.
Example: for software company SoftVaro we built a chatbot on the website that answers visitor questions directly from its own knowledge base. When someone asks a question that signals buying interest, it lands as a lead in the CRM and the team gets an instant notification. What used to be an anonymous visitor is now a conversation with a name attached. And that conversation automatically enters the follow-up described below.
Why this works: most website visitors leave without a trace, and most dream clients never reach out on their own. Not out of disinterest, but because the threshold is too high or because they simply don't know you. This removes both barriers.
Tip: follow-up works twice as well when you're not a stranger. Someone who already knows you from your LinkedIn posts or your website opens your first message warm instead of cold. Visibility isn't a separate project, it's the foundation under this entire system.
Layer 2: everything lands in one place
Every lead, from every channel, ends up in one list. Chatbot, LinkedIn, email, form, phone note: all of it.
- Use what you already have. A simple database (we often build this in Airtable) is enough
- Every lead gets three fields: where did it come from, when did it come in, who's picking it up
- No lead is allowed to exist outside this list. Not even “that one I still have sitting in my inbox”
- Ask one question the moment a lead comes in: does this company fit us in size and sector? Yes: front of the queue. Not sure: the regular queue. That way you don't waste speed on leads that will never become clients
Why this works: you can't follow up on what you can't see. Missed leads are rarely a matter of laziness. Usually, nobody knew they existed.
Layer 3: the first reply goes out automatically
The moment a lead comes in, a first message goes out within a few minutes. Automated, but written as if it came from a human.
- Short, personal in tone, in your company's style
- No “we have received your inquiry in good order”, but: “Thanks for your message, I'll take a look today. Anything I should keep in mind?”
- The message asks one question. That way the conversation starts immediately
Why this works: the lead feels seen at the exact moment their interest is at its highest. No better message three days later can make up for that feeling.
Layer 4: the follow-up sequence runs on its own
If the lead doesn't reply to the first message, a sequence follows automatically: a reminder after two days, a substantive message after four, a final message after a week.
- Every step has a fixed, pre-written text. No improvised copy per lead
- The moment the lead replies, the sequence stops immediately and the conversation goes to a human
- The messages give something: an example, an insight, an answer to a common question. They only ask for something after they've given something first
Why this works: most deals don't die on “no”, they die on silence. A sequence that keeps running on its own takes the forgetting error out of the game.
The three messages as an example
Don't copy them word for word, use them as a starting point and put them in your own words. Everything in [brackets] you fill in yourself.
Message 1, day 2, the reminder:
Hi [first name], my message from [day] may have gotten buried, no problem. Want me to send you [an example or case] similar to your situation? Then you'll have something concrete to look at.
Message 2, day 4, the substantive message:
Hi [first name], a lot of companies asking about this get stuck on [common problem]. At [type of client] we solved it like this: [one sentence about the approach]. Do you recognize that at [company name]?
Message 3, day 7, the final message:
Hi [first name], I'll leave it here after this, promise. If [topic] comes back on the agenda later: you know where to find me. Have a good week.
Tip: every message gives something first (an example, an insight, peace of mind) before it asks for anything. Keep that order when you rewrite the texts.
Layer 5: a human takes over when it gets real
Automation does the groundwork. The sales conversations remain human work.
- Every reply from a lead goes straight to the right person, with the full history attached
- That person doesn't have to search for who it was or what's already been sent: it's all there
- From that moment on it's just human contact again, only without the slow run-up
- Look back every month: which leads became clients and where did they come from? Use that to sharpen your target audience and your signals. That way the system gets a little smarter every month
Why this works: clients buy from people. The system just makes sure the human conversation starts on time.
How you know it's working
You don't need to build a dashboard full of charts. Two numbers are enough to steer by:
Average response time. The time between a lead coming in and the first message. Target: under 5 minutes
Percentage followed up within 24 hours. How many leads got real follow-up within a day? Target: 100%, no exceptions
Put these two numbers side by side every week, for example in the same system as your lead list. If they drop, you see the problem before revenue shows it. That's exactly the difference between steering and explaining after the fact.
What this looks like in practice
A B2B agency of around twenty people had plenty of inquiries: forms, LinkedIn messages, the occasional referral. Follow-up happened when there was time for it, and there rarely was.
What we built:
- One central lead list where all channels come together
- A first message that goes out within minutes of every inquiry, in the agency's own tone
- A follow-up sequence of three messages for anyone who doesn't reply
- An instant notification to the team the moment someone does reply
The result: where a new lead used to sit for a day or two, they now get a first message within minutes. The number of conversations from the same volume of leads went up noticeably, without adding anyone to the team.
The technology isn't exciting. The difference is that the supply and the follow-up now show up every single day, including the busy ones. Especially then.
Building it yourself: where to start
Want to get going with this? Start small:
- 1
Week 1: set up the central lead list and create one working document with your target audience, your tone, and the three follow-up messages. Everything you automate afterwards draws from that one document. That's how all your channels keep one voice
- 2
Week 2: write the first automated message and connect one channel, for example your website form or chatbot
- 3
Week 3: write the follow-up sequence of three messages (use the examples from layer 4) and set the stop rule properly: a reply means stop immediately
- 4
Week 4: connect the remaining channels and set up the notifications to your team
- 5
After that: only once the follow-up is solid do you open the tap further with LinkedIn and email outbound. The other way around is a waste: you'd be pouring more leads into a leaking bucket
Watch out: the trap is wanting everything at once. One channel that fully works is worth more than five channels that half work.
If you'd rather have it built for you
At WaiBase I build exactly these kinds of systems for B2B companies of 10 to 100 people, in their own tools and their own tone. The foundation is usually up and running within a few weeks.
Want to see what this would look like for your company? Book a call and I'll walk through your situation with you. No obligations, just a good conversation about where your leads are slipping through.