How-to

How to Track Cold Leads and Follow-Ups With Claude and xTiles

"I feel like I miss out on a lot of opportunities." — Rory, solo founder, on leads that go quiet after the first few touch points

Where leads actually go cold

Rory is a heavy Claude user who builds his own apps and already runs keyword research through an SEO tool connected to Claude. Until recently, xTiles was his personal planning space. The next step he described on our call was bigger: using it for project management, and for staying on top of clients and leads.

The problem he named is the one most solo founders know. You do a couple of touch points with a lead, other work takes over, and a month later you realise the conversation stopped. Nobody said no. It just went cold.

What about that person a month or two ago, what are they doing? They've kind of gone a bit cold, and then warming them back up. Rory, describing the system he wants to build

That gap is rarely about effort. There's simply no place that remembers the last touch and asks the question for you. The setup below builds that place in xTiles, then lets Claude do the remembering.

Start with one lead list you can scan

You don't need a full CRM to stop losing leads. A single xTiles collection works as a lightweight tracker, the way many consultants track their clients: one row per lead, with the columns you actually look at.

  • Status — new, talking, proposal sent, gone quiet, client.
  • Last touch — the date you last heard from them or reached out.
  • Notes — what they need and what you promised, so the next message doesn't start from zero.

Keep it in its own project, next to anything else you share with those leads. The list tells you who; the tasks in the next step tell you when.

Make every follow-up a dated task

1

Connect Claude to xTiles

If you haven't yet, connecting Claude takes three clicks. Connect your email in Claude as well, so it can see the conversations with leads.

2

Let Claude turn replies into follow-up tasks

Ask Claude to review new messages, decide which leads need a reply, and create a task for each in your leads project. Every task gets a due date and a link back to the original thread, so you never have to search for it again.

3

Add a task after every touch point

Sent a proposal or had a call? Create the next follow-up right away, with a date a week or two out. A task with a due date shows up in My Planner automatically, wherever it lives.

4

Log the touches you forgot to plan

Replied to someone on the fly? Add it as a completed task. Your planner then shows every touch that happened, not only the ones you scheduled.

Name the project in your prompt

Tell Claude which project the tasks belong in, or paste a link to it. It then writes there directly instead of scattering follow-ups across your pages.

Ask Claude who went quiet

This is the part that catches the leads you'd otherwise lose. Because every touch point is a task in your planner, Claude has a history to read. Ask it to look back over your planner, a month or further, and list the leads that had a follow-up done and then nothing after it.

That list is your warm-up queue. Ask Claude to draft a short check-in for each and create a follow-up task for tomorrow, so re-engaging them is already on your day.

Run it before your day starts

Set the check as a Claude routine for every weekday morning. Routines run in the cloud, so your computer doesn't need to be on, and the new tasks are in xTiles when you open it on your phone. See Routines vs. Scheduled Tasks for the setup.

Add a Friday check-in

Rory once worked with a human accountability coach who asked, every Friday, how the week had gone and broke down whatever kept getting stuck. That's a good model for follow-ups too.

Once a week, point Claude at the last seven days of My Planner and ask which follow-ups kept moving to the next day without being sent. Those are usually the awkward ones: a price to confirm, a lead you're unsure about. Naming them is often enough to get them done. For more prompts like this, see how to ask AI to review your whole week.

Frequently asked questions

Can I track leads and follow-ups in xTiles without a CRM?
Yes. Use an xTiles collection as a lightweight lead list with status, last touch, and notes, and make every follow-up a task with a due date so it appears in My Planner.
Can Claude create follow-up tasks from my email?
Yes. With email and xTiles connected, Claude can review new messages, decide which ones need a reply, and create a task for each with a due date and a link back to the thread.
How do I find leads that have gone cold?
Ask Claude to look back over your planner, a month or further, and list the leads with a completed follow-up and nothing after it. Then have it create a check-in task for each.
Can this run automatically every morning?
Yes. Set it up as a Claude routine. Routines run in the cloud, so the follow-up tasks are in xTiles before you start, even if your computer is off.
Where do follow-up tasks show up?
Any task with a due date shows up in My Planner automatically, so follow-ups from your leads project sit next to the rest of your day.
How do I stop putting off the same follow-ups?
Once a week, ask Claude which follow-ups kept moving to the next day without being sent. Naming the stuck ones makes them easier to finish.