Let me ask you something

When’s the last time you did this?

I don’t mean a discount.
I don’t mean a “circling back.”
I don’t mean a “just checking in on timeline.”

I mean:

You reached back out to a prospect who asked for a specific feature
and told them they inspired you to build something.

Not a template.
Not a generic update.
But a personal message like:

“Hey Sarah, during our call you mentioned your team needed a multi-location scheduling workflow.

We built it.

You were the spark for this one. Want to take a look?”

Have you done that recently? I've asked 52 people (and counting) this question and only 2 people ever answered yes. And even then, it was with the extreme qualifier that they had done it a few times. What if you did it every time?

Because if you haven’t, you’re leaving closed-won deals rotting in the “ghosted purgatory” of your pipeline.

And this is the lowest-effort, highest-leverage move a CRO can make.

Let me show you why.

Feature origin stories matter more than features

Buyers don’t just care whether you built the thing.

They care whether you built it for them.

Enterprise buyers are political.
They want internal credibility.
They want progress they can brag about.
They want influence.

When you say:

“YOU inspired this,”

you activate:

  • ego
  • ownership
  • reciprocity
  • favoritism
  • commitment bias
  • professional pride

You instantly revive momentum.

This is psychology 101.
But somehow every CRO forgets to use it.

Why this works so well on ghosted deals

Ghosting rarely means “no.”

Ghosting usually means:

  • internal distraction
  • competing priorities
  • timeline slippage
  • stakeholder drama
  • inbox overwhelm
  • loss of momentum
  • indecision
  • fear of picking wrong

You know what cuts through all that?

“We built what you asked for.”

It turns a dormant opportunity into a personal win.

Here’s why most companies never do this

Because:

  • Sales forgets who asked for what
  • Product doesn’t track buyer-level requests
  • No one aggregates customer feedback
  • No one knows which feature connects to which account
  • Product announcements are generic, not personal
  • CRM notes are incomplete
  • Gong clips are scattered
  • CS has no visibility
  • Everyone is operating from fragments

The truth is brutal:
The reason you don’t do personalized “you inspired this” messages
is because you can’t.

Your data doesn’t support it.

AI changes this completely

AI can now:

  • analyze every Gong call
  • find every feature request
  • map them to prospects
  • attach ARR potential
  • generate “you inspired this” messages
  • personalize by segment
  • include exact customer quotes
  • instantly identify ghosted accounts linked to new releases

So instead of guessing who to revive, you can send:

“We just shipped the budgeting workflow you mentioned.

Here’s a 40-second walkthrough.

Want a first look before we roll it out more widely?”

Personalization at scale → momentum at scale.

This is how CROs reclaim deals competitors assume are dead.

 

The CRO takeaway

A ghosted deal isn’t dead.
It’s waiting for relevance.

And there’s nothing more relevant than:

“We built what YOU asked for.”

This single move:

  • revives deals
  • accelerates late-stage cycles
  • increases win rate
  • creates customer heroes
  • builds trust
  • differentiates you from every generic vendor
  • repeats across your pipeline

Your reps don’t need better sequences.

They need better reasons to reach out.

This is the best one you’ll ever have.