See if this sounds familiar...
You've just completed your first contact with a prospect - either by phone or in person. Now it's time for that all-important follow-up step.  You've agreed to gather some information (i.e. samples of your work, product literature, videos, Flash demos, links to articles, etc.) and get it to your prospect so that he can qualify you and your company. Today, this step usually happens via email.  Clearly your customer not only wants to see what he requested (or you offered), he's probably also looking to see how well you complete the appointed task; meaning how quickly and completely -- answering the question, "how service-oriented" are you?

Sure, that may be what's really happening, or it could simply be a delaying tactic - a barrier.  Some people aren't comfortable with saying "no," and while that's not your preferred response, it can be almost as valuable as a "yes," because it can save you from wasting huge amounts of time - pursuing a prospect who really isn't interested.

The problem with that initial follow-up has often been that it's open-ended.  The best sales people agree on next-steps that include scheduling a next appointment, even if it's over the phone.  Most people tend to leave it less specific than that, and are left wondering when they should follow-up, how often, when does it become annoying -- they start a big waiting game with attempt after attempt at re-connecting with a person who may, in reality, be dodging their phone calls.

One of today's big buzz words is "engagement." It's often referred to in the context of interacting with web sites; as a measure of a prospect's satisfaction with his experience on the site.  I suggest that another equally valid use of the term is with regard to the one-to-one selling process.  Either a prospect is engaged in the selling/buying process with you, or he isn’t.  If you’ve piqued his interest, offered something that addresses a current pain-point, or is clearly both relevant and valuable (perhaps including a resource like a link to a particularly helpful article), chances are, “he’ll dance with you” a bit.

So how can you tell if he’s willing to take a spin?  One early indication is whether or not he’s willing to look at what you sent him, without further prodding.  If he does, he just accepted your invitation to dance, and is worth more of your time.  If he doesn’t look at any of it (within a few days), chances are he isn’t really interested.  Now granted, the opportunity may be valuable enough that rather than abandon the prospect, you decided to change tactics and take another shot – and that’s great.  The question is, how long will it take you to make that decision?  How long will you wait?  How many emails or phone call attempts will it take?

Email marketers (even the non-spammers) have been addressing this issue for years by including tracked links (to landing pages or web sites) in their emails. They even have automated sequential “scripts” that send follow-up emails at certain timed intervals, with content that’s based on what you clicked, didn’t click, whether you fulfilled the goal they set out for you…or not.

[admittedly shameless self-promotion alert]:
We recently released an online tool for people who sell called CorePage, that brings some of that power to one-to-one selling situations.  It’s a tool that allows you to instantly create “private web pages” with tracked links to…anything online – so you can see if your prospect is actually looking at what you sent him…or not.

[back to the non-promotional stuff]:
Other ways to get a sense of initial engagement include your prospect’s willingness to schedule that next conversation or meeting, the depth of the questions he asks, his request that you cc others in his organization on your email and, of course, if he inquires about the price (don’t offer it, let him ask).

So, however you can judge initial engagement, consider it a worthwhile measure of the time-worthiness of each prospect.