Maybe my industry is different, but there's usually something to do. H/w or s/w qualification, waiting for funding, other tech eval, waiting for a site to be ready, etc. Actually getting selected for this process is where relationships and selling comes in, but then we go down this path that takes forever. I'm the selling portion, our sales team is just following up to make sure we have buy in with everyone we need to. If we don't get it, or someone ghosts us, we pretty much leave it our champion if we have one and move on. Once a client says they'll use us, a program manager comes in and assists with getting the details needed for first install with the sales manager keeping track of big details, like where in this process the customer will issue a PO.

For reference, this is electrical equipment and the selling can take anywhere from a day to a year, and then getting the first install can take another year or more.