The Heartbeat Of New Business: Types of Leads
Posted by stuart sanders on Thu, Jul 22, 2010 @ 12:43 PM
When thinking about generating leads its helpful to have a system to classify the leads that come your way. This way you can focus your efforts and not get wrapped up in wasting time on leads that you have little chance of winning.
Bronze Leads
- Sent RFP
- Sent RFI
- Get a request for capabilities presentation to screening committee
- Receive a request for a written proposal
Silver Leads
- Receive a request for capabilities presentation by key decision maker
- Included in review by search consultant
- Get a lead from vendor or supplier
- Ask for you to bid on the work
Gold Leads
- Wants you to stop by and meet one-on-one (quiet visit)
- Asks to come by and visit the agency (quiet visit)
- Wants to discuss the account privately (quiet visit)
- Offers a test project to work on
If new business is the lifeblood of the agency, then new business leads are the heartbeat. And the best new business leads are the “quiet visits.”
Agency people who are untrained in important new business "quiet visit" skills see the first visit with a prospect as an opportunity to tell all about the firm in loving detail. These untrained agency people love to talk fast during their detailed capabilities presentations so they can cover more ground. It’s a way of speaking that clients often call the “Vomit Comet.” That’s not the way agency people trained in Torch work.