PRECIOUS LEADS: 13 Ways to Categorise Your Contacts
Hello again! Today’s entry is simply a fun post designed to serve as an aide-memoire.
It has been said that the resourceful Inuit and Yupik peoples have more than a dozen words for snow, depending on such criteria as the consistency, characteristics and use they might make of the snow.
The phoneforbusiness lexicon for contacts is equally rich. Using the acronym PRECIOUS LEADS, below is a list of categories and sources of leads, representing most stages of the contact cycle in your pipeline. Feel free to add your own if there are glaring omissions:
Prospects – You’re in the process of working out if you can help another person or organisation.
Referrals – Qualified opportunities to help people or organisations that can use your product or service.
Existing Clients – People and organisations continually buying what you offer.
Customers – One-off or ad-hoc needs, impulse or occasional/seasonal purchases.
Internal – Staff, suppliers, stakeholders. If these people buy nothing, why would anyone else?
Online – Website, email, Google Adwords, social media or online directory generated enquiries.
Unserviceable/Unprofitable – You were unable to meet their requests or even had to ‘fire’ them.
Suspects – You ’suspect’ they’ll be able to use your product/service but have never contacted them. These contacts may be found via direct mail, email or cold calling (or a combination).
Lost – Opportunities lost to the competition or lacking an effective contact schedule & conclusion.
Events – Contacting people post-event, usually to an agreed schedule. Neglect is common here.
Ancient – Nostalgia files of former, dormant or lapsed accounts. Wanna wake some of them up?
Dead – Leads that produced no business between you and a contact. Has the situation changed?
Supporters – People that like you, like what you do, have never used you but still recommend you. These can include referral advocates, resellers and affiliate channels. Offer them a trial.
The above is by no means definitive, some people may argue that you get leads even in the post. It is a start, and one that recognises that just as there may be many types of snow, there are many types of contact according to the type of status or outcome you help to generate with each one.
Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009 – Author of PhoneMentor
Call +44 208 133 0702 or +44 203 348 8702.
Email: shaun@phoneforbusiness.com
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