6 Tips To Quickly Qualify New Enquiries

I was sitting with a client last month and we were discussing business development. They are in the fortunate position to be generating between 20 and 30 new inquiries each month because they've really worked on making their website generate new leads. 

However, whilst some of these inquiries looked promising at the start, they seem to follow a similar pattern that results in the client working long hours to get the proposals written and then the prospect disappears! 

So this week's episode of The Agency Accelerator Podcast focuses on the topic of qualifying leads BEFORE you spend a ton of time on them. This means that you're investing your limited time on the hot prospects and rooting out those enquiries that are just information gatherers. 

Also, you will learn six (6) tips and strategies that you can start applying immediately in your agency to implement a faster lead qualification process.

Time Stamp

[2:54] Funnel marketing activities

[3:18] The consequence of focusing your time on the wrong prospects

[6:45] #1 You must get a sense of a prospect’s budget and if they won’t give you that, then it’s a good indication that it’s early in their buying process and they might just be on a fact-finding expedition!

[7:35] #2 There are some techniques you can use to ‘encourage’ them to give you a budget or at least an idea of their budget range (this is something I teach my Self-Running Agency Implementation Group Members how to do)

[9:04] #3 How to know if it's time to walk away from a prospect 

[10:35] #4 For most of us, time is our most valuable commodity, so you want to invest as little time as possible in early discussions with prospects – use pre-written email templates to quickly follow-up leads to filter them ‘in’ or ‘out’

[10:44] #5 The further down the sales funnel the prospects go, the more time you should be willing to invest

[11:54] #6 Once you agree to a meeting and then agree to write a proposal, get a date in the diary (during that meeting) for the follow-up conversation.  This gives you the best chance of keeping momentum once you’ve sent the proposal

Quotations

“..there's nothing wrong with people who are in information-gathering mode, and they may well one day become your perfect client, and they're not ready now. But you should not be using your time to educate them.” - Rob Da  Costa

“..the secret here is to identify the hot prospects that you're going to invest your time in and get rid of those others as quickly as possible..” - Rob Da Costa

“This is why having these pre-written email templates is a great idea because they may not be a fit for you today, but they may be the right kind of client for you in the future..”- Rob Da Costa

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Useful links mentioned in this episode:

• Training: FREE 60-minute Sales Pipeline Training
• eBook: How to define your ideal target customer or customer avatar
• Podcast: The Agency Accelerator Podcast Episode 41: Business Development Strategies Part 1
• Podcast: The Agency Accelerator Podcast Episode 43: Business Development Strategies Part 2 
• Podcast: The Agency Accelerator Podcast Episode 44: Business Development Strategies Part 3
• Video: Rob Da Costa’s YouTube Channel 
• Get in touch with Rob at robert@dacostacoaching.co.uk