Booked

I don’t pay a lot of attention to the business practices of other agencies / development firms. There’s enough going on at my own. But, every once in a while you get a headkick realization that you’re doing something wrong. And someone else has to be handling the same problem with better form.

The something wrong for us — at least the something I’m referring to right now — is lead handling. We get a lot of ‘em. We even react really well to some of ‘em. But the leads we get outnumber the projects we can complete, and even if we tier the leads and respond in relative terms, there’s no way to avoid wasting effort. In other words, reacting to every single lead doesn’t make good [business] sense.

Quick confession: we probably do a lot of things that don’t make good [business] sense. But our inability to say no on the spot isn’t something that benefits us in other ways. And in this case, the only thing compelling us to react to some of our leads is to show appreciation for being contacted in the first place.

I think we could do that and still say no on the spot vs 4 hours in (discussing, grokking, writing.)

This is a common problem for everyone from freelancers to carpet joint agencies. And I think the common solution is to put the moose out front and [selectively] say you’re booked. I just don’t like the way that feels.

Pre-qualifying is the better form. Give the prospect the information they need to recognize whether or not they / you fit before they even make contact.

While we’re working to put science the process, I’d love to hear how any of you handle or limit non compatible leads. I thought sidebar’s scary budget slider was good stuff. Anyone else have ideas?