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02/15/2006: "Getting Good Leads and Bad Leads and How to Know the Difference."

Since many copywriters read this space I'll write this from a copywriter's perspective, which is easy for me to do. But it applies to anyone who uses leads to get customers or clients. For the sake of this discussion I'll define leads as a source of prospective clients or customers for your product or service.

There are two kinds of leads --- ,b.qualified and non-qualified. Which do you prefer and why?

Many copywriters have a Request for a Quote form on their sites. And a good many of those ask just a few questions. Others ask a lot. Some ask for a budget. Others do not.

Here's what I've found out about the lead system in close to four decades of selling experience. The more questions you ask, the fewer leads you get. But --- and this is important --- the leads you do get will be qualified, they will be better.

For each question you ask on any form you lose someone's interest. But the few who do fill out the entire form and give you a budget are real prospective clients. They're the only ones you should care about.

In our business we get lots of shoppers. We get tire kickers. We get competitors looking to discover our fees and terms. We can't totally eliminate all those time wasters. But we can get rid of lots of them by smoking out prospective clients with more questions and certainly asking for a budget.

For one thing, we as copywriters can't really intelligently discuss a prospective client's marketing needs without knowing what his budget is for any given project. People hate to share that information with us. They feel like we're looking up their skirt and trying to figure out what to charge them. Of course, we know that's not true. We want to know if they can afford us and, if so, what we can actually do for them in relation to their budget. It's that simple.

Let's face it, our time is valuable. And people, if we let them, will take all the time we have and give nothing in return. And it's such a waste of time to give a quote and talk to someone for an hour only to find out he has no money and isn't ready to do anything anyway. We should send him a bill for our time!

So the bottom line is, if you want lots of leads, just ask three or four simple questions. Get their name, phone, e-mail and what they want or something like that. Then later you can get the other information.

If you want a solid qualified lead, however, ask more questions including getting their budget.

Every copywriter is different. There is no right or wrong way to work and whatever works for you is the right way for you to work. I personally hate to waste my time. My form currently doesn't ask lots of questions. But it does require a budget. And if I don't get it on the form, I'll get it in the creative brief. But I'll get it.

People will rob you of your time. And your time and skill is all you have to sell. Be careful how you use your time. It get quickly get away from you and spending it with a non-prospective-client is a real stupid mistake.