🧲 No dough, no go—how to vet leads

Not all leads are created equal.

Some are potential buyers. Some are not.

You want to focus on the first category. Otherwise, you waste everybody’s time.

For this, you need an effective lead qualification process. “Effective” is the hard part, where many agencies and salespeople get lost.

If you’re setting up your sales funnel, I found 3 tactics you should use.

1. Be upfront or shut up

“What’s your budget?”

As a client, I hate that question the most.

When they ask me about my budget, I start wondering:

• Are they trying to assess how much they can ask?

• Should I negotiate harder because of this?

• Should I not trust them and leave?

It’s a lousy foundation for any business relationship.

Be upfront with your price. You’ll attract the right leads instead of freeloaders.

And you won’t end up leaving money on the table. Quite the opposite.

Maya Sayvanova closes $8k writing clients repeatedly.

She sets high prices from the start and is upfront about them. She sells her services on Fiverr, so she can’t be sneaky.

Let leads invest effort first

The standard way to get a lead is to collect an email address or a phone contact.

But you can ask for more.

Hubspot offers a free trial of its software, but to access it, you have to provide multiple data points.

If you have an agency, you can do the same. Check out The Birdhouse, Markos Ruiz’s website, for example.

Leads can book a discovery call only after providing extra business details. Markos asks about their business model, revenue, and whether they have the final say in the collaboration.

This way:

1. He makes sure in advance that every lead fits the profile of his ideal client

2. By asking leads to do some preliminary work, only the most committed will book a call

Go after the leads you want

For old-school salespeople, waiting for leads was a non-starter.

They were constantly driving around and knocking on doors.

The web has made sales easier. But it doesn’t mean you should wait for leads.

If you want to work with someone, take advantage of 𝕏 and LinkedIn.

Don’t wait for some long-term marketing strategy to bring them to you. Go and engage with them.

Build the connections you want.

I didn’t become Hypefury’s co-founder by setting up a landing page and attracting founders who needed a marketing expert.

Instead, I connected with other entrepreneurs.

When I saw the first version of Hypefury, I knew it was a great opportunity.

I made an effort to connect with Samy and build our relationship.

It may seem like a waste of time. You won’t see results right away.

The truth is: great deals start with great leads. 

Great leads come from building deep personal trust—just like with new friends. You can’t fake it.

And you have to be proactive about it.

That’s it for now, everyone! We’ll meet again next week to discuss some more of this!

Feel free to reply to this email. It goes directly to me.

Cheers,

Yannick

PS Hypefury’s Engagement Builder is the perfect tool for building strong relationships with the clients you want to close.