The sales process · Lead generation
Somebody meets your buyer three months before you do, and you can name them.
Your contact sphere is the short list of non-competing businesses that meet the same buyer just before or just after you do. The architect before the lift supplier. This step works out who yours are, what each of them needs from you, and whether the relationship has produced anything.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Your contact sphere is the short list of non-competing businesses that meet the same buyer just before or just after you do. The architect before the lift supplier. This step works out who yours are, what each of them needs from you, and whether the relationship has produced anything.
A buyer rarely starts with you. An architect has drawn the shaft long before a builder chooses a lift. A chartered accountant has read the books before a company picks a banker. An interior designer has fixed the kitchen layout before anybody rings a modular firm. Those people are in the room while you are still waiting for an enquiry.
The list of who they are in your business is short, and it comes out of your own invoices. For each of your last twenty orders, ask who that customer was already paying in the three months before you. The trades that keep reappearing are your contact sphere. Six or seven of them, not sixty.
Educational content, the step before, gave you something worth passing on. This step decides who passes it. The work is one relationship at a time. Influencer marketing, the step after, buys attention from a crowd. This borrows one person's judgment, and the rent is work you send out.
Where this sits
Stage 4 of 10, lead generation. The routes an enquiry can arrive by, and what each one costs in money or in time.
- The stage before
- Prospecting
- The stage after
- Sales enablement
If you want this done for you
Turn the businesses that already send you customers into a programme instead of a favour.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“Choose by who meets the buyer, not by who you like”
The test is sequence, not friendship. Does this person sit with your buyer while the money is still being decided. A supplier you enjoy meeting, but who meets your buyer a year too early, belongs in your address book rather than on this list.
“Somebody who has referred nothing is a friend”
Write three states against each name: has sent work and when, has said they would, has never. Half a year of nothing means the relationship is social, and calling it a referral source flatters both of you. Mark it honestly, then decide whether to invest or let it be.
“Give them one line they can recognise”
A connector cannot spot your buyer from a description of your services. Give them a situation instead. A builder who is three months from handing over and has not yet chosen the lifts. A clinic that has just taken a second floor. Something they will notice without asking a question.
“Reciprocity is the rent”
If nothing goes out, nothing comes back, and the awkwardness of asking again after a year of taking is why most of these lists die. Keep a column for what you have sent them. It is also why the circle stays small. You cannot honestly recommend twenty firms.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The contact sphere sheet
One row per relationship. The trade, the business, the named person, where they sit in the buyer's sequence, what they have sent you, and what you have sent them.
Result: You can see at a glance that four of your seven connectors have never received anything from you.
The recognition line
One sentence describing the moment your buyer becomes reachable, written so a connector can spot it in conversation. Tested by reading it to somebody outside your trade and asking what they would look for.
Result: A connector rings you about a situation rather than waiting for a customer to ask for a name.
The handover rule
What happens when a referral arrives: who rings, how soon, what the connector is told afterwards, and who apologises if it went badly. A name passed on and answered three days later costs your connector face, and they will not pass a second.
Result: Every referred enquiry is answered the same day, and the connector hears the outcome either way.
The honest review
Every few months, read the sheet and move each name between the three states. Add anybody new who has sent work without being asked. Drop the relationships that have been one-way for a year.
Result: The list stays six or seven names long instead of becoming a directory nobody uses.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 1, prospecting and lead generation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How do we decide who belongs on the list?
Should we pay a commission for referrals?
What if our connector also refers our competitor?
How is this different from asking customers for referrals?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of lead generation
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.