The sales process · Lead generation
You are renting somebody else's audience once, so decide first what you will count.
Influencer marketing pays a creator whose audience contains your buyers to feature what you sell, for a fee agreed before anything is posted. This step covers how to judge whether an audience is really yours, what belongs in the brief, and what you look at the day after it goes up.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Influencer marketing pays a creator whose audience contains your buyers to feature what you sell, for a fee agreed before anything is posted. This step covers how to judge whether an audience is really yours, what belongs in the brief, and what you look at the day after it goes up.
A creator has spent years earning the right to be believed by a few thousand people. You are buying a slice of that for one post. It is the only route in this stage where the trust is not yours, which is what makes it quick and what makes it risky. If the post reads as an advertisement, you have paid for nothing.
Most of the work happens before any money moves. Who actually watches this person, and do they live where you can serve them. What have they posted near your category. Do they mark paid posts honestly. What are you asking them to say, and what must they never say.
Connectors and contact sphere, the step before, borrows judgment from one professional at a time. This borrows attention from a crowd, once. Networking groups, the step after, goes back to slow and personal.
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
Borrow trust from someone your buyers already follow, for a fee that is agreed upfront.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“Follower count is the least useful number on the page”
Ask for the audience breakdown before you talk about money. Which cities, which language, and whether the people watching are the age of your buyer. A creator with a modest following in your own city beats a national name whose viewers cannot reach your shop.
“Brief it so the post still sounds like them”
One page. The claim you can defend, the thing that must be shown on camera, the words that must not be used, and the disclosure. Script every sentence and the audience hears a recital. The creator knows what their viewers sit through, and that judgment is part of what you are paying for.
“Agree the count before the post”
Decide what you will look at the day after and where you will read it. Messages received, calls that mention it, a code that only appears in that post. Skip this and the negotiation afterwards is about view counts, which tell you how many people scrolled past a video with your product in it.
“Wrong for most manufacturers and for regulated work”
A firm selling gearboxes to five purchase heads has no creator audience to rent. A clinic cannot have somebody promise a result on its behalf, because the claim becomes the clinic's problem. When the buyer is a company and the order is signed by a committee, put the money into trigger events.
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 shortlist sheet
Five or six names with where they post, who watches them, what they have made near your category, what they quoted, and whether their paid posts are marked. Built by watching their last month of work, not by reading a media kit.
Result: You can say why each name is on the list, and why three others were taken off it.
The one-page brief
What the product does, the one claim you can stand behind, what must be visible, the words that are off limits, and how the post must be marked as paid. Short enough that the creator reads all of it.
Result: The draft comes back close enough that your changes are corrections, not a rewrite.
The agreement on paper
Fee, dates, how many posts, how long each stays up, whether you may run the footage later as an advertisement, and who owns it. The usage question is the one people forget, and buying it afterwards costs more.
Result: Nobody argues in a chat window about what was promised, because it is written down.
The day-after log
Messages, calls, code uses and walk-ins for the two days following the post, with the source recorded by whoever took them. Compared against an ordinary week so you know what the post added.
Result: You can decide whether to book this creator again on evidence instead of on how the video felt.
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 know the audience is real?
Can we see the post before it goes live?
What do creators charge?
Can a business that sells to other businesses use this at all?
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.