Skip to main content

🗓️ [Webinar Apr 3] How to Build a CRM in ClickUp—with ClickUp's #1 Solutions Partner. Sign up now.

ZenPilot Blog » Latest Articles

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

When Should You Give Up on a Prospect

Gray MacKenzie
Gray MacKenzie is a true operations nerd who has spent the past decade helping hundreds of agencies build more productive, profitable, and healthy teams by solving the core issues plaguing their project management.

To chat with Gray and have ZenPilot lead your team through the last project management implementation you'll ever need, schedule a quick call here.

Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours on calls and proposals for a prospect and then losing the deal.

This episode of Inbound Sales Journey is short and sweet but makes an important point for anyone doing sales at an agency.

Time wasted on bad prospects is time lost on finding good ones.

3 Types of Prospects

Each prospect you will speak with can be broken down into 3 high-level categories.

  1. Good fit
  2. Bad fit
  3. Tire kicker

After going through the connect call with a prospect I will identify which category they fall into.

A good fit is a prospect who falls into our already defined “best-fit” bucket. Having an outline of who your agency’s best-fit prospect is will help make the categorization process much easier. 

A bad-fit prospect is someone who gives you immediate red flags on the first call. Issues like budget, team structure, industry, services outside of your scope should signal immediate red flags. Do not change your agency’s identity to try and match every prospect. 

A tire-kicker is a prospect who is phishing for information so that they can either do inbound on their own or only care about price. Someone who tells me they are talking with 10 other agencies and trying to find the best price ends the conversation for themselves right there. Those are the prospects you may land but will be a major headache. 

Revenue Problems

The reason most agencies do not kick a bad prospect to the curb fast enough is the need for revenue. Unfortunately, desperation leads to bad decision-making. 

Taking on a bad client just because they are willing to pay is not how you build a profitable agency. It is passing up the bad prospects to focus on activities that will gain you the right clients that will lead you to success.

When we were starting out with GuavaBox we ditched our legacy clients and stopped wasting time with bad prospects to focus on our own inbound marketing. We were specific in targeting only our best-fit prospects and the results were incredible. 

We have not had to cold outreach for business in the past 2 years because of 6-months of focused marketing work. 

Identify your best-fit prospects and take the time you would spend with bad prospects and spend it attracting good ones!

How to Connect with Ryan and Gray

Twitter:

@ryanrherman

@sgraymackenzie

Explore Topics

About ZenPilot

Our proven framework helps agencies streamline their operations in ClickUp and build healthy teams, boost profits, and double productivity. Get our proven framework →
New call-to-action

Related Articles

Subscribe to First Class Operations

And get instant access to the ClickUp for Agencies Guide. Join 8,000+ agencies that stay ahead of the curve on agency news, resources, tools, and insights with our newsletter.
FREE ClickUp Productivity Bundle
ClickUp for Agencies Playbook

Get our 47-page ClickUp for agencies guide + client onboarding template - all for free!