They’re Stealing Your New Business Leads!

That’s right, and stealing leads from right from under your nose. Some suggest with your permission.

And who’s doing that? It’s the fine IT folks at your place and everywhere. In their blind enthusiasm to keep your agency or company safe from spam and phishing, they built an almost impenetrable wall (there’s that word) around your organization and it works there! That’s fine for most. But for those engaged in new business, business development or lead capture, they’re stealing your leads and sending them to trash.

Working as the agency search consult we are, for years we sent agency invitations starting with an email alert, then a full invite via fax and finally a follow-up phone call or message. Still ringing in our ears are agencies declaring – “Nobody uses faxes anymore; please use email.” We started doing so this year, and it’s been a disaster. Agency silence in ignorance is deafening. Follow-up calls go to voicemail – often ignored. After repeated back & fourths, the invite with attachment is found – deep within trash folders. One of our buried emails just surfaced at an agency with subject line modified to read ‘Possible Junk – Business Opportunity w/Quick Decision Required.” Thanks IT for keeping us safe and costing us all the business we seek!

Is there a lesson to be learned? Absolutely! Every day at the end of the day, be sure to look and work your way through your Junk folder. Make it a habit to scroll through all that’s there. If you don’t already, you’ll soon get in the habit of spotting good news from bad. While you’re there, move anything worth further examination to your Inbox. It will post back in date sequence, so when you open for tomorrow, go back at least a day to find those you moved up.

The message here? Don’t lose valuable leads just because your IT folks have built a wall that works!