Post by Brendan Hufford

Sunday confession: I just ghosted a $12k/mo prospect. On purpose. Because the intake form came in half-finished, I sent two emails asking for clarification, and both went straight into the void. No reply. No "sorry, missed this." Nothing. So when I had to choose between family vacation time in Rhode Island or a sales call... the answer was obvious. Here's what nobody tells you about "good" leads: $12K/mo doesn't mean anything if the guy can't answer one email before showing up expecting an hour of my time. I'm not running a guessing game on a discovery call. I've built Growth Sprints on doing an unreasonable amount of research ahead of time. Here's the part that'll get me some haters: Filling out the form (or answering my emails) is the audition. The first call IS the callback. You don't skip the audition and still expect the part. The version of me two years ago takes that call anyway. Scrambles. Tries to figure it all out live. Brendan two years ago then ends up with a client who ghosts mid-sprint the same way he ghosted my inbox. The version of me now knows: how someone treats the intake form is how they'll treat the SOW. So yeah. As a teacher who used to make $2k/mo... a $12K/mo lead is basically giraffe money. But diluting yourself for a check is exactly how you end up with a business you hate running. ⚡️ PS - two camps on this post: "take the call anyway" and "the form is the audition." Am I the a-hole?