Start a sprint conversation

Call, text or email: which to use

All three reach the same senior team, so pick whichever suits your day.

• Call if you want to talk it through now and you're free during Pacific business hours.
• Text if you're on the move or between customers. A short text with your name, business and a good time to call back is plenty.
• Email if you want to send figures, a little background or a list of questions. It's also the easiest way to share a quote template or a past agency's report for us to look at.

The contact buttons on every page open your phone or email app directly.

What to include in your first message

Short is fine. The most useful first messages answer five things:

1. What the business does and roughly how many people work in it.
2. Where you are, including the province or territory and the towns you serve.
3. The problem as you see it, in a sentence or two.
4. Three figures, even rough ones: enquiries a month, how many become sales, and average sale value.
5. Timing, such as whether you have a busy season coming up.

A template you can copy

Hi, I'm [Your name] from [Business name] in [City, Province]. We [what you do] with [number] staff. We get about [number] enquiries a month and win roughly [number] of them, at an average of [$ amount]. Our biggest problem is [one sentence]. Our busy season starts in [month]. Best time to reach me is [day/time].

Replace every bracket with your own details. Anything you can't answer yet, leave out; we'll work it out together.

What happens after you get in touch

1. A reply to book the free call. We usually reply within one business day.
2. The consultation. We go through your three figures, the problem as you see it, and your timing. You'll hear our honest view on whether a sprint fits, and which lane looks likely.
3. A written proposal, if it makes sense: the scope, the price under the published models, the milestones and the notice terms.
4. Kickoff. Once you accept, the two-week diagnostic begins and the sprint clock starts when the charter is signed.

If the consultation shows a sprint isn't right, perhaps because the real issue is outside marketing and sales, we'll say so and suggest what might help instead.

Getting ready before the call

You'll get more from the 30 minutes if you spend ten minutes beforehand on these:

• Count last month's enquiries by channel, even roughly: calls, emails, web, walk-ins.
• Count how many quotes or proposals went out, and how many were won.
• Note where your last five new customers said they found you.
• List who in your business answers the phone and sends quotes.

The guide to picking your bottleneck walks through this in more detail, and the FAQ covers contracts and ownership.

If you are comparing options

Plenty of owners contact several consultants before choosing one. That's sensible. When you compare, ask each of them the same four questions: what baseline will you measure, what single figure will you be judged on, how often will we review it together, and who owns the accounts when we stop? Our answers are on the services page; theirs should be just as specific.

Privacy and follow-up

We use your contact details only to reply to you and to discuss work you've asked about. We only email people who contact us first. If you'd rather we didn't follow up after the consultation, say so and we won't.

BusinessBooster.ca is part of the Sedighi.ca and SAZ.ca group, run from Vancouver, British Columbia, serving owners in every province and territory.