I was talking to a martial arts school owner the other day, and he was talking about leads and prospects and referrals. I was confused with the way he was talking about them though, because he wasn’t using the words correctly.

So I decided to make a post about it.

A prospect is any potential person that hasn’t talked to you about your program yet. Usually, I classify a prospect as any potential person that would be interested in your program.

When you buy a direct mail list to send out postcards, if you create the list correctly, then those are all prospects. A prospect is generally not people across down that live two hours away.

A lead is any potential person that has contacted you through your website, phone, or in person that could possibly sign up. Generally, if somebody is looking for a hardcore mma program, and your school is a kids-based tae kwon do school, that person is not a lead. I wouldn’t count any people that are never going to sign up.

A referral is any person who signs up that a current customer has brought to you somehow. Generally, if you have a great program and a great school, you’ll get a few referrals automatically. There are ways to create opportunities for improving the amount of referrals.

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