Intern
What you actually do
Dates on everyone. Split boards. You are not writing a white paper. You are ending inbox-as-CRM.
Library / consultants / Independent consultants leak because delivery ate the pipeline
Consultants run delivery in inbox and prospecting as a guilt feeling on Sundays. The vertical wires two graphs: delivery clients with next dates and SOW stages, and prospects with a finite spine. Mixing them is how you look fully booked while the pipeline is empty. LinkedIn DMs must write GHL the same day or they are coat-pocket pipeline.
Consultants run delivery in inbox and prospecting as a guilt feeling on Sundays. The vertical wires two graphs: delivery clients with next dates and SOW stages, and prospects with a finite spine. Mixing them is how you look fully booked while the pipeline is empty. LinkedIn DMs must write GHL the same day or they are coat-pocket pipeline.
The weekly number is count of prospects with a next date, and count of delivery clients with a next date. Either at zero is the leak.
Inbox is not a CRM. If the next action only exists in a thread, it does not exist.
You preach systems. If a VA cannot explain a contact in thirty seconds, you are teaching what you do not run.
Proposal rotting 14 days is work. Time-in-stage on proposal is the backlog, not 'ideas'.
Retainers without a renewal field are how March becomes a surprise.
Intern
Dates on everyone. Split boards. You are not writing a white paper. You are ending inbox-as-CRM.
Operator
Delivery cannot eat prospecting if both have dates. Capture LinkedIn. Exclude clients from acquire.
CEO
Busy is not booked. Next-date coverage is the number. Until it is 100% on open work, you do not have a practice system.
Delivery client vs prospect pipelines, next_date, SOW/proposal field, invoice/paid, LinkedIn capture, source, lost_reason, retainer renewal date.
New inbound → prospect pipeline, next date within 48h or lost
Verbal yes → proposal dated on the contact; not a feeling
Paid → move to delivery; prospect spine stops; kickoff date
Every delivery client → next_date (session, review, or renewal) or they are not in the system
Prospect vs delivery. No 'Active' mush.
Why: Mush hides an empty top of funnel.
Done when: Every open contact is in one or the other with a next_date.
Field required in your operating rule. Monday: blanks are tickets.
Why: Hope is not a date.
Done when: Zero blanks on open work.
proposal_sent_on + link. Stage Proposal out has an exit (accepted, lost, expired).
Why: Verbal yes is not a stage you can audit for long.
Done when: Open proposals have dates.
Qualified DMs become contacts with notes. Booking carries source.
Why: Coat pocket is not pipeline.
Done when: Yesterday’s yes DMs are in GHL.
60-day reminder. Do not blast delivery clients with acquire.
Why: Discounting retainers in a newsletter is how you look unsupervised.
Done when: Each retainer has a date. Acquire excludes them.
Split lists. Fill next_date on every open name. Import or create LinkedIn yeses from this week. Mark retainer renewal dates. Count blanks — that count is the scoreboard.
A new content engine or a website rebuild until next-date coverage is true. Brand work on an inbox CRM is decoration.
Delivery in Gmail. Prospects in a sheet. LinkedIn memory. Busy. Unbooked in six weeks. That is a hero, not a firm.
Open prospects with next_date, open delivery with next_date, proposals aging >7 days. Defend those three.
Overhead is rediscovering pipeline on Sunday. Next dates are how a practice compounds when delivery is loud.
If writers and next dates live there and you will not also use GHL. Two places is the leak. Pick.
Referrals still need a record, a thank-you, and a next date. Referral is a source, not an excuse for inbox.
This week
This week: two pipelines, next_date coverage, proposal dates, LinkedIn log, retainer renewals. No website project.
Senior operators will not wait on a messy CRM while the calendar fills with the wrong calls.
Read ↗Day 0–7 after payment predicts completion more than the curriculum does.
Read ↗Working notes
The minimum CRM, pipeline, and nurture spec before you add more pages. Request the file. It arrives by email — not a public dump, not a drip of slogans.
Email and WhatsApp stay open. A call is for installing the system — not for a tour of tools.