Revitalizing Dead Leads
Summary
Estimated Student Level: B2-C1
The speaker introduces a new business service that focuses on revitalizing dead or cold leads for companies. This service targets the common problem that businesses face: they spend significant resources acquiring new leads through advertising and marketing, but after initial contact attempts fail, these leads are abandoned and forgotten in their databases.
The proposed solution involves taking these abandoned leads and re-engaging them through SMS messaging. The service provider takes on all the upfront costs and risks, including SMS fees and system operations. Companies don’t pay anything initially – they simply provide their database of dead leads that they’ve already given up on.
The business model is commission-based: if the service successfully reactivates a lead (for example, by getting them to book an appointment with the company’s sales team), they charge a 50% commission on the profit generated from that lead. The speaker emphasizes that this creates a win-win situation with zero risk for the client company, as they only pay when actual results are achieved. The service includes a demonstration via Zoom call to show potential clients how the system works before they commit their lead database.
New Vocabulary
| English Term | German Translation |
|---|---|
| revitalizing | wiederbeleben, reaktivieren |
| dead leads | tote/inaktive Kundenkontakte |
| cold leads | kalte Kontakte |
| scrambling for | sich bemühen um, kämpfen um |
| database | Datenbank |
| reengage | wieder ansprechen, erneut kontaktieren |
| elicit a response | eine Antwort hervorrufen |
| up front | im Voraus |
| commission-based | provisionsbasiert |
| reactivate | reaktivieren |
Grammar Points
Present Perfect Continuous vs. Present Perfect Simple
In the transcript, we see “we’ve got” (present perfect simple) used to describe a completed action with a current result. The present perfect simple is used when we want to focus on the completion of an action and its present relevance. For example: “We’ve got a new service” means the service is now available as a result of past development.
The present perfect continuous (have/has been + -ing) would be used if we wanted to emphasize the ongoing nature or duration of an activity. For instance, if the speaker had said “We’ve been developing this service,” it would emphasize the process rather than the completion.
Example from the text: “The new thing we’ve got up on the website” uses present perfect simple to show that the action of putting something on the website is complete and the result is now available. Compare this with: “We’ve been working on this for months” which would emphasize the duration of the work.
Conditional Structures for Business Proposals
The transcript uses conditional structures to explain how the business model works. The speaker uses “if” clauses (conditional sentences) to describe potential outcomes. For example: “If we phrase it cleverly, there will always be a small percentage of leads that will respond.”
This is a first conditional structure (if + present simple, will + infinitive) used for real, possible situations in the future. It’s perfect for business proposals because it shows cause and effect relationships that are likely to happen.
The speaker also uses implied conditionals without “if”: “Give us your dead leads (and) we will reactivate them.” This imperative + future structure is common in business English when making offers or proposals. It suggests: “If you give us your dead leads, then we will reactivate them.”
