I work with a ton of marketing and sales teams. Often, their contacts and leads are referred to as "potential" clients. There's no such thing.
In what once seemed like a disconnected world, this may have been the case (though, not entirely). However, in a social world, everyone is a client. While a contact or lead may not buy your product or service, they will still buy into (and sell, for that matter) your reputation. That's what makes reputation management so crucial for today's business - it is just as important as sales and marketing for client acquisition and retention.
Not to toot my own horn, but just to prove a point...
As I meet with many business executives to discuss Social Media, many still don't entirely grasp the concept and, so therefore, their buy-in is often postponed. However, those leaders still call me or e-mail with questions or concerns because I've been able to establish a great reputation.
We often just "potential" clients by what they can contribute to our bottom lines. Perhaps, we ought to examine what they can contribute to (or take away from) our reputation.
