Opportunity scout

What it is

Finding who to contact is the slow part of getting an artist booked, signed, placed or covered. The scout does that part. On Leads, press Find opportunities, say which artist, what you are after, where and when, and add any constraints in your own words. A few minutes later a Suggested column appears on the board.

Each suggestion is one company: a venue, a festival, a booking agency, a studio, a label, a supervisor, a magazine or a brand. Open it to see why it fits, how the artist is already connected to it through people on Aden, the contact channels that were actually found published, the pages that back it up, and a drafted first message with the artist's press kit link.

Add lead turns it into an ordinary lead in New, with the person on it, the evidence in the notes, the draft on the timeline and a next step ("Send the drafted intro") with no date. You set the date when you plan to send, so a batch added in one review does not all turn overdue the next morning. A shows brief on an organisation also opens a show prospect on Prospecting; a sync brief also opens a card on the sync board. Skip keeps that target from coming back for the same brief.

Switch on Every week and the brief runs again by itself until you switch it off. Earlier briefs have their own tab in the sheet with what they produced, so you can run one again or stop it.

With a Gmail inbox connected, a suggestion also says when you last emailed that company. Each draft carries a score out of 100 with what to fix.

Nothing is contacted. The scout finds and drafts; you send.

The roadmap

The suggestions say who. The roadmap says in what order. Open it from Roadmap on the scout line above the board, or switch the Review sheet to Roadmap.

After the first run that finds something, the scout drafts a plan for the brief: a goal ("3 shows won"), lanes for each way in (through people you know, through an agency, direct, follow up and close) and steps with a date and an owner. Warm paths come first, then targets that open several doors at once, then direct pitches. Dates work back from the brief's timing.

• Paths shows lanes down and Now, Next, Later across.
• Timeline shows every step by the week it is due.
• Owners come from the titles on the artist's team: intros go to the artist, pitches to a booker (else a manager), the press kit and fees to a manager. Set titles in the team's members settings.
• Change anything by hand: tick, rename, reassign, redate, move to another lane, add or delete a step.
• Change it in words: "Lio is on tour until November" or "Nova can't play weekdays". The scout lists the changes with a reason each; keep the ones you want and apply them.
• Steps tick themselves when their lead is emailed or moves past New, and closing steps when it is won.

The lanes are ordinary milestones, so the plan is also on the team's or organisation's Milestones board and timeline.

• Where is what the scout searches around. A country, a city or a region.
• When goes into the drafts as the ask. Leave it empty for "any time".
• Constraints are read as instructions. Capacity, fee floor, which genres to lean on, who not to contact.