Founding sponsor lead scoring · 2026-06-18
Score sponsor prospects before anyone contacts them.
Private scoring rubric for ranking Good Morning Winchester founding sponsor prospects before editor approval.
Internal prep only. Do not contact prospects, reserve inventory, collect payment, publish sponsor claims, send subscriber email or create live checkout links from this scoring file.
Five-field rubric
Score every prospect out of 25
5 points · ready at 4
Local fit
Advertiser clearly serves Winchester, Alresford, Whiteley, Bishop's Waltham, Itchen Valley, South Downs villages or a directly adjacent Hampshire commuter area.
Reject if below
3
5 points · ready at 4
Morning usefulness
Offer helps readers make a practical decision: book, attend, travel, enquire, shop, compare, repair, move, plan or visit.
Reject if below
3
5 points · ready at 4
Spending power
Category can plausibly support founding sponsor rates without needing unverified circulation, click, conversion or guaranteed-reach claims.
Reject if below
2
5 points · ready at 3
Repeat potential
Advertiser has recurring offers, event dates, appointments, open days, seasonal inventory or repeat booking reasons.
Reject if below
2
5 points · ready at 3
Copy risk
Sponsor unit can be written from public evidence without regulated, unverifiable, child-focused, medical, financial, legal or pressure-led claims.
Reject if below
2
Row statuses
Keep the private sheet honest
research_only
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
needs_better_evidence
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
manual_review_required
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
ready_for_editorial_approval
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
approved_to_contact
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
rejected
Private lead-sheet status only. Do not use this as approval to contact, invoice, reserve inventory or publish sponsor copy.
Disqualifiers
Reject before wasting review time
Gate
No advertiser-owned landing page, official listing or current local contact route.
Gate
No clear service area, venue, event date, delivery/collection area, appointment route or covered-place fit.
Gate
Requires subscriber counts, open rates, click rates, conversion claims or guaranteed reach before Buttondown proof exists.
Gate
Gambling, payday loans, crypto, misleading health claims, unverifiable prizes, aggressive scarcity or pressure-led education/medical/finance copy.
Gate
Copy would require regulated legal, financial, health, employment or child-focused claims that cannot be manually reviewed.
Review cadence
Move from research to approval deliberately
Gate
Score after capturing an evidence URL, not from search snippets.
Gate
Keep rows below 18 as research_only or needs_better_evidence.
Gate
Move regulated or child-focused rows to manual_review_required even when the numeric score is strong.
Gate
Only ready_for_editorial_approval rows can become approved_to_contact, and only after David explicitly approves outreach.
Gate
Keep outreach_status as research_only until approval is recorded.
Next actions
Update the private lead sheet
Gate
Add these five score columns to the private 35-lead founding advertiser sheet.
Gate
Score the first 10 premium homes and moving rows plus 10 culture/hospitality rows before lower-priority lanes.
Gate
Attach one evidence URL, one proposed CTA and one copy-risk note before assigning a ready score.
Gate
Send only rows scoring 18 or higher to editor review; do not contact prospects from this static prep.