Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.

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Most sellers are desperate for more leads. Often, more is more.

When it comes to sales:

• Nothing happens until an opportunity is generated. (h/t Problem Prospecting)
• The best time to start was yesterday
• Pipeline solves most problems

Stick around to the end, and I'll walk you through how I generate leads.

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Lead Generation is the Beginning

Lead generation is the step before selling. You have to find people who want to solve the pains you solve.

Whether it's a marketing team running a webinar or a seller cold calling an ICP, "Nothing happens until an opportunity is generated."

Generating leads comes in two forms:

1. Awareness Marketing is for the future, the next sales cycle, and beyond. It is usually about building and promoting a brand.
2. Performance Marketing is for leads in this sales cycle. It is about creating as much revenue as soon as possible.

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Story Time

There is an old saying - "the best time to start was yesterday."

One of my favourite clients started their awareness marketing 18 months before the product existed.

They had interest from all sorts of buyers before anyone could buy.

We first spoke when they had ~5 paying customers, maybe $2k MRR, and needed help converting leads into revenue.

With 20+ inbound requests every month, we had enough wiggle room to try things out. Now, this is a multi-million dollar business.

I wonder if this company would have made it if they hadn't started lead generation more than a year before launch.

Start marketing as early as you can.

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Pipeline solves most problems.

For most sellers, "pipeline" is often the answer, at least in the short term.

If your lead pool is massive, you only need a tiny conversion rate to make $$$.

Ironically, a large pipeline of leads comes from being really, really good at only one source.

Most inexperienced sellers try to do everything simultaneously and never do anything very well.

The most successful small/early businesses focus on one source and learn to nail it. Some examples I have seen:

• Youtube
• Cold calling
• Review Sites
• Referral Partners
• Partnership Webinars

Find what works and hyper-focus on that lead source.

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80/20 rule for focus

Assuming you hyper-focus, the next biggest mistake I see is only focusing.

Remember, "the best time to start was yesterday."

A good split is 80/20:

• 80% of your time and budget on the hyper-focus source
• 20% of your time and budget on experiments with different sources

For example, let's assume you are hyper-focused on LinkedIn. Which means "social" works for this business.

Pick another social source and experiment until you find success in rivaling LinkedIn.

By staying below 20% of your time and budget, you should balance many leads from the hyper-focus and prepare for the future with new sources.

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Make this real

My hyper-focus is Network.

I am super active on Linkedin and various private communities, from GrowthMentor to StartUp Sauce to Sydney Startups.

I also constantly reach out to former clients, old colleagues, and anyone who will speak to me.

I chose Network because I love speaking to people; it comes naturally, and I can get really, really good at it.

My awareness marketing is sending people to this newsletter. My performance marketing is asking people for introductions.

Last week, I "generated" 4 leads. All (I think) subscribe to this newsletter.

1. An old customer changed jobs and referred me to his new CEO
2. A subscriber reached out with a question
3. I reached out to a different subscriber
4. Someone loved my tagline on Linkedin and DM'd me

My current experiment is Webinars. Last week was my first, and I have three more in March.

So far, I have a few subscribers from the webinars. Not enough to consider it a success, but enough to finish the experiment.

My lead generation is pretty simple. Until you realise this email list started in 2019. It has evolved dramatically over the years, but remember to start before you think you need it

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This is the most personal I have ever gotten in this newsletter - did you like it? Let me know:

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Until next week,
Scott Cowley

PS If you want to see how/if I can help with your sales efforts, consider Booking a Call.

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