This is part rant and part a plea for common sense.
The #1 cause of lead gen failure to set discovery calls with high-probability prospects is that the wrong targets are being called.
Not by a little, but by a mile.
People who are very accomplished in their fields, organized, rational, deliberate and accomplished in what they do professionally are picking prospects like they are on meth.
There is no way to pretty this up or sugarcoat it. I am called in often to determine how to turn underperforming lead gen programs around and the #1 problem by far is that no-probability or low-probability targets can be getting 70% to 95% of the attention. No exaggeration.
Marketing 101 tells us those most likely to buy look like those that have already bought. So, you start by building a profile of your good clients by industry, SIC/NAICS codes, revenue, what side of the street they are on, and other relevant factors. The bullseye prospects, those that look just like our current good clients, get called first. No exception.
After working the bullseye you move deliberately beyond the bullseye through prioritized layers of targets defined by potential worth and probability of success.
If you are good at what you do, have satisfied clients and a track record of success, yet you are struggling at lead gen, the #1 cause is that you are not hitting your bullseye list or even the side of a barn, you are most likely praying and spraying among the cornfield surrounding the barn and wondering why nothing is happening except money is being burned.
50% of the reason for your setting discovery call success is your list.
20% is your outreach process.
20% is your sales messaging.
10% is everything else.
Target the right list, you have a chance of success.
Target the wrong list, no matter how good you do at everything else, you will fail.
