Old buddhism story that explains lead-gen
Pergola with Oranges, c. 1834, Thomas Fearnley
A lot of the time, my clients churned because they think content works like a vending machine.
You put content in, and a lead pops out.
And in times like these, when people barely have any patience, some bogus agencies take advantage of it.
They’ll promise, “Get 30 calls booked in 30 days.”
Of course, what happens afterward is a series of sad events:
• all they do is spam LinkedIn outbound for you
• the leads aren’t qualified or high quality
• you churn and start looking for the next fix
Back in the day, I worked at such an agency, where clients would churn every two months, sometimes even sooner.
They take advantage of your marketing innocence.
It’s a phase most new founders go through. They learn their lesson and eventually realize how much effort it actually takes to build a new acquisition channel.
A good rule of thumb for service-based agencies that have just started posting is to expect nothing in the first 6 months.
Not saying you can’t generate leads before that. But when it happens early, it’s usually because you already come across as a very credible person with a lot of work experience.
Because, generally, people don’t suddenly start throwing their money at you (especially for premium-priced services) just because you decided to start posting content.
There’s a story in Buddhism that talks about something similar.
Alms-round line in early morning lighting
Early monks lived on bhikṣā, going door to door asking for food in the same neighborhood every day.
But some monks would get bored with showing up in the same area and start seeking novelty.
They would travel to different neighborhoods every week.
But the problem was villagers were less likely to give food to monks who were inconsistent or unfamiliar. Sometimes they would wait to see someone show up at their door multiple times before offering the first meal.
The Buddha warned monks to avoid this hopping around and get good at showing up.
That's why I always tell such founders that repetition precedes lead-gen.
Even when I started building on LinkedIn, it took me around 6 months before I got my first inbound. Though I had years of work experience.
You have to play the long-term game here.
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That's it for the day.
This is part of an email that I sent to my list.
If you wish to read my emails regularly, join my newsletter below.
Thank you for your attention.
