By Kim Leary
The short version
- Most lead generation stops at finding people. The value is in finding the right person at the right moment, and in what happens after.
- Leads that don’t convert usually have one of two problems, and they need different fixes.
- Leads that go nowhere cost more than the list did.
- Buying more names, or more tools, doesn’t fix a missing thread.
- Find the people who need you right now, introduce yourself personally, and follow every one through to the outcome.
- When we showed our own prospecting system to an MD, his first question wasn’t about the technology. It was who would follow it up.
You’ve probably been sold leads before. What arrived was a spreadsheet: names, job titles, email addresses. Your sales team worked through some of it, got very little back and stopped. Marketing says it’s generating leads. Sales says they’re not real. Somewhere between the two, the pipeline the board wants to see never quite appears.
As one MD put it to us: just a list of names? I could do that myself in ten minutes.
Why it happens
Most lead generation stops at finding people. The value is in finding the right person at the right moment, and in what happens after.
A name on its own tells you nothing about whether that business needs you now. And even a good lead goes nowhere if nobody follows up properly, or if it vanishes into a spreadsheet between marketing and sales. There’s no thread running from the first contact to the deal.
How to tell which gap you have
Leads that don’t convert usually have one of two problems, and they need different fixes.
It’s probably the leads if:
- Sales say most of what they’re given isn’t real.
- Nobody can say what happened in a business to make it worth calling this month.
- Most of your leads came from a list someone bought or pulled.
It’s probably the follow-through if:
- Good leads arrive, but nobody owns them once they do.
- Leads live in a spreadsheet or someone’s inbox.
- You can’t say which leads turned into revenue last quarter.
If it’s mostly the first list, start with the moment a business needs you. If it’s the second, start by agreeing what counts as a lead and following each one through. Often it’s both.
What it’s costing you
Leads that go nowhere cost more than the list did.
What doesn’t fix it
Buying more names, or more tools, doesn’t fix a missing thread.
“We need a bigger list.” A bigger list of the wrong people at the wrong time is just more work for sales.
“Put more pressure on sales.” If what they’re given isn’t real, pressure doesn’t change the outcome.
“This tool will solve it.” A tool finds people. A person still has to have the conversation, and do it well.
“Marketing qualifies, sales closes.” Only works if both agree what a qualified lead is, and can see what happens to it.
What fixes it
Find the people who need you right now, introduce yourself personally, and follow every one through to the outcome.
Prospecting systems starts with a day to agree the trigger: the moment that means a business needs you, such as a merger, a new director or a visit to your pricing page. Then we build the system that spots it, finds the right person, checks the details and makes a personal introduction. When they respond, it hands over to a person with the full context. £2,800 for the day, build quoted separately.
Then connected data and reporting follows each lead from first contact to invoice, so you can see what’s actually turning into revenue.
The system finds them. A person still has to win them
When we showed our own prospecting system to an MD, his first question wasn’t about the technology. It was who would follow it up.
His point was that a system like this only has value if the person picking up the conversation is disciplined and active. He’s right. A system that finds the right people and hands them to nobody is just a better-looking list.
That’s why we build every system to hand over, not take over. When someone responds, it goes to a person on your team with the full context in front of them. And it’s why the day starts with your team in the room, agreeing the moment a business needs you and who you need to reach, before anything is built.
Keep reading
- The best prospects are the ones nobody has time to find
- Stop moving the goalposts: agree what marketing success means
- If it lives in a spreadsheet, there’s a better way
Questions about leads not converting to sales
Usually because they’re names rather than real opportunities, or because they fall between marketing and sales with nobody following them through.
A prospect is someone who might need you. A lead is a real person, at the right moment, who has responded and has a reason to talk to you.
Rarely. Names alone don’t tell you who needs you now, and cold lists damage sales’ trust in marketing.
Not the kind you buy. We don’t sell lists or make calls for you. We build a system that finds the right businesses at the right moment, and it belongs to you.
Whoever it is, agree it before the lead arrives, and make sure they have the full context when it does. A good system hands each response to a person, so nothing waits in a spreadsheet.
Agree what counts as a lead with sales and finance, then link your tools so the same customer is recognised from first contact to invoice. That’s what connected data and reporting does.
Free resource
Build the business case. Put your own numbers on what real conversations are worth, and what another year of cold lists is costing you.
The one thing to do next
Prospecting systems
A day to agree the moment a business needs you, then a system that spots it and makes a personal introduction. £2,800 for the day, build quoted separately.
