Lead Generation Is A Mirror

Happy Sunday folks! This week my wife and I are moving into this sweet rental house we found, so if any of you want to help me move a few sectional sofas with pull-out beds inside them that mangle your fingers when the bed frame unfolds on you while trying to get the sofa through a doorway, let me know and I'll send you the liability waiver and our address! (Kidding about the sofas but not about the house.)

We "generated the lead" for this house in an interesting way. We published a 1-pager website with some info on us as renters, a photograph of my wife and I, multiple past letters of recommendation, and our promise to be great renters. We made a flyer with some of that info, a QR code linking to the site, and contact info. And we posted it physically and digitally everywhere we could think of. Within a week we were talking to a landlord who was just about to start looking for renters for this house. He found us indirectly, via his social network. A friend of his knew his plans, saw our ad, and forwarded it to him, allowing us to intercept his search for new renters.

Lead Generation Learnings

Anytime the topic of lead generation comes up, I'll haul out this mindmap and get folks talking to me about their reactions to this section of the map:

(Full mindmap: https://philipmorganconsulting.com/images/lead-generation-2024.pdf)

The general pattern here is interesting. Yes, I'm sure you can find some exceptions to what I'm about to say but most of the time...

...people's preferred approach to lead generation is a reflection of how they got into self-employment. If they got into self-employment by being well-connected, then networking as a lead generation approach will make a lot of sense to them, and will feel like the right approach. If the early internet connected them to semi-anonymous folks who published interesting articles about working online, and that's what got them to make the leap into self-employment or entrepreneurship without the benefit of being well-connected, then publishing to generate leads will make a lot of sense to them, and will feel like the right approach.

I don't think there's a thing in the world wrong with this. Lots of things can work just fine for lead generation. There's usually room to follow our natural preferences, become better and better at them, and prosper as a result. Yes, there are cases where some business just can't work with certain lead generation approaches. I have a hard time imagining an HR consultancy that specializes in CEO succession planning using only digital marketing for lead generation. I also have a hard time imagining a SaaS not making heavy use of digital marketing for lead generation.

So sure, there are limits to this pattern, but I find that most of the time our preferences with respect to lead generation mirror how we got into business in the first place.

Last Week's For-Fun Poll

The question was: Do you attentively read the foreword of most books that you read?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes (13)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ No (10)

23 Votes

Thanks for the comments some of you left enriching your responses:

Why yes?

• I find forwards useful for more tightly positioning the rest of the book, so I better tune myself into what I’m about to read. There’s something about a third party perspective that adds more than if it was just written by the author.

• It's a bit like reading a movie review on Rotten Tomato before watching the flick. In the book forward, I know it is completely biased, but it helps me define what the author thinks I should be getting out of the book to some extent in another reader's words.

• I like to know more about the author, their motivations, and reasons they have approached the book. I also tend to find more honesty in these than elsewhere in the book.

• I think I read the forward to get the feeling that I have read the entire book later. In other words, if I don't read the forward, maybe I'll feel less accomplished or successful in my book-reading endeavor, which is weird to say out loud but I guess that's why I do it or that's what my brain comes up with as an explanation for why I read the forward.

• I am a completionist and it’s part of the book, but I also consider it as an intro.

• I think I'm scared I'll miss something. I actually enjoy introductions. I at least start the foreword.

• I don't know that I get any value, but I read books cover to cover as long as it keeps my interest. The foreword is kind of a fun way to get hyped about the rest of the book, and sometimes I don't know much about an author going in so I guess in that way it helps set the stage 😅

• I read it to get a sense of the author's mindset when writing; where was he? what was happening in his life? what prompted his huge expense of time, talent, and treasure for this undertaking? It helps me with my own interpretation (some may say prejudice) of the material.

Why no?

• To avoid spoilers. Also, to get to the meat of it.

• I like to get straight to the point. My time is limited.

This Week's For-Fun Poll

I hope you have a great week!
-P