The LeadGen.com Blog

Trust Me!

Some people can't help themselves. And some people actually believe what they're saying.

Like when your Marketing Director tells you that all you have to do is re-build your Web site, create and publish content, buy some Google AdWords, connect with Decision Makers, and send out several million emails - and the leads will just come flooding in.

Or when your salesperson tells you that all you have to do is get them in the door and they'll be able to close anyone.

But when it doesn't happen, where does that leave you?

Marketing 2.0 - The Crime of the Century

Who among us hasn't heard that "57% of the decision process is completed before a sales person is ever contacted by the prospect"?

And who among us hasn't been told, time and again, that "if you build it, they will come," and then invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in websites, content, blogs, posts, and all manner of digital detritus - none of which will anyone ever see, read or respond to?

And who among us hasn't read about the historically high failure rate of new businesses, upwards of 70% of PE-funded companies in 2021?

You may not want to hear it but, for most businesses, Marketing 2.0 is a scam. It's a paradigm designed to separate business owners and investors from their money, and put it in the pockets of the platforms, the solution providers, and the so-called Marketing professionals hired to manage them - who then move on to their next gig when it all goes south.

Why else would turnover among Marketing professionals be nearly 40% per year?

But, hey, at least you got a great Web site out of it.

The End of the Universe

The comedian Lewis Black tells a joke about the time he saw a Starbucks, in a Houston-area shopping center, and it was right across the parking lot from another Starbucks.

He declared that this was the end of the universe - where parallel lines converge. And the only people who don't see the problem have Alzheimers.

Now we have a major social media platform announcing that it had discovered hundreds of fake accounts, with many connecting to other fake accounts on the site.

We have to wonder, are the people who are managing these accounts working from a Starbucks in Houston?

Doing Things Right vs Doing the Right Things

After you drank a full pitcher of Marketing 2.0 Kool-Aid, and did everything the experts told you to do, you're ready for the sales to start rolling in.

And yet you're not getting the results you need.

What's going on???

The sad fact is that virtually the entire Marketing 2.0 approach is a scam. It's a game you can't win.

It's a misdirection designed to make it look easy, to get you to waste your time, and to spend your money, and then move on when the money runs out.

At least you can comfort yourself knowing that it's not you; it's them.

The New Marketing Matrix

As anyone who studied Marketing in college has learned, Ansoff's Marketing Matrix describes the different strategies for growth, depending on whether the products and markets are old or new.

But the world has changed.

And we now have a New Marketing Matrix:

Obsolescence

Today, if you try to sell your old products into your old markets, you quickly find that your product is obsolete - displaced by faster, better and cheaper competitors.

Your best strategy is to appeal to nostalgia.

Irrelevance

If you try to sell your old product into a new market, you quickly find out that your product is irrelevant.

Your best strategy is to beg for an appointment.

Commoditization

If you try to sell your new product into an old market, you quickly find that the cost-of-change is too high.

Your best strategy is to lower your price.

Scamification

If you try to sell your new product into a new market, you quickly find that Google and the other platforms are running a scam.

Your best strategy is to wait until your funding runs out, and then get a new job.

Why Are MQLs and SQLs Even a Thing?

As the digital marketing train wreck grew over the last few years, it became more and more obvious that, for most companies, the investment was wasted. Most programs just produced junk leads.

So what did they do? They did what any good marketer would do:

They re-branded their junk as a "Marketing Qualified Lead".

Get it through your heads people: There is no such thing as a Marketing Qualified Lead. If Sales doesn't want it, it's junk.

With that out of the way, we can now talk about what you ought to be doing, and how to do it.

Buyer Liar

By now, everyone has heard about the so-called "study" proving that 57% of the buyer's decision is made before they ever engage with a sales rep.

The statistic has been used to justify spending billions of dollars on Inbound Marketing.

But did you know it's completely bogus?

It turns out that they never actually did a study - which I found out by talking to a secretary at the originating company. It was a made-up number from a casual conversation. But they threw it in their pitch deck, and it eventually went viral. And here we are.

But here's how you know it's nonsense:

If it were true, how would anyone ever sell something where the buyer hadn't previously been aware of their need????

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

Deciding on what promotional tactics to use before you've really worked out an effective marketing strategy is one of the leading causes of business failure.

We see it all the time: A business has a great idea for a new product or service. They invest in building it. And then they put together - often with the help of a so-called "marketing expert" - a plan to promote it.

And then it fails to get traction.

What happened?

Companies often become enamored with the latest-and-greatest marketing tool or technique. When they combine that with their enthusiasm for their product, they become blinded to the real challenges of the market: How to break through the clutter and get people's attention, how to stimulate their interest, and how to get prospects to actually want to talk to you. It's a recipe for disaster.

One thing is clear: A good marketing strategy isn't just a bunch of marketing tactics strung together. Developing the strategy comes first, and it often requires doing market research, and classic market planning. But it's a whole separate exercise. And it's often the critical step on the path to success.