Agency owners: I need clients! Help!!!

Me: Your lead gen probably sucks.

Let's dive into why. Here's a brutally honest summary of why your approach is fundamentally flawed.

Your lead generation sucks not because you are lazy or untalented but because you are running your agency like it's still 2018.

When you prospect for new clients, you can't use the same techniques you employ for your clients. If your clients are B2C, which is most common in digital marketing, then that's a 100% different business development strategy than you need. You're using B2C tactics, and you don't realize that you need to switch to B2B sales tactics. After all, you're going after a business as a client, not a faceless consumer who fits demography and psychographics.

Your team crushes it for medspas or roofers, but when it comes to filling your pipeline, you stall out. You are applying consumer marketing playbooks to business buyers who have entirely different decision-making processes.

Most agency owners hide behind their screens. You do not want to talk to people. You refuse to leave your home office. You convince yourself that launching another funnel or turning on more Facebook ads is enough. But business owners are not buying retainers off a cold ad. They buy from people they know, like, and trust, not from digital brochures.

Worse yet, you are looking for a shortcut. You keep buying the next course, testing another hack, and chasing a magic tool instead of fixing your brand.

You didn't take the time to build a brand.

You have no reputation.

Your offer is unclear.

Your messaging does not connect.

You are not solving a real, urgent problem for your ideal prospect. Worse, you're not even sure what a prospect's problems are. You don't ask them; you just pitch services you want to sell.

You think not niching and remaining a generalist agency keeps your options open, but it just makes you invisible.

Sending spam is not "cold outreach." Cold email is not about blasting more people. It is about relevance and timing with people who are already familiar with you.

Real B2B lead generation occurs through intentional conversations, referrals, and trust that is built over time. You need to show up where your ideal clients hang out. If you refuse to do this, it's at your peril.

And if you are blaming the price, you have already lost. Price is never the issue. No one has heard of you. Obscurity is the problem.

Being "yet another agency" is the problem.

Then, once you have the chance to pitch them, your lack of value or failure to communicate that value will tank the deal.

I learned all this the hard way while building three agencies to over $6.5M million in revenue. I've made all these mistakes and many more.

If you are ready to fix your lead gen and stop chasing the shiny object, subscribe to my newsletter. It's free. Or do nothing and keep complaining about not getting new clients. The choice is yours.

~ Erik

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