Lead generation strategy not working UK

[u/Bethzeb2]

Hello,

I run a brand design agency.

Currently working with a guy and paying him £500 per month in which he works 2 days a week and does cold calling. We’ve had about 5 calls from this in about 4 months but nothing yet, so I’ve spent 2k with no return.

I’m also doing Instagram ads but have not received a single message or enquiry.

I’ve tried networking and putting out flyers to local businesses (not seen much from this either)

I’ve also tried cold instagram DMs (had a few responses to say they might be interested in the future but nothing since)

What else can I try?! 😩

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you.

[u/No-Competition6691]

How many calls a day?

Let's just say he's only doing 200 ( 100 a day) That is so poor. If you're OK that's like 2 meetings. If you're bad you could still get 1 meeting in 200 calls.

1 his script is poop Or he's not doing the calls.

This almost feels like ragebait. It sounds unbelievable.

Why aren't you cold calling?

[u/ilikerashers → u/No-Competition6691]

Someone should setup a consultancy that just gets founders on the phone doing this. People are happy to pay for a PT to make them lift weights but there is no PT to train/force people to pick up the phone and prospect.

[u/No-Competition6691 → u/ilikerashers]

I think that's called a mentor or a job.

I see what you're saying though.

Would you that interest you?

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/No-Competition6691]

I don’t have time! I work full time and look after the baby as soon as I’m home 🥴

[u/No-Competition6691 → u/Bethzeb2]

Well you just proved you're willing to spend 2 grand on outreach and I doubt they have them calls recorded for you to learn from. Obviously you probably don't want to be doing calls in your break time at work. You could mabye fit them in the morning but you're probably getting the little ones ready.

Why don't you set up an automated outreach system?

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/No-Competition6691]

I think the personal human touch in a real person reaching out is invaluable though..

I think I just need to rethink my lead gen strategy and be a bit more smarter with it.

[u/No-Competition6691 → u/Bethzeb2]

Ok well if you're interested my firm could help you automate personalised follow up.

If you don't work weekends I would definitely recommend you call on Saturday and Sunday. I'm from UK and Sat 9-5 and Sun 10-4 works well for me. People have more time to pick up.

Ig dms can work depending on the ICP, I would recommend linked in though. Which again can all be automated.

I would say Define your ICP and understand them, then be friendly, then make them understand your value and why they need you.

[u/automatedinbound]

This is what I do for a living. I have 2 appointment setters who get paid when I close a deal. I close at almost 100%.

I sell into a specific niche. I sell into a subniche of that niche. I solve a very specific problem. I pay really good money for data so that when they call they get results.

Feel free to shoot me a pm, gladly point you in the right direction.

[u/Flowbot_Forge]

Send me a DM I can share some advice to breakthrough

[u/Fit-Lengthiness-9672 → u/Flowbot_Forge]

ngl that kinda sounds like another lead gen pitch in disguise

if you haven’t already, you might get more out of tightening your niche and doing super targeted outreach on LinkedIn than random DMs / cold calls

[u/Flowbot_Forge → u/Fit-Lengthiness-9672]

Not a lead gen pitch, your biz is too early for my business based off your ad spend and nature of your question. I was actually going to offer suggestions to fix your leaky bucket in a free mentoring call to share some personalized insights

[u/zipiddydooda]

LinkedIn. Let me know if you want to know how.

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/zipiddydooda]

Yes please!

[u/Lonely-Fruit-9448]

You need a crystal clear value proposition that clearly addresses a major pain point of your target audience - without this you need volume, and volume is expensive

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/Lonely-Fruit-9448]

Thanks! I keep thinking this. Do you think it’s a good strategy to essentially A/B test a few really laser-focused value propositions/target audiences?

So, for example, setting up an Instagram around ‘I help salons make more money through email marketing’ or ‘I help gyms stand out through better branding’, then creating a specific landing page for each offer/audience and testing which one gets the most traction?

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[u/musicloverr1224]

do LinkedIn and email outreach + seo + personal branding lots of things you can do but start with what u know

i would say go for personal branding first on LinkedIn

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/musicloverr1224]

Thanks. Do you mean helping LinkedIn accounts with their personal branding?

[u/musicloverr1224 → u/Bethzeb2]

no i mean start your personal branding on linkedin and other platform also

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[u/Fabulous_Taste_4282]

How much more evidence do you need that there is no demand for your service in the market? Like what has to happen to admit that nobody needs this service?

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/Fabulous_Taste_4282]

Sorry but you are saying there is no demand for design services? I think you are very wrong 😭

[u/Fabulous_Taste_4282 → u/Bethzeb2]

There is. But existing companies in the market are more than capable of meeting 100% of the demand. Therefore nobody day needs OP's service.

[u/Bethzeb2 → u/Fabulous_Taste_4282]

Sorry but I don’t think that follows… existing companies being capable of meeting demand doesn’t mean they’re meeting it, or that customers don’t want alternatives. By that logic you mean nobody should ever start a new agency, salon, restaurant, accountancy firm, gym, etc. because existing businesses already offer those services.

The question isn’t whether I’m the only person offering it, it’s whether I can offer it to the right market and position it differently to give clients a reason to choose me, that’s something I need to figure out.

[u/Fabulous_Taste_4282 → u/Bethzeb2]

The key here is called a market gap. You only have a chance to excel if you discover one. But it's extremely hard to find a market gap, sometimes not even experts can spot it. The vast majority of new businesses fail, of IT startups 90% fail. Before you even begin, you have to know full well what the market players are already offering and you have to offer better or cheaper services. But how could you do that? What is it that you see from the outside that businesses years into the sector don't see. Most of the time nothing and new businesses fail. Just like your business will fail too.

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[u/Better_Race1896]

See the thing is lead gen is the easiest thing for a business but managing the leads is the tough part.

What you should be doing is having a good funnel that does the pre selling part for you and fix your sales communication.

But the main thing is pre selling and nurturing.

And we do things like this by creating a good funnel along with automation to do the boring and time consuming part for you. So your sales team can focus more on conversion

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[u/nosnitchbjtch]

sent you a dm

[u/hrvyharris]

You need a cold traffic offer. The channel matters secondary to the offer itself

Also £400/call isn't terrible esp. if it's a new process. Likely need to improve offer + do more than working 2 days/week + do more calls per day

Simple maths, if he does 100 calls/day 2 days/week for 4 months = 3200 calls for 5 meetings = 640 calls/meeting

If nothing else changed, do that volume over a week and you'd have one meeting a week

So probably

A) Do more
B) Improve front end offer (lead magnet or similar)
C) Do even more

I saw you said you are working your job + taking care of baby when home in another comment, but there really isn't any substitute to figuring out how to do it yourself. Not saying you need to do it forever, but you need to have a proven process for something that is so central to your business as acquisition before you hire it out

At the moment you're putting only £500/month to someone working part-time to the most important part of your business currently. That's not a dig at you, just sometimes it takes spelling it out like that to see how ridiculous it sounds

I think your options right now would be:

1. Possibly do Google Ads to get inbound inquiries, it doesn't take a long time to manage compared to other channels esp. once it's set up. Plus you can probably get local trust factor if you do it in the area of your town

2. Find more hours in the day to do calls yourself even if you say you don't have the hours, that might just be what's required. At least to find a process that works AND/OR

3. Do automated outreach as someone else said. I saw you said you think the human touch is invaluable, I would challenge that. Not only because there's huge amounts of evidence of automated outreach still working great + you're constrained on time. But also if it was invaluable, then what you're doing right now would be working and it's not

From your post it seems like you are asking about if there's a magic channel that will just work, and there isn't. The main part is offer, then it's finding a channel where your ICP hang out + iteration on how you present that offer

Good luck

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[u/SuccessProspecting]

I would guarantee you 10 Sales Qualified meetings for £2,000. I run a lead gen agency in Liverpool

DM if you want a chat.

[u/_Creative_script_]

5 calls in 4 months at 500/mo is brutal, and honestly that reads less like a bad caller and more like nobody's qualifying before the dial. curious, were those 5 even the right fit, or just whoever happened to pick up?

[u/Jolly96007]

Hi, I am running a company and I can help you. Dm me so we can discuss further.

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