Three lead gen moves for people who hate selling
Three things we covered at office hours, with the steps so you can run them yourself.
Most lead generation advice assumes you enjoy it. The experts in our last office hours did not, and neither do I. That turned out to be useful, because when you dislike pitching, you go looking for the places where a pitch is not needed: a partner who already holds your audience, a list of people who already know your name, and an email you have already written.
Here are the three moves from Thursday that were worth stealing. Each one comes with the steps, so you can run it without watching a minute of the video.
Block off 30 minutes this week and work through all three. By the end you will have one partner to pitch, one draft sent, and a short list of people to talk to.
1. Borrow an audience that sits next to yours
One member launched a coach-education company this summer. She got plenty of shares and congratulations in the first 45 days, and almost no leads. People liked what she was doing but could not say what to refer her for. So she stopped selling to individuals one at a time and started partnering with organizations that already had people: nonprofits with members and no certification pathway, women-owned coaching businesses that wanted another service to offer, and a local university. This week the university approved both of her programs for graduate credit.
I used the same idea with a time-tracking app. I pitched a joint webinar, they emailed their list once, and about 200 people registered.
How to run it:
List five organizations that serve the people you want to reach and do not compete with you.
For each one, write down the gap you could fill for their members. A workshop, a certification, a template, a session.
Send one email offering to teach that session for free to their audience, with a single line at the end on how to work with you.
2. Send the thing you keep polishing
A chatbot builder in the room had a funnel ready and had not pointed anyone at it. I knew the feeling. Last week I had an email announcing Send It sitting in my drafts, and I had talked myself into believing nobody wanted it. I sent it anyway. Twenty-two people bought that day.
Speaker proposals worked the same way. My first round got rejections, and the rejections told me something: the talk was the problem. I rewrote it, sent about 30 proposals, and got four replies in three days, including a paid speaking offer.
An unsent idea gives you no feedback. A sent one gives you an answer either way, and a "no" counts as an answer.
How to run it:
Open your drafts and pick the one that has been there longest.
Set a deadline you cannot move, such as Friday at noon.
When it goes out, write down what you expected to happen so you can compare it to what did.
3. Mine the people who already follow you
Most of us have an audience we have never read closely. Two places to look.
On your newsletter list, sort by email domain. You may find a company that already follows you and has never heard what you sell to companies. If your email tool shows engagement, look at who opens most often and ask how your work could help their team.
On LinkedIn, you can download your connections as a CSV, free or premium. Upload the file to ChatGPT or Claude and ask something like: "Here are my LinkedIn connections. Who is most likely to be a client for [your offer]? Who has a network that includes people I should meet? Give me the top 20 with a reason for each."
I run this on weekends and have a list ready by Monday.
How to run it:
Export your connections or your subscriber list.
Ask an AI for your top 20, with a reason for each.
Pick three and send each a short, specific note. Not a pitch, just a reason you thought of them.
Three questions you can answer
Hit reply with your answers. I read every one.
Which organization already has the audience you want?
What is the one thing sitting in your drafts?
Who on your list should you have talked to already?
Want the full session, with timecodes so you can jump to what matters?
Lead generation for people who hate lead generation →
Next office hours
Thursday, October 15, 12:00 PM ET. Open office hours. Bring your profile, your offer, or the thing you are stuck on, and we will work on it live.
Register: https://kajabi.zoom.us/meeting/register/CZ6HQ5EKTceMAsKPXp0KrQ
If you have questions before then, bring them to the community. See you there.
Talk soon,
Terry Rice
EveryExpert