Before You Ask for More Leads, Ask Who For

The useful part

Runway was tight, the board wanted numbers, and every week without pipeline felt like a week closer to the edge. It was a question we hadn't answered yet: who are these leads supposed to be for? It's the one that decides whether any of the spend converts, because the foundation isn't paperwork that delays the real work.

How it works

• The foundation decides who shows up Campaigns are the visible part of marketing, so they feel like where you start.
• What has to exist before you generate a single lead The foundation isn't a research project that produces a slide deck.
• Customer research and interviews: talk to real buyers and recent wins to learn how they actually describe the problem.
• It's the work that has to happen before marketing can be pointed at anyone in particular.
• Then you do the research, write the ICP, and fix the positioning: the same five things, in the same order, except now you're doing them with less cash and a team that's lost confidence in the channel.

What to take from it

ICP as the cost of the problem: define who you're for by what the problem costs them. Foundation skipped Foundation built first Who arrives Anyone the ad reached People whose problem you solve. The cheapest question you'll ask all quarter Before the next campaign goes live, have someone say out loud who it's for and what the problem costs them.

Example or evidence

• Ideas that were in people's minds emerged, decisions that were made based on personal preferences falling apart when evidence surfaced, and the focus of your whole strategy creating shape and form backed by...
• She writes about building AI-augmented marketing systems that scale a senior marketer's judgment.
• Get it wrong and you'll spend money attracting people who were never going to buy, then come back and do the foundation anyway.

Details worth keeping

It defers it until after you've paid for the wrong people. A founder once told me they needed leads by yesterday. It's what decides who shows up when the campaigns start.

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