You’ve done the work. Built the funnel, launched campaigns, sent the emails, maybe even invested in paid ads or trade shows. But the leads? They’re either not showing up — or not doing anything useful once they do.
If you’re asking yourself why your lead generation isn’t working, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common (and frustrating) problems we hear at White City Consulting — especially from marketing and sales leaders who feel like they’ve “tried everything.”
Here’s the good news: your lead generation can work. But you’ll probably need to rethink a few things first.
Most companies have a funnel — but let’s be honest, a lot of them are more theoretical than functional.
You’ve got the awareness stage, the consideration stage, the decision stage. Great. But what happens between those stages is usually where the whole thing breaks. Misaligned content. Generic emails. A demo offer that hits way too early.
The fix? Build your funnel around real buyer behavior — not abstract stages. Your top-of-funnel content should educate (not pitch). Middle-of-funnel should offer proof (like case studies or customer stories). Bottom-of-funnel? That’s where demos and ROI tools come in.
Structure matters. Timing matters even more.
Let’s talk about lead quality.
Yes, you’re collecting leads. But are they qualified? Or are they just people who wanted a freebie or clicked an ad without real intent?
Many teams chase MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) to meet reporting goals, but SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) are what actually move the needle. If your leads aren’t booking meetings, advancing in your CRM, or showing up as influenced pipeline — they’re not helping.
Not sure how to define or prioritize SQLs? Here’s a great breakdown of lead scoring from HubSpot.
Too many teams blame their channels when performance tanks.
“LinkedIn ads don’t work.”
“Our email open rates are low.”
“Google Ads is a money pit.”
But more often than not, the problem isn’t the platform — it’s the message.
If your offer doesn’t match your audience’s intent or readiness, they won’t bite. Cold leads aren’t ready for a demo. Warm leads don’t need another generic checklist. And nobody — seriously, nobody — wants to “hop on a quick call” unless there’s value.
Focus on crafting offers that:
Even a simple email can outperform a $10K campaign if it says the right thing to the right person at the right time.
This is where lead generation falls apart — and fast.
You’ve built a campaign, maybe even a nurture sequence. Leads start coming in. But your sales team? They have no idea what those leads downloaded, saw, or clicked on.
So the follow-up sounds like:
“So… tell me about your business?”
Cue the lead ghosting.
Fix this by closing the loop between marketing and sales. Share your campaigns. Align on lead definitions. Build sales-marketing alignment that keeps everyone rowing in the same direction.
When sales knows what marketing said, they can pick up the conversation — not start over.
Leads rarely ghost because they weren’t interested. They ghost because the follow-up was late, lazy, or off the mark.
If you’re sending “just checking in” emails three days later with no context, you’re handing your competitors the win.
Instead:
The difference between a dead lead and a closed deal? Thoughtful, timely follow-up.
If you’re wondering how to fix your lead generation, here’s what we’ve seen work across dozens of clients:
✅ Sales-informed messaging based on actual conversations
✅ Offers tailored to the buyer’s stage — not just recycled PDFs
✅ Tools that help decision-making (ROI calculators, calculators, case studies)
✅ Seamless collaboration between marketing and sales
✅ A CRM (like HubSpot or Salesforce) that tracks real engagement — not just clicks
When all of that works together, lead generation stops feeling like guesswork — and starts producing actual pipeline.
If your funnel looks full but your pipeline’s dry, you don’t need more content, more ads, or more noise.
You need a system built to:
At White City Consulting, we help companies build that kind of system — from messaging to metrics, and everything in between.
If your lead gen isn’t working, maybe it’s time we talked.