Starting with Zero Leads
Building a demand generation machine is like planting a tree. The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.
So many founders I talk to are getting their new sales from referrals, conferences, or cold outreach. These are great lead sources, but they are only part of a complete demand generation strategy.
You have to build an inbound demand engine that consistently delivers new leads every week to your team.
And my advice for the best way to do this: run a workshop (aka "webinar") every week for the next 12 weeks.
This is exactly what we did with a company that I'm helping out.
They started with zero inbound leads.
The first webinar: three people showed up. One was the co-founder. Another was someone who accidentally clicked the link. The third person left after five minutes.
But here's what happened next. We ran another workshop the following week. Then another. And another.
By week eight, we had 47 people registered. By week twelve, we had pipeline flowing in every single week without fail.
That 12-week commitment to running weekly workshops became the foundation of their entire demand engine. It's still the best advice I give to founders who are staring at an empty pipeline wondering where their next customer will come from.
Why this works
Most companies approach demand generation backwards. They wait until they have a perfect webinar. They overthink the content. They stress about production quality. They never actually ship anything.
Meanwhile, your competitors are out there talking to customers every single week.
Here's what weekly workshops actually do for your business:
They force you to talk about the problem your solve
When you're teaching someone how to solve a challenge in their business, you're building trust. You're demonstrating expertise. You're showing them you understand their world. This is infinitely more valuable than any product pitch.
They create a forcing function for consistency
One webinar won't move the needle. Twelve webinars will completely change your trajectory. The weekly cadence keeps you in front of your market. It builds momentum. It trains your audience to expect value from you on a regular basis.
They generate compounding assets
Every workshop becomes a piece of content. You can clip the best moments for social. You can turn the transcript into blog posts. You can use the Q&A section to understand exactly what your market cares about. One hour of teaching creates weeks of content distribution.
They build your reputation faster than anything else
When you show up every week to teach, people notice. They start to see you as the expert in your space. They tell their colleagues. Your brand mass grows exponentially.
How to implement this
Let me walk you through exactly how to make this work, because the execution is where most people fail.
Pick one problem to solve that's relevant to your product
Your workshop should address a specific, painful challenge that your ideal customer experiences. Make it narrow. Make it practical.
For example: "How to forecast pipeline when you have inconsistent deal flow" beats "How to build a great sales team."
Choose topics that sit adjacent to your product but don't require your product to implement. You're teaching them to be better at their job.
Schedule it for the same time every week
Tuesday at 11am PT. Thursday at 1pm ET. Whatever works for your audience, stick with it religiously. Consistency builds habit. Your audience will start blocking that time on their calendar.
Invite everyone, everywhere
Send the invite to your email list, even if it's only 200 people. Cold email your target accounts directly with a personal note. Post about it on LinkedIn three times before the event. Put it in your email signature. The goal is to get as many relevant people registered as possible.
Make the content genuinely valuable
This isn't a disguised sales pitch. Teach something specific and implementable. Share frameworks. Show examples. Walk through real scenarios. Give them something they can use immediately after the workshop ends.
You don't even need a call-to-action at the end. If your content is valuable enough, people will reach out to learn more about how you can help them.
Record everything and repurpose it
Use the recording to create 5-10 short clips for social media. Pull out quotes for LinkedIn posts. Turn the key insights into a blog post. Every workshop should generate at least a week of content for your channels.
When will you know its working?
Your first workshop will probably feel like a failure. You'll have a handful of people show up. The Q&A section will be quiet. You'll wonder if this is even worth your time.
Keep going.
By week three or four, you'll start to see registration numbers climb. By week six, people will start engaging more actively. By week eight, you'll have prospects reaching out between workshops to ask questions. By week twelve, you'll have a steady flow of leads coming in every week.
The magic happens in the repetition. Each workshop builds on the last one. Your confidence improves. Your content gets sharper. Your audience grows. Your brand strengthens.
This a commitment to showing up and delivering value week after week until the market recognizes you as the go-to resource in your space.
You are building a community. Finding your "1,000 true fans"
What tools should you use?
You don't need expensive production equipment or a full marketing team to make this work.
I like Luma for the landing page and to collect emails.
Use Zoom or Google Meet for hosting. Both work perfectly fine.
Use your phone to record short clips for social media.
Use Descript or a similar tool to pull quotes and create snippets.
The quality of your teaching matters infinitely more than the quality of your production. Start with what you have and improve as you go
What's Stopping You?
I know what you're thinking. You don't have time. You don't know what to teach. You're worried nobody will show up. You think your competitors are already doing this.
None of those reasons are good enough.
The reality is that most of your competitors aren't consistent enough to run weekly workshops for 12 weeks straight. They'll do one or two and give up. That's your opportunity.
Your customers are looking for help solving their problems right now. They're searching for expertise. They're evaluating who to trust with their business. Every week you wait is another week your competitors are building relationships with your future customers.
Next Steps
Block one hour on your calendar for next week. Same day, same time as you'll run these workshops for the next 12 weeks.
Pick one problem that your ideal customer is currently struggling with. Write down 3-5 key points you could teach about solving that problem.
Create a simple registration page on Luma.
Send the invite to your email list. Post about it on LinkedIn. Cold email 50 target prospects with a personal invitation.
Then show up and teach.
Do this every week for the next 12 weeks. Don't skip a week. Don't make excuses. Just show up and deliver value.
By week twelve, you'll have a demand engine that compounds every single week. You'll have content assets you can use for months. You'll have prospects reaching out to you instead of the other way around.
That's how you build a real pipeline when you're starting from zero.
