How to generate leads without generating lead magnets
Your lead magnets might be making your pipeline problem worse.
Hey there! You’ve been following our journey to execute unconventional GTM experiments for top of funnel. Now, we are replicating those processes to address mid-funnel challenges by predicting intent and NRR at the individual level.
Do you have ~5 min to fill out this survey to help inform our product roadmap and build benchmarks for mid-funnel?
NEW RULE: No more lead magnets
Your lead magnets might actually be making your mid-funnel problem worse.
Ask yourself: Is the trade-off between more eyeballs and wasted resources on unqualified leads worth it?
You don’t have a lead generation problem; you have a lead nurture problem.
Generating the lead isn't the hard part.
Nurturing the lead is the hard part.
Most GTM teams treat all mid-funnel leads equally, blasting generic emails and hoping something sticks.
But there's a better way:
"The savviest revenue leaders at high-growth companies focus on NRR (Net Revenue Retention) and how it informs their ICP. They ask: 'How can we optimize the top of the funnel based on insights from our highest-NRR customers?'"
– CRO who built GTM teams at Medallia, Pendo, and IBM
Why should you focus on NRR across the funnel?
1. Cost Efficiency: Disqualifying ~90% of cold mid-funnel leads saves significant sales and marketing costs. No more wasted ad dollars or expensive dinners on low-intent, low-NRR prospects.
2. Higher Conversions: By focusing your team's efforts on the top 10% of high-intent leads, you can improve conversion rates for customers likely to deliver high Net Revenue Retention (NRR).
Two real-world examples of the consequences of lead magnets:
🧪 Experiment #1: MoxieGTM announced a new app to mine LinkedIn profile views for high-intent leads
--> 80k+ impressions
--> 400+ comments
--> 50 free batches of high-intent leads from a user's profile views delivered
--> 1 closed/won deal worth $2,250
Time to respond to all the comments + Time to produce customized deliverables + Cost of Eng resources
=
We barely broke even. . .maybe even lost money.
What's the opportunity cost? Could we have devoted those resources to something with a higher ROI?
🧪 Experiment #2: Oleg Sobolev (CEO of Extrovert) releasing a playbook to systematically nurture leads
--> ~200 comments requesting a free playbook
--> ~10% fit ICP (20 qualified leads)
--> 50%* convert to sales opportunities (10 opps)
--> 20% close rate (2 closed/won)
--> Estimated LTV per customer = $300 (3 months at $100/month)
--> Estimated Revenue generated: $600
--> Estimated Cost (cost of time + cost of tech): $0.50/playbook × 200 = $100
-->Estimated Net profit: $500
Question for Oleg: Could your resources have generated even higher ROI elsewhere?
Oleg’s response:
“Our funnel metrics are worse than you estimated. But it’s all partly automated, and the reach is worth it. We also try not to provide resources to individuals who are not very qualified. When people see me in their feed, even if they aren’t interested in the resource or don’t read my posts in depth, it still helps with nurturing. They wouldn't normally see me because the algorithm didn't display my regular posts to them. It creates a touchpoint and builds awareness, which is valuable on its own.”
Follow the conversation on LinkedIn. Some notable POVs from the thread:
GTM advisor, Jasper Vanuytrecht, notices that the same people are commenting to get the free stuff. He says,"Most of the people that comment don't seem to have any spending capacity if you check their businesses. "
“Our lead magnets reached around 2m ppl in the last 60 days. So roi is pretty high. Our lead magnet strategy is different than 99% of the market. it's because our entire gtm strategy is different. The goal of our lead magnets is not to convert leads, but to grow the virality of our story. Our content is truly valuable because we spend so much resources in it. It takes 60% of my time every week. every person who reads it thinks to themselves "sh*t, these guys are truly on to something different", and then goes to tell another 2-3 ppl about it.”
- Amos Bar-Joseph, CEO of Swan AI
We’d all be curious to measure the NRR of lead magnets compared to other channels using 3 to 6 months of data. Does anyone have the data they can share? If so, please email me.
In case you don’t want to experiment by creating your own lead magnets, here’s how to steal leads from someone else’s lead magnets
A well-known influencer wrote a post about referrals as a valuable growth channel.
Out of the 220 people who commented on that post, we identified 65 who were an ICP match.
See the below image for what the output looks like before it’s integrated into HeyReach.io.
People weren't just commenting on the post; they were commenting to ask for a free playbook about how to activate referrals.
Asking for a free playbook is like submitting an inbound lead — a stronger signal for buying intent than simply commenting with something insightful.
A LinkedIn connection request was sent with this note:
"hi Bob - saw you commented on [Influencer’s] post about referrals. Would you like me to send step-by-step instructions on how to create a repeatable referral channel by activating customers and partners?"
Result?
🚀 32/65 accepted connection requests (50% conversion rate)
🚀 21/32 positive reply (65% conversion rate)
🚀 3/21 meeting booked (15% conversion rate)
🚀 32 new followers (who match my ICP) added to my audience
🚀 3 new subscribers to The Unconventional GTM newsletter
🚀 1 introduction made to a client who is hiring salespeople
DISCLAIMER: Executing this play could trigger the influencer (and their followers) to come after you, so tread lightly unless you want all that smoke.
How to grab valuable content without attaching your name and playing the little ‘comment below’ game
Secretly send lead magnet posts to a friend or someone on your team who is not directly affiliated with our company (like a Virtual Assistant).
Tell them to comment on these lead magnets to get access to the content.
Then, input the content as training data into a CustomGPT.
The result: One big brain to power outbound and content creation.