Your leads aren’t a popularity contest: How to win better business

This isn't a "get more leads" episode — it's about getting better ones. Being more specific means fewer inquiries, but more you can happily say yes to. Fewer leads doesn't mean you're failing.

There are three kinds of wrong lead — the wrong service (outside your expertise or capacity), the wrong price (100 hours at £100), and the wrong fit (right work, right budget, still not a match).

Only ~5% of your audience is in the market right now — but the other 95% still need to know you exist, so you're the name that springs to mind when they're ready.

Positioning has a long tail — Bon Creative still gets social media leads years after moving on, because that's how it once described itself. What you say you are today shapes your leads for years.

External message and internal reality have to line up — say one thing but keep taking work that contradicts it and you break trust. Eliška somehow conjures up the analogy about selling bananas out front while only doing social media out back.

Get better at saying no — with a framework. Survival work is fine short-term, but set parameters (a minimum fee, a 3–6 month cap, no more than 20% of your work being what you'd rather not do) so it doesn't become the whole business.

Referrals can trap you — great work at the wrong thing just gets you referred more of the wrong thing. Breaking the cycle takes clear positioning.

Ask every lead "how did you find us, and what made you reach out?" — then dig past "someone recommended you" to what they actually said. It tells you which signals are working.

Differentiation pays — The WOW Company's State of the Agency Nation report shows clearly differentiated firms are more confident, charge more and grow faster. Pick a lane or put a flag in the sand, just get known for something specific.