Stop Chasing Leads | How to Create Demand for Your Business

Most businesses spend their time chasing leads. The businesses that win create demand.

In this episode of The $100M Entrepreneur Podcast, Brad explains why lead generation alone isn't enough to build a valuable business. He breaks down the difference between attracting prospects and becoming the business customers actively seek out.

You'll learn how positioning, trust, authority, and desire work together to create demand, why competing on price keeps businesses stuck, and practical strategies to build a brand customers ask for by name.

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About Brad Sugars
Internationally known as one of the most influential entrepreneurs, Brad Sugars is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the #1 business coach in the world. Over the course of his 30-year career as an entrepreneur, Brad has become the CEO of 9+ companies and is the owner of the multimillion-dollar franchise ActionCOACH®. As a husband and father of five, Brad is equally as passionate about his family as he is about business. That’s why, Brad is a strong advocate for building a business that works without you – so you can spend more time doing what really matters to you. Over the years of starting, scaling and selling many businesses, Brad has earned his fair share of scars. Being an entrepreneur is not an easy road. But if you can learn from those who have gone before you, it becomes a lot easier than going at it alone.

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Transcript

Desirable Versus Visible

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I wanted you to ask yourself one question. What could we do to become more desirable rather than simply more visible? The businesses that win aren't the ones with the most leads. They're the ones customers want most. Revenue can disappear. Demand, though, it's much harder to replace. Do customers ask for you by name? You know, most business owners wake up every day asking the wrong question. They ask, how do I get more leads? The world's most valuable businesses don't ask that. They ask, how do I create more demand? There's a massive difference. One creates activity, the other creates value. Demand versus supply is something we all learn in business school, right? The challenge is most businesses become supply focused rather than demand focused. So one way of looking at business, getting more leads, that creates work. The demand creates more leverage. One fills a pipeline, the other builds a market and a marketplace. So today we're going to explore why most businesses are obsessed with lead generation versus elite businesses where they're focused on demand creation. And that distinction is probably worth millions to you. Okay. So I go back to examples of companies that create demand. It's like there's a generational branding, there's a generational feel of I want to buy that product, I want to own that brand, I want to own that so that later in life, further down the road, that demand is there and there's a pent-up demand for it. And going back a couple of weeks, if you look at it, we start thinking about having too much demand in some cases. So

The Lead Generation Treadmill

SPEAKER_00 1:43

the lead generation trap, let's start there, because this is what most businesses do. They buy ads, they'll buy lists, they'll run promos, promotions, they'll offer discounts even, they'll chase prospects, they're in the let's book appointments, they generate leads. And then they wonder why growth feels like hard work, because lead generation without demand creation becomes a treadmill. If you think about demand creation, it's what comes before the lead generation. If you're stuck in the lead generation trap, you have to keep running, you have to keep spending, you have to keep chasing. The moment you stop, everything slows down. That's the lead generation trap. And that's not leverage, that's not, you know, I guess it's dependency if we really think about it. That's what we're creating with the whole lead gen thing. And I know in my previous businesses, dang, I made it hard for myself because if I wasn't generating leads every day, there was no demand for it. So let's think about what is a lead, okay? A lead is simply someone who may buy, a prospect, a potential customer. And that's very different. It a lead is not demand, a lead is not trust, a lead is not loyalty, a lead is not desire, okay? A lead, if we want to break it right down, a lead is simply a name, a lead is simply a phone number, an email address. We're not thinking about demand. And I want to make sure we understand there is a distinction. The lead might just be a possibility, if that makes sense. Most businesses celebrate leads. In an elite business, you celebrate demand creation. And that's where you think about brands that have created demand rather than leads. They have a desire. People put them on dream charts, sort of thing. People know that one day they want it. Now, not everything in your business can be about demand all the time.

What Demand Really Means

SPEAKER_00 3:46

So, what is demand? All right, let's let's define it so that we can move through and understand the distinction uh between the two of these things. Demand is when people want what you have, okay? And and I use the term marketability in here because marketability is the product or service sells itself, or someone else wants your product or service sold more than you do. Demand is when customers uh seek you out. Demand is when people ask for you by name, demand is when they're willing to wait for you or wait for it. Um, demand is when people recommend you, they refer you, they note you, they talk about you. But you think about it, demand is when people talk about you on social media, demand is when people are shouting out to the world, demand is where when they compare everyone else to you, sort of thing. Think of Rolls-Royce. People say it's the Rolls-Royce of, okay? Why? Because that's demand. Demand changes the economics of business, demand changes pricing policy, demand change. All these things are different when you create demand. So flip that over for a second. The commodity problem. Uh, when you generate leads without creating higher demand, you become a commodity. Customers will ask things like, What's your price? How much do you charge? What's your discount? Can you beat this quote? When you're a commodity, you're one of many options. Okay, when you're a commodity, you're one of many vendors. When you're a commodity, you're one of many potential providers. And that is a dangerous place to be because the conversation ends up being about price. The conversation boils down to that commodity thing. How much are you going to sell this for? How much do I need to pay for this type thing? That's not demand. See, demand changes the conversation when a prospect is coming to you, when a customer is coming to you. When demand exists, people stop asking things like, How cheap are you? And they start asking things like, Well, when can I get in? When can we start? How do we get this going type thing? When when you have demand, uh, well, people stop asking for it, can you discount it type thing? And they start saying, When do you have availability? People stop comparing you. They stop, well, they start pursuing you rather than comparing you, if that makes sense, when you have it. That, my friends, is what demand is. And again, think in your life about brands that have demand. Why is it you can go to the drive-thru of an in-and-out burger and you're willing to wait 10 minutes versus there's probably another burger shop right next door where the drive-thru's empty type thing. What is it that happens with that? Apple, you know, I think of Apple as a great lesson. Apple doesn't generate leads the way most companies do. You don't see lead generation stuff. Apple creates desire. And I remember as a kid, literally when the first iPhone came out, people lined up around the block. People line up for products before they're even released. They join waiting lists online. If you watch launch events, people that's demand. When they consume rumors, when they discuss features, when they they they anticipate an announcement. That's what Apple does. Apple creates demand. The lead is simply a byproduct of the demand. Most businesses focus on the lead generation. Apple focuses on the desire to get the product. And for me, every time I think about a great example of this, I always remember watching Steve Jobs create desire for something that you see there going, how did I end up wanting this? And I don't even really know what it is, type thing. I mean, Tesla's another great example of this. Tesla spent years generating more demand than they could fulfill. Um, customers waited sometimes for months, and sometimes like the Tesla 3, sometimes for years. And the demand kept growing. Why? Because Tesla wasn't selling transportation, they were selling innovation. And you think about it, you don't see Tesla lead generation strategies. They're out there creating demand, desire. See, when I say they're not selling um transportation, they're selling innovation, identity, status, selling future, they're selling a mission. Demand isn't about the product, demand is about what the product or service means. And if you get to that, what it means to a customer, what sort of passion and power. I remember Tesla stating that, you know, their customers came to them. There's a group that wanted performance, and there's a group that wanted the mission type thing. So it's it's very different when you create a demand rather than a lead. So

Positioning That Creates Desire

SPEAKER_00 8:43

that brings us back to positioning. Okay. What is the role of positioning? Because demand really starts with positioning. What position do you occupy in the customer's mind? And this to me is something that when you look at it, and you can even ask AI to tell you where you're positioned in the market against your competitors. And if the you think about the positioning, like, are you the cheapest? Are you the fastest? Are you the safest? Are you the premium option? Are you the specialist? Demand generally, when it comes to positioning, comes from clarity. If people don't know what makes you different, they can't decide or they can't desire you if they don't know what makes you different. They can't, the demand just won't build. And if they can't desire you, guess what they're gonna do? Compare you. And we all know what comparison ends up being commodity. Commodity ends up being price-driven. So you want to create clarity so that when people have clarity, they can desire you because they know what you stand for, what your positioning is. Now, let's think about this. Why do specialists create more demand? Generalists create leads, specialists create demand. Think about doctors, okay? If you need a routine checkup, you'll see there are many doctors you can do this with. In fact, there's probably hundreds of them, and they're probably all advertising very similar methodologies, very similar ways of doing things. Now, if you needed brain surgery, you want the specialist. You don't ask who's the cheapest, you ask who's the best. The more specialized you become, often the easier it is to create demand. I I always, I mean, it's kind of joking, but it's not really. When I sit with people and I ask them the question about, you know, would you want to get in to see someone if if you said, okay, this is the best doctor in the world and you call them up and they said, Yeah, I can fit you in this afternoon. I got the whole afternoon empty. You're like, hang on, if you're the best in the world, why don't you have a waiting list type thing? So what is, and this brings me to the value of a waiting list, okay? The waiting list is one of the clearest signs of demand. Not because waiting lists are magical, but because waiting lists indicate scarcity, and scarcity increases perceived value. A waiting list basically says, hey, other people want this. There's lots of people looking at this. It changes how buyers think, it creates confidence in your business, it creates urgency, it creates a status that you have a waiting list. Now, I'm not saying just have a waiting list for everything, but there's got to be certain segments of your business where you have that waiting list. So, demand. What's

Awareness Trust Desire Formula

SPEAKER_00 11:27

the equation for demand? And I want to teach this to you in a as simple a way as I possibly can. So the concept demand equals awareness times trust times desire. So let me say that again. Awareness times trust times desire. So, yes, there's got to be an awareness. There needs to be marketing, there needs to be social media, there needs to be a website, there needs to be all of these things, okay? The awareness multiplied by the trust, because that, and again, it's multiplied, it's not additional, it's multiplied by the trust. So that goes back to education, all of the things you can do to build trust with someone, continued communication, et cetera. So education helps build the trust. So awareness times trust times desire breeds demand. So if you miss one of those elements and demand does fall. Awareness without trust creates curiosity. Trust without awareness creates obscurity, I guess. And awareness and trust without desire creates indifference, is probably the simplest way to put it. You need all three. People must know you, they must trust you, and they must want what you have. So, in with that in mind, marketing isn't enough. Let's understand that. Why is marketing it's just not enough? Many businesses think demand is created through advertising. It's not. Advertising creates awareness. Demand requires more. Demand requires positioning. You've got to be positioned and give them clarity so they can desire you. Demand requires reputation. Okay, that's why social media is often seen as social proof media. The testimonials, the ratings, rankings that you have. Uh, demand requires authority. You've got to have some form of be seen as the authority on this. Notice the word author. You create the articles, the ebooks, the videos, the podcasts, all of those sorts of things. Demand also requires proof. That's why I want to see customer reviews and customer testimonials and customer ratings and rankings on what you do, awards, all of those things. Demand also requires consistency. There's no use posting a one podcast every two years, sort of thing. It's a weekly keep consistent in your communication with the customer. Demand also requires customer experience. There've got to be other people doing this sort of thing. Advertising can start the process, but it cannot finish it. Okay. So

Proof Authority And Consistency

SPEAKER_00 13:52

if you think of building demand through proof, let's break it down. All right. One of the fastest ways to create demand is through proof, social proof, uh, experience proof, outcome proof. People trust outcome, they trust results. People trust evidence. Okay. So that's again why testimonials work, reviews work, uh, it's why case studies work, referrals. It's definitely why referral works. Proof accelerates trust, and trust accelerates demand. So you can use proof and you can definitely use it through social media. And this is where I see a lot of people in their social media think it's all about posting everything. No, a lot of the times your social media is about social proof. Results that it works, people using the product, people using the service. Make sure you do that. So, second one, authority. How do you build demand through authority? Well, authority creates demand because it reduces uncertainty. People want certainty. They want confidence, they want expertise, I guess. So authority comes from things like books, podcasts, speaking engagements. Like if you're seen on stage, builds confidence because people see that others are there listening to you, type thing. Content work, frameworks. Oh my God, AI loves when you publish frameworks out there in the marketplace. Thought leadership articles, when you've seen that, that's that's again authority. Win the awards, be putting out for the awards, enter the awards for goodness sake. In today's world, entering awards is a massive part of marketing authority. The more authority you build, the easier demand becomes. Okay, let's think about this for a second. One of the most overlooked demand creators is community. When customers feel connected to something bigger than a transaction, okay, when they feel a part of a community, even just seeing that the community exists, noticing others doing it, again, that comes back to social proof. But if you connect people to something bigger than the transaction, demand increases, retention increases, referrals increase. If there's only one reason to build a community, referrals. Oh my God, loyalty increases. Because if I bring others into the community, my loyalty goes up. People don't just buy, they belong. That's a different level of business. Okay,

If Every Lead Source Vanished

SPEAKER_00 16:16

so the big question: imagine you lost every lead source tomorrow, all right? Every lead source was gone, everything that used to work turned off and just stopped working. No ads, no referrals, there's no email list, no social media, no SEO, nothing. Not a zip zilch, okay? Nothing was working. Would people still ask for you? Think about that for a second. Would people still talk about you? Would people still seek you out? Would people still post about you on social media? Would people still tell your story to the world? If the answer is yes, then you've built demand. If the answer is no, obviously you haven't built demand, okay? You have lead generation, but not demand. And that, my friends, is the purpose of what we're here to look at today. How do you build that desire and build that demand out there in the marketplace? Now, I want to go back to examples of this sort of thing. If all of a sudden Coca-Cola stopped advertising, which I don't know if you've noticed this, but over the last 10 years or so, way less advertising from Coca-Cola than they did when, you know, 30 years ago type thing. But people still talk about Coca-Cola. Hmm, they've created demand. See, demand also creates valuation. And this is where it gets really interesting. Investors don't just buy revenue and EBITDA, they buy demand. Why? Because revenue can disappear. Demand, though, it's much harder to replace. Businesses with strong levels of demand, again, the desire, the authority, all those things out there are business that people compare themselves to. The Rolls-Royce, the Rolex, those sorts of company. Business with strong demand receive higher valuations, higher multiples, most certainly, better margins on their product, greater growth scale all the time. Demand becomes really an asset when you think of it from that way. An asset that exists, by the way, beyond any individual lead. It's a long-term asset that you've created. And some people have compared brand and demand. They are different. Okay. Building demand is something that keeps coming back over and over again.

Demand Killers To Avoid

SPEAKER_00 18:33

So, some questions to ask yourself on today's pod. Do you have leads or demand right now? Is it just lead generation strategies or are you building demand for the future? Do customers ask for you by name? Okay, because if they're using your brand, your name, they're asking for you by that, then you've created demand. Would customers wait for you? If they're willing to wait, you know you've created demand. If they're willing to get in line, go on a wait list, do that sort of thing. Um, next question: what makes us desirable? And then also what makes us different? If we think about what makes us desirable and what makes us different, we start moving into demand. Uh, how much of our growth comes from trust, where people just come to us and they come back to us and they refer us type thing? They post on social media about us. And how much of it comes from chasing? If most of your work comes from chasing, you haven't built demand, you've built lead generation. Okay, so let's deal with just, in fact, let's deal with some of the common mistakes first, okay? Confusing leads with demand is obviously the first one that we've been looking at today. Competing on price definitely moves you away from demand. It's not a good look, okay? Trying to be everything to everyone is a massive mistake when it's demand creation. See, there's no positioning, no authority, no proof, no community, no waiting list. These are some of the problems that going for lead generation. Yes, leads are important, but demand is transformational to a business. That's what I'm trying to get through. So

Action Challenge And Closing

SPEAKER_00 20:03

uh let's go to your action challenge for this week, okay? Uh, I wanted you to ask yourself one question. What could we do to become more desirable rather than simply more visible? Remember, that's the distinction. Create more desire rather than just more visibility out there in place. Um, not just more advertising, not just more promotions, not more discounts and stuff, more desirable because that's where demand really begins. Build the desire. And all of the things we're working on in this season is about building that demand engine for your business. So, to finish us up here today, yes, you got to take the action challenge. What can you do to be more desirable than simply more visible? I want you to think about this lead generation fills a pipeline, but demand creation builds a market. The businesses that win aren't the ones with the most leads, they're the ones customers want most. So stop chasing attention, start creating desire. Thanks for joining me on the $100 million podcast. If you've got value from today's episode, make sure you've subscribed and share this with all of your friends. Never miss a strategy that could change your business and your life. And remember, the fastest way to scale is to learn from those who've done it. That's what this show is all about. See you on the next episode.