by 
“Lead generation is one of the most common concerns for agency leaders, but lead volume isn’t the only problem. Leaders are nearly unanimous in pointing to pricing pressure (93%), longer sales cycles (92%), and higher client acquisition costs (90%) as a challenge for their business with nearly half stating that these are “growing challenges.”
—The SoDA Report on New Strategies for The Modern Agency, January 2026
Regardless of the flavor of your expertise, I’m willing to bet that the future of your space is a lot more competitors of smaller size than what’s historically been true.
Eventually these fragments will reconsolidate, as they always do to some extent, but I believe we are in for years of numerous smaller competitors, each leveraging AI differently to do far more with less headcount.
It should be a period of profound innovation as a thousand flowers bloom in your sector.
It’s going to be exciting. And it’s going to be a blood bath, with many more competitors chasing the same client pool.
How Will You Generate Leads in the Age of AI?
So everybody’s got a lead generation problem and it’s going to get worse. How do you generate leads in this environment?
I believe that answer includes prioritizing meaning over volume.
Almost everyone is going to choose volume because the tools are so tempting.
But, what will the overall effect on the ecosystem be?
It will be more of this 👇
Volume
In an era of this type (above) of garbage in my inbox, I really value something like this 👇
Meaning
Hi Blair, I’ve been following your work for a little while and I wanted to share how impressed I am with what you and your team are doing. Your post Attending The Way changed my relationship with my work (I fired two clients and one team member after reading that) and Pricing Creativity has doubled my profit. Thank you.
I think your team and mine are ideologically aligned—not for everyone, idealistic and more than a little brave. We have this one thing we do better than anyone else. It’s (value proposition). I expect that you’ve got a great roster of firms that could “also do” what we do, just like we could “also do” some of the things you hire them to do, but I wanted to ask if you are you interested in exploring whether or not we could create new value for you (in this area)?
If you’re taken care of on this front, or it’s not a current priority, just let me know.
The last thing I want to do is to waste your time or mine.
I’ll let others fill your inbox with AI-generated spam. I wanted to type a note to let you know that you are appreciated by my team and I, and if you ever want to explore (value proposition) we would love that chat and I promise there would be value for you in the conversation even if we never worked together.
Reach out at any time.
-(Business Owner)
PS: We also have a mutual acquaintance in (friend). I checked with them to see if you are the real deal. They were effusive in their praise of you and very encouraging when I said I was thinking of reaching out.
This is an amalgam of a few notes I’ve received. It’s a horribly inefficient outreach mechanism.
But I reply to these. And so do you.
When our inboxes are filled with crap — wrong messages, stupid subject lines and the worst of all, faux intimacy — anything real stands out. Stand out.
Stand Out: Do Less, But Better
The solution to your lead generation challenge is not more faux intimacy or better AI-generated insight. The solution is less volume, more meaning. It’s to do what everyone else is not.
Take the time. Identify who you can best help. Then reach out with a deeply personalized note.
Be real. Be slightly vulnerable. Have a tight value proposition. Don’t ask for anything specific other than your offer to explore a fit, on their own terms. Don’t work from any template. And for God’s sake, do not kill this by trying to scale it.
And finally, let the act itself be its own reward. Even if you do not get a reply, you should feel better for having sent the note.
Do this three times a week, for the rest of your career. Not only will you not have a lead generation problem, you and the world will be better for it.
-Blair