Lukas Otompasis

You might be losing deals before buyers even read your DMs. I worked with a company that had very little brand awareness. At first, outbound did all the work. Then we changed our approach. Rather than keeping LinkedIn, SEO, PR, ads, and trust assets as separate channels, we brought them all together. We built one simple trust system. Here’s what happened in just 2 months: → LinkedIn content helped buyers know the founder → LinkedIn ads pushed the message to more people → SEO and GEO made the company easier to find → PR added outside credibility → A Wikipedia page helped remove doubt After we made these changes, things started moving quickly. Most buyers didn’t come from just one channel. First, they saw the founder on LinkedIn. Then, they searched the company on Google. After that, they checked articles, reviews, and trust signals before they replied. This campaign brought in £2.4 million in pipeline within 2 months. PS: If your outbound results are slow, try searching your company name and see what buyers see first.

Google Ads captures demand. It doesn't create your next quarter pipeline. Most £1-5M B2B companies I audit still run the same playbook: → 90%+ budget into capture → almost nothing into demand creation Then the same problems show up. → CPLs rise every quarter. → Competition gets more expensive. → Pipeline drops the moment ads pause. The issue usually is the budget split. For most growth-stage B2B companies, I prefer a 60/40 model: → 60% capture demand Google Ads, retargeting, bottom-of-funnel intent. → 40% create demand LinkedIn content, founder positioning, SEO, buyer education. Google converts existing intent. LinkedIn and SEO build familiarity before buyers search. That second part matters more than most teams realise. By the time someone searches “best CRM for X” or “ABM agency”, they already trust 2-3 brand names. 1. Usually because they have seen the founder. 2. Read the content. 3. Found the company in search multiple times. That is demand creation. The companies with the strongest pipelines rarely rely on one channel. They build trust before the click happens. PS: If your pipeline disappears when ads stop, your demand engine is probably too capture-heavy.

Most £1-5M B2B companies hit the same £30K pipeline ceiling. It's rarely an ad spend problem. I keep seeing the same reaction. Pipeline slows down, so the company increases ad spend. - More clicks come in. - More leads fill the CRM. Still, revenue barely moves. After 1000+ audits, the real leaks usually sit somewhere else. → No demand creation The company only targets buyers already in-market. Nothing builds trust before intent exists. → Weak follow-up systems Leads download, book, or reply once. Then nobody nurtures them properly. Long sales cycles get treated like short ones. → Disconnected channels Outbound says one thing. Content says another. Sales calls sound different again. Trust breaks between touchpoints. The pattern is predictable. Marketing optimises for lead volume. Sales complains about quality. Founders ask for more pipeline. But the real issue is usually the system between attention and trust. Ads amplify what already works. They rarely fix a disconnected GTM engine. DM me “PIPELINE” and I’ll send over the framework I use to spot these leaks. PS: Most revenue leaks happen after the lead enters the CRM, not before.

Where you start doesn’t decide where you end up. At 16, I worked as a waiter making €30 a day. 17: bartender. €40 a day. 18: sales job. €50 a day. 19: McDonald’s while studying full time. 22: moved to the UK. 23: sales role while doing my master’s. 24: first marketing job on £18k. Later that year, I moved into SEO on £30k. 25: hit £60k. 26: £70k. 27: first £100k+ year. 28 to 30: multiple six-figure years while building real estate investments on the side. For a long time, I felt behind. Now I realise most progress is quiet when you are living through it. I just kept stacking skills, long hours, mistakes, and better decisions over time. If your starting point feels small right now, keep going. PS: Your first job is not your final identity.

People use ChatGPT, Claude & Perplexity to get answers before they even search on Google. And this changes how they buy. Before LLMS, you could see each step in the buyer's journey. People searched, clicked, and maybe bought something along the way. You saw every move in your reports. Now, they find answers in seconds, so the path from question to choice is short. Most businesses are not ready for this shift. Are you?

97% of your future buyers aren't searching for anything yet. Still, you need to start thinking about them before it's too late. Most B2B teams spend about 95% of their budget on capturing demand and just 5% on creating it. However, only around 3% of the market is actively looking to buy at any given time. This means nearly all of the budget chases the same buyers that everyone else is targeting. The other 97% never even hears about your company. I’ve seen this pattern in over 1000+ audits: • Cost per lead rises every quarter • All your competitors are bidding on the same prospects • Lead quality stops getting better • If you pause your ads, your pipeline dries up almost right away Most teams respond by switching agencies or testing new channels. But the real problem is how the budget gets divided. Capturing demand means focusing on buyers who are already interested. Creating demand is about reaching buyers who aren’t ready to buy yet. Capturing demand brings results right away. Creating demand delivers results over the long term. Each approach serves a different purpose and works on its own timeline. That’s why it’s important to split your budget on purpose, depending on your company’s stage: • Most companies stick with a 95/5 split. • Early stage: 70/30 split. • Growth stage (£1M to £5M): 60/40 split. • Mature companies: 50/50 split. After that, measure each approach according to its own timeline. • Capture should be measured by quarterly results, like cost per lead and pipeline created. • Creation should be measured by yearly results, such as branded search, inbound lead quality, and shorter sales cycles. P.S. This week’s Built to Scale goes into the full budget split in detail. Check the comments for the link.

Is it just me?

LinkedIn gives every profile a score out of 100. A lot of B2B founders haven’t checked their own scores. This score is called the Social Selling Index. Some people think it’s just a vanity metric. I get why people think that. Still, I check my score every month. Here’s what my score looks like right now: → 73 out of 100 → Top 1% in marketing services → Top 1% of my network → No change since last week Industry averages help put these numbers into perspective. Sales professionals in my field have an average score of 30. People in my network average 39. So, expectations are often higher than what’s normal in the industry. LinkedIn splits the score into four categories, each worth up to 25 points: 1. Establish your professional brand: 21 2. Find the right people: 13.6 3. Engage with insights: 13 4. Build relationships: 25 I still have room to improve in two of these areas. My relationships score is a perfect 25. My engagement with other people’s content, however, is currently at 13. Even with a top 1% score, there’s still room to improve. There are good reasons why I keep an eye on this score. The score alone doesn’t bring real results. No client has ever asked me about my SSI. But the score does reflect important habits. These habits are key to maintaining a healthy sales pipeline. If any part of the score drops, it usually means I’ve fallen behind on my routine. The dashboard helps me spot these issues before they affect my sales pipeline. In other words, it works as an early warning system. Checking it takes only about 10 seconds each month. You don’t need to hit a score of 73. Just set a baseline and track your progress over time. Have you checked your own Social Selling Index yet? ♻️ Save this post for your next LinkedIn review. PS: Check your score for free at linkedin.com/sales/ssi. It only takes about ten seconds.