What’s Working Now : 2026 Jan 24

Hi, welcome to What’s Working Now by Revenueholic

After I spoke to Ayush who runs Outlierkit, my friend who’s fully-in with Build-In-Public I learnt that sharing what works and what doesn’t from the trenches adds net-positive value to everyone. 

This update will be really helpful if you’re a coach, consultant, agency owner or anyone who working in b2b marketing or sales. 

You might not get “EVERYTHING” but you will surely pick up one or two things here that will help you fix that ONE THING that’s been troubling you.

Let’s get into this. 

Lead Gen: The Loom Video Bottleneck That's Driving Me Insane

Alright, so here's where we're at with lead generation.

We're pulling in 1-2 solid leads every single day from outbound. These are real people, at real companies, who actually respond and engage.

And you will be SHOCKED at my reply rates. When I send them a personalized Loom video, 80% of them book a meeting with us.

Eighty. Percent.

You'd think I'd be celebrating, right? 

Wrong.

Because we can't keep up with recording these damn videos. Every single one takes 20-30 minutes and after closing 2 clients we’re FULL. 

I know how this sounds. "Oh no, my steak is too juicy my lobster is too buttery, but we sorta have too many interested prospects, what a terrible problem to have." This is genuinely frustrating.

Every video needs research. Context. Actual thought. I can't just batch-record 20 of these on a Tuesday afternoon and call it a day. 

The moment we try to templatize them, they lose the EXACT thing that makes them work: they stop feeling personal.

So we're stuck in this weird limbo where we know exactly what converts, we have the leads coming in, but we physically can't produce enough videos to capitalize on our own success.

It's like having a money printer but only enough ink for three pages a day.

Here's How We're Fixing This (Without Ruining What Works)

I've been thinking about this non-stop for the past few hours, and here's the plan:

First, we're building what I'm calling a "modular video framework." Basically, we're creating video segments that can be mixed and matched based on the prospect's industry, pain point, and company size. It's not a template, it's more like... Lego blocks. Personalized Lego blocks.

The good part is I wear the same clothes (I have like 7 black t-shirts for all 7 days of work), and I have the same haircut, the same beard, and the same office. So this should work. 

Second, we're implementing a triage system. 

Not every lead needs the full video treatment within 24 hours. 

We're scoring leads based on urgency and budget indicators. 

Urgent leads get videos immediately. Rest get it within 2-3 days. I have planned a day next week to clear all backlogs before doing more outreach

The goal isn't more videos from now. It's the right videos, to the right people, at the right time, without burning out the team or watering down what's working.

Sales: F*CK TEMPLATES

Let me tell you about a deal we closed.

I asked the prospect why they chose us over the other options they were evaluating. His exact words: "Your effort, that's all."

Before we even got on the first call, we sent him a personalized video breaking down his current digital presence, did keyword research specific to his industry, and identified three immediate opportunities he was missing. By the time we hopped on Zoom, we'd already delivered value.

Here's what this tells me: templatized outreach is dead for the audience we're going after. 

These are smart buyers. They can smell a mass email. They respond to effort, specificity, and proof that you've actually done your homework. 

So we're doubling down. Yeah, it doesn't scale easily. Yeah, it takes more time. But it works. And right now, I'll take effective over efficiency any day.

We're Slowing Down Discovery Calls (And Prospects Are Actually Opening Up)

Here's something counterintuitive we figured out: longer discovery calls are closing better.

During 2024/2025, we used to rush through 30-minute calls, trying to "respect their time" and get to the pitch quickly.

Turns out, that was stupid.

Now we're doing 45-minute discovery calls, and the quality of conversations has completely improved

When you slow down and actually listen, prospects stop treating the call like an interrogation. 

They start revealing things they'd never mention in a rushed conversation: budget constraints, internal politics, competing priorities, decision timelines, the real reasons they're looking for help.

One call last week started as a basic SEO inquiry. By minute 35, the guy casually mentioned he was actually evaluating whether to hire a full-time marketing person or go with an agency. 

That's a completely different conversation. We would've missed it entirely if we'd stuck to our old 30-minute script and rushed to pitch.

So here's the new rule: resist the urge to pitch early.

We Stopped Using Slide Deck

I used to think you needed a polished deck to look professional.

I was wrong.

Now we just screen-share live dashboards. Pull up actual campaign data. Show real results in real time, warts and all. These are from clients and it’s those who given us go-ahead to show certain fields and metrics. 

Last week I was on a call with a prospect who seemed pretty skeptical. The moment I pulled up a client's Google Analytics dashboard and started walking through actual traffic patterns, his whole energy shifted. He leaned in. Started asking detailed questions about traffic sources, conversion paths, content performance.

The conversation went from "convince me why I should trust you" to "I’ll force my CFO to get you enough ad budget from Q2, let’s sign" in about 90 seconds.

Here's what I learned: Sophisticated buyers which are common in b2b want to see the messy, real data. They want to poke holes and ask hard questions. When you give them that access, trust builds faster than any slide deck ever could.

Where We Completely Screwed Up (And How I'm Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Again)

We Assumed We Knew What the Prospect Needed (We Didn't)

This one still stings.

Had a prospect book a meeting after my loom video about SEO. So naturally, I went to the call locked and loaded with our SEO offer..

About 15 minutes in, it became clear that SEO was just "one piece" of a much bigger marketing puzzle they were trying to solve. 

They were actually evaluating full-time hires, agencies, and fractional models simultaneously.

We pitched a solution to a problem we hadn't even properly diagnosed yet.

That's embarrassing.

The fix: I went back to my script and added a mandatory question to our discovery checklist that we ask within the first 10 minutes:

"What alternatives are you currently evaluating, and what would make you choose one over the other?"

This forces us to understand the full competitive landscape and their actual decision criteria before we position ourselves. No more assumptions. 

We Showed a Case Study We Didn't Know Inside Out (And Got Called Out)

We were walking through a case study on a call, showing off some solid results. The prospect asked a pretty straightforward question: 

"What was the blog-to-homepage conversion rate?"

My response: "I haven't looked into that specific metric. The client is happy with our work so we haven’t really looked into it fully"

Awkward pause.

Then the prospect casually mentioned he's been doing marketing for 15 years and knows his way around analytics.

Credibility = Gone. Evaporated. Nuked from orbit.

You cannot showcase work you don't fully understand. Period. End of story.

The fix: 

No case study gets presented unless me or the person on the call can answer ANY metric question without hesitation. 

We're creating one-page metric briefs for every client we reference in sales calls. 

If you can't explain the full funnel from top to bottom, you don't get to use that example.

We Didn't Close the Loop (And Lost All Momentum)

We had a great discovery calls the last few weeks. Prospects were engaged, asked smart questions, clearly interested in moving forward.

We said we'd send over a proposal. They said it was great and they’d like to talk more.

All of them are still stuck in “approval-hell”

Why? Because we didn't schedule a follow-up meeting before hanging up. We just sent the proposal into the void and hoped they'd read it and get back to us.

They didn't.

This is a process failure, not a people failure. When you don't create a concrete next step, deals die in limbo.

The fix: We're implementing an "Always Be Closing" checklist that requires every single call to end with two things:

1. A concrete next step (proposal review, technical deep-dive, intro to their team, whatever)

2. A calendar hold for that next step

If the prospect won't commit to a follow-up meeting before we hang up, the deal probably isn't real.

And if it's not real, I'd rather know now than waste time chasing ghosts.

What We're Doing This Week

This week we’re not chasing more leads right now. 

We are going to:

• Clear the Loom video backlog without sacrificing quality

• Implement the modular video framework so we can scale without losing personalization

• Stop making unforced errors on sales calls (know our numbers, understand their alternatives, always close with a next step)

• Double down on what's already working (effort-based differentiation, longer discovery, live data over slide decks)

That's the plan for the next seven days.

Let's see what happens.