A few years ago I interviewed Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index for my Authority Marketing Podcast.

I've just read a new interview with him by David Meerman Scott. It's a fascinating read.

Greg's a hardcore sales guy turned consultant. And he tells how he initially built Sales Benchmark Index with traditional sales activities – particularly cold calling.

But then in 2011, his outbound lead generation just stopped working.

“It's like somebody slammed the doors shut.” he says in the interview.

Greg's view isn't that somehow his competitors outsmarted him. It's that his clients just got too busy to accept interruption based marketing. He stopped being able to get their attention.

So in 2011 he switched to inbound lead generation.

He researched his buyers' problems and how they solved them. And he and his team started regularly creating valuable resources that helped address those problems: blog posts, white papers, diagnostics, webinars.

Turns out my podcast interview with Greg was part of that process ;)

And it's working. They're currently having over twice the number of client meetings they used to have, and revenue is up over 50% already this year.

But for me, the important point isn't the specifics of what Greg and his team did.

It's simply that they did something.

They spotted that their lead generation efforts weren't working. They figured out why. And they started doing something that would work instead.

Many businesses are finding that the lead generation strategies that worked well for them in the past just aren't as effective any more.

If you're in that position. if you can no longer rely on word of mouth or networking or cold calling to bring in the new leads and clients you need; you need to do what Greg did.

First, decide to take action.

Then look for ways of generating leads that don't rely on interrupting your clients or on them having the time to go to events and meetings to connect with you. Because, frankly, those days are over.

Implement lead generation strategies that work today. Strategies that add value to your clients in advance of you working with them. Strategies that build your credibility and relationship.

And don't just wait until your current lead generation strategies stop working completely. Nothing lasts forever – so keep monitoring them and testing new approaches.