Podcast as B2B Lead Gen
Book your ideal client as a guest; every touchpoint of the show is a relationship builder.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 90%
Posner runs a recruiting business and found it insanely easier to reach a decision maker at a target company by inviting them onto his podcast than by any cold channel. The pitch is genuine — 'I have a top global career podcast, I love your story, I'd love to have you on the show' — and every touchpoint in getting them there is a relationship builder. Crucially, he does not pitch his services at any point before the show airs; if the guest is looking at him at all, they already know what he does for a living. Only after the episode airs does he pitch. Hala Taha independently built the identical motion, and both stress it happened organically as a byproduct before either recognized it as a strategy. Posner adds a second-order benefit: the show makes you a de facto thought leader without ever calling yourself an expert or a guru, because the light shining on your guests deflects back onto you.
Origin
Posner started The POZCast around his recruiting business and noticed guests converting into paying clients as a byproduct, not a plan. Both he and Taha describe it as organic and logical rather than designed — he is now packaging the process into a B2B podcast course with his producer Chris.
Core principles
- 01A podcast invitation reaches a decision maker where a cold call or cold email cannot.
- 02Every step — the outreach, the prep, the booking, the recording — is a relationship-building touchpoint.
- 03Never pitch before the show airs; they already know what you do.
- 04The guest list must be the client list; book the people you'd want to serve.
- 05The podcast confers de facto thought leadership without you claiming the title.
- 06It's one channel in a multi-channel BD approach, not a replacement for cold outreach.
How to run it
- 1
Make your guest list your client list
Design the show so the people you want to do business with are the natural guests. Taha books best-selling authors, CEOs and podcasters — exactly who her agency serves.
Pro tip Reverse-engineer it: start from the ideal client profile, then build the show premise around them.
- 2
Use the show as the door
Reach the decision maker with a genuine invitation — 'I have a top global career podcast about career journeys and talent, I love your story, I'd love to have you on.'
Pro tip This is the break-through that cold calling and cold emailing can't buy.
- 3
Treat every touchpoint as relationship building
The outreach, the prep call, the booking logistics, the recording — each is a chance to build the relationship, not a chore.
Pro tip Studying their life and letting them talk about themselves makes people like you more.
- 4
Do not pitch before the show airs
Hold the services pitch entirely. If they're engaging with you at all, they already know what you do for a living.
Watch out Pitching mid-process converts a relationship touchpoint back into a sales call and kills the whole mechanism.
- 5
Pitch after it airs
Once the episode is out and you've given them the platform, that's the moment to pitch the business.
- 6
Keep it multi-channel
Posner still cold calls and cold emails. The podcast is his number one business-driving tool, not his only one — leave no stone unturned.
In the wild
Posner used The POZCast to reach decision makers at companies he wanted to do business with, built the relationship through the booking and recording process, and pitched only after each episode aired.
→ In one year alone he closed seven clients who had been guests on the show over the previous two years, calling it a proven way to break through cold calling and cold emails.
Taha's YAP guests are best-selling authors, CEOs and podcasters — precisely the profile her marketing and podcast agency serves. In the beginning, all her clients were past guests; the show and the service business fit together without being designed to.
→ The podcast became her agency's client engine, and inbound now arrives independent of the show because the brand grew large enough on its own.
Common mistakes
Pitching the guest before the episode airs
Posner explicitly holds the pitch until after air. Selling during the booking or the recording betrays the invitation and collapses the relationship you were building.
Booking guests who aren't your clients
The whole mechanism depends on the guest list overlapping the client list. Book for downloads instead of fit and the show generates audience but no pipeline.
Expecting sponsorship money instead
Taha notes it's very difficult to monetize through sponsorships — she only started three or four months in, despite YAP's size. Guest-to-client is the faster path.
Is it for you?
Best for
Service-based businesses — agencies, recruiters, consultants — whose clients are identifiable decision makers.
Not ideal for
Product businesses with low-ticket, high-volume customers where one-to-one relationship building doesn't pay back.
From the transcript
“I have found it to be insanely easier to reach a decision maker within a company that I want to do business with to engage…”
“I do not even pitch my services — they should know about this point, if they're even looking at me they know what I do…”
“I have closed this year alone seven clients that I've had on the show in the last two years as paid clients.”
From the episode
Adam Posner: Land The Job
Adam Posner