still grinds my gears. a few months ago i found a prospect that was a perfect match - right role, right company size, right search intent signals. textbook ICP. i added them to my pipeline and worked down the list like always.
two weeks later i sent a solid, personalised message. nothing. Dead.
went back and checked. that week i first added them, they'd posted publicly about the exact problem i solve. they were actively looking - a live intent signal. If I'd messaged them that week, i reckon it lands.
Two weeks later? window gone. They'd probably already talked to someone else, or the urgency had expired. i had the right person and the wrong moment, and the wrong moment made the right person worthless.
that's when it clicked: who fits is easy. who now is the whole game. i wasn't losing leads because they were bad fits. i was losing them because i reached good fits after their reason to care had evaporated.
Treating your pipeline like a static keyword list while the auction is real-time - that's the real mistake. Anyone else burned by a perfect-on-paper lead that went cold purely because of timing?
