Your Cost Per Lead Won’t Keep Dropping | Why Demand Capture Alone Will Kill Your Growth with Yannick Marlot (Aircall, Mooncard)

What happens when your cost per lead stops falling and your growth engine quietly stalls?In this episode of In the Trenches, Yannick Marlot (Aircall, Mooncard) breaks down why relying on demand capture alone eventually hits a ceiling and what operators miss when they confuse inbound efficiency with real growth.This isn’t a conversation about surface-level growth hacks.It’s about the uncomfortable shift from harvesting existing demand to creating it.We talk about:Why cost per lead improvements are often a short-term illusionThe difference between demand capture and demand creationWhat actually happens when performance marketing “works” too wellWhy narrowing ICP too early can distort your growth engineThe tension between brand investment and short-term pipeline targetsHow growth teams accidentally optimize themselves into stagnationWhat founders and VCs misunderstand about sustainable GTM expansionIf you’re a growth leader, founding marketer, or operator trying to scale beyond early traction, this episode will challenge how you think about pipeline.In the Trenches is a podcast about how revenue actually gets built before playbooks exist from the operators on the ground, not the boardroom slides.🎧 Follow the show for more operator-led GTM stories🔔 New episodes every Wednesday, 8:30AM CET