"We're often brought in to clean up after the mistakes that other people have made."

I hear this all the time from consultants and professionals, regardless of their service specialty. They tell me their clients either thought that they could do something themselves as effectively as a specialist in the area (and they couldn't), or their clients hired (and got burned) by a cheaper provider.

Well…count me in. My colleagues and I at my firm often go in to clean up the mistakes that other people made, especially when it comes to lead generation. I'm usually the positive type, and often write about the "DOs" of professional services marketing and lead generation. Today, take heed of some of the "DON'Ts". I like cleaning up, but I don't wish the mess on anyone.

In no particular order:

1. Don't blow your budget on brand advertising.
   
   We clean up after this one pretty often. $60k... $160k…$600k…gone. We'll ask what the client was hoping to get from their advertising spend. "Get our name out there" is often an answer. (The effect is usually not measured.) "Competition is advertising" is another. (Mom to kids: "If all your friends were jumping off a bridge...") More often than not, brand advertising for the sake of brand advertising for all but the largest firms is a big fat waste of money.
   
   
2. Don't expect a swallow to carry a coconut.
   
   Guard 1: What?! A swallow, carryin' a coconut?!
   
   Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!
   
   Guard 1: It's not a question of where he grips it, it's a simple question of weight ratios! A five-ounce bird could not carry a one-pound coconut!
   
   As this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail continues, the guard proceeds to tell Arthur that to maintain air speed velocity, a swallow has to beat its wings 43 times per second.
   
   Arthur's response: I'm not interested.
   
   Many professional service businesses – especially those who are just starting to make the transition from referrals-and-networking-only – believe that they can spend on a little bit of this and a little bit of that and, viola, they have more leads with top buyers looking to engage their services! Or they're looking to find the lowest-priced provider of whatever tactic they're looking to employ.
   
   Getting through to high-level decision makers, getting your message of value seared into their heads, and getting them over the tipping point of becoming a serious lead for your services takes money, time, and marketing savvy. There's no secret trick. There's no cheap way about it. A swallow cannot carry a coconut.
   
   
3. Don't send direct mail or email without a valuable offer.
   
   Become a client and we'll clean your car…we'll bring you an iPod…we'll solve all your problems. If you make an offer (and you should), make it valuable. Research results. White papers. Seminars and webinars. Podcasts. Introductory services to test the waters and prove the case. It's junk mail if you fill it with junk. It's a value-based communication if you actually offer value.
   
   
4. Don't be gimmicky.
   
   "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. I'm sliding on my belly across downtown Newark, New Jersey to generate awareness for my consulting practice." Gimmicks can work for products, amusement parks, charity fundraising, and other business-to-consumer services. Some business-to-business professionals have gone gimmicky, proud that they were thinking "out of the box" or were exceptionally clever. Usually they were neither.
   
   
5. Don't rely on one tactic.
   
   Example of one tactic: send direct mail to whoever is in your database. Note that you have been in business for 88 years, offer solutions to problems based on real need with your people, process, and technology, and you listen better than the next guy. Call if you want to become a client.
   
   I get this one in the mail all the time. I wonder how many responses they get.
   
   Example of multiple tactics: send direct mail (tactic 1) to a targeted, clean, well-researched list (smart) offering your new research results (offering value…improving your brand…see #3 above) in a free, well-written white paper (tactic 2). The prospects will go to your well designed website (tactic 3), preferably directly to an optimized landing page (tactic 4) so they can download the white paper. The download information goes into your CRM system directly (tactic 5) and a business developer or professional follows up within a day or so (tactic 6). From there, you set a meeting (tactic 7) and bring the complete research results to discuss.
   
   Integrated marketing works better.
   
   
6. Don't rely on one approach. Most one-trick-pony or specialty shops want more business for their service. So they sell it. It sounds compelling. But it's not always the right approach – not by a long shot. This is a particularly difficult challenge for professional services firms because there are so many decision makers at the firm, the firms often end up with something too simplistic becuase it's the easy thing to buy (ads, new website, cold calling, PR retainer, etc.). Some approaches will yield nothing (see #1 above) and without integration, they won't yield what they could (see #6).
   
   Know what you're getting into, and what you can really get out of it, before you start spending. And don't take the easy way out.
   
   
7. Don't do anything without taking your website into account. Think about this for a minute: if you're going to make a major purchase for your business, do you visit the websites of the providers you're considering? Do the websites influence you? If you're over 40 and you said, "No," go ask someone under 40.
   
   
8. Don't drop the leads. Professional service providers are notorious for letting their leads and their networks go fallow if they don't buy right away. According to a Cahners Business Information study, 89% of business buyers took more than 90 days to purchase something. If you don't capture and nurture your leads, you're missing the boat.
   
   
9. Don't attend trade shows because competition is there. Attend because you want to develop leads and business. Plan activities for before, during, and after the show as if that's your goal. Read Trade Show and Event Marketing by Ruth P. Stevens. 
   
   
10. Don't pitch, pitch, pitch. Nobody wants to hear it. In the RainToday.com research How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling, 200 buyers of professional services stated that the top attributes for service providers were "Service provider understood my situation and needs" (88%), and "Service provider understood my business" (86%). At the same time, the most frequently reported problem was "Service provider didn't listen to me" (41%). Pitch, pitch, pitch too soon or too much and you'll be sad, sad, sad with the results.
    
    
11. Don't evaluate lead generation too quickly. It takes a good strategy, multiple- touches, and time for lead generation efforts to truly take hold. Many professional services firms dig the seeds up after two weeks to see if they're growing. That's not a good way to grow trees.
    
    
12. Don't skip the measurement. Everyone talks a good game about measurement, but few do it well. If you're going to spend even $50k on lead generation, you should be testing, evaluating, and improving.
    
    
13. Don't over-rely on your junior people. When you say to a junior marketing person at your firm, "find me a marketing firm that does lead generation, get some quotes, and tell me what we should do," you may get yourself in trouble. Many end up with one tactic (#5 above), one approach (#6 above), and approaches that don't work well (there are so many).
    
    If you're really looking for quality leads based on strong growth strategy and the true value of your firm in the market, your leaders and partners will need to not only make the decisions on lead generation, they have to be involved in the process from the start. If you over-rely on junior people – team members that aren't ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with senior leaders and get them on the same page – you'll be shooting yourself in the foot, and taking a long time to do it.
    
    
14. Don't listen to marketing "rules of thumb." "You have to be a market share leader so generate enough clients to do that." Not true. "Direct mail responses are 1%." (Not true). "Someone from every speech you give will buy from you." Maybe, maybe not. "Everyone should blog." Please, don't. "Let's metatag our site and submit to search engines, and that will get us good rankings in Google." Maybe that would work for Altavista…in 1997. But even then you had to do more.
    
    
15. Don't expect to hire a "big-gun business developer" or a sales team and have it just work. Most small firms that try to bring in a "rainmaker" or a big-gun sales person end up kicking themselves when the person either doesn't sell, or just doesn't work out. Then the firm often tries again. It usually adds up to 6 figures or more in spend, not that much return, and sometimes years wasted trying. If you really know how to manage a business development team, then go for it. But if managing a sales team isn't your idea of a dream job, be afraid…be very afraid.

Avoid these fifteen messy lead generation tactics, and not only will you save yourself time, money, and frustration, but you will also generate more and better leads for your business.