I've spoken with a particular partner of a successful professional services firm at least once in each of the last three years about her frustrations with her partners: they won't get serious about marketing. The problem is, like many other firms, they do good work but the phone isn't ringing like it used to.

Each year she tries to kick off some kind of marketing and lead generation initiative so her firm can stay competitive with the other firms that seem so much more aggressive. Last year she couldn't even get her partners to agree they should "send a letter out" to introduce the firm to businesses in their area. All her partners seem to talk a good game of wanting to get the letter done. Then the letter dies a pocket-veto-like passive aggressive death as the partners never come back with a, "Yes...go ahead and get it done."

And so it goes. One year turns into the next, Sisyphus keeps pushing that rock up the hill, and the phone rings less and less.

Message to this partner, her partners, and the rest of the professional services world with their heads still in the sand: it's going to get worse.

In our upcoming Future of Lead Generation for Professional Services benchmark research report (to be released in early February, 2007), we asked 726 leaders in professional service businesses a number of questions about their lead generation practices.

One question we asked was, "In the next two years, how do you expect your lead generation efforts to change?" We gave them 5 choices of answers. Here's what they said.

41% said, "We'll significantly increase our lead generation efforts"
43% said, "We'll moderately increase our lead generation efforts"
13% said, "No change"
3% said, "We'll moderately decrease our lead generation efforts"
0% said, "We'll significantly decrease our lead generation efforts"

In other words, 84% are going after your prospects, your clients, and the market in general with more lead generation energy, resources, and rigor, and 3% are doing less.

In terms of industries, here are the percents that are going to either significantly or moderately increase:

91% – IT Services and Consulting
89% – Training and Executive Education
87% – Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
85% – Accounting and Financial Services
83% – Marketing, Advertising, and PR
82% – Other Professional Services
81% – Financial Services, Investments, and Real Estate
80% – Legal Services
77% – Management Consulting

The lead generation heat is turning up across the board.

How's that letter campaign coming?