| By Mike Schultz and John Doerr The conversation among the principals or partners in the firm usually goes something like this: Partner 1: “We need some new leads. Too many people are coming off of projects. Let's do some marketing.” Partner 2: “We did—six months ago. Took us a while to get our act together, but eventually we really started rolling.” Partner 1: “Did we get any leads?” Partner 2: “Sure. How do you think everyone got so busy on those projects? So busy, in fact, we had to pull the team away from the marketing programs just so we could service the new clients.” Partner 1: “So I guess we're starting from scratch again, but we need some new leads.” Why do so many professional service businesses have attention deficit disorder (ADD) when it comes to lead generation? They start aggressive lead generation campaigns, get distracted by just about anything, and then all the lead generation efforts fade into the sunset.
This wouldn't be a problem if firms didn't need to attract new clients…but they do (and more aggressively than ever before). Unfortunately, professional services marketing ADD seems to keep getting in the way. Like any doctor who needs to treat an illness, first we need to understand from whence it comes. What Happens to Our Efforts? - Long sales cycle: We do some marketing. We get a few leads. We start 'working' the leads. We don't get any sales this month, or the next, or even the next. We become easily discouraged and decide the efforts were a waste of time and money.
By the time we do close any deals four, six or nine months later, we have stopped our lead generation efforts and have to rev them up all over again.
- Don't know what works: Most professional service firms have traditionally developed business by building relationships, working referrals, and doing a good job. Still excellent approaches, but no longer enough.
At least you knew how to network. When it comes to marketing you have no success stories to follow, no formulas to use, no teacher, and no one around to consistently get it done. Worst of all you and your colleagues don't have confidence in your efforts.
- Billable resources doing marketing: Sustained marketing efforts have more success than one-off projects. But what happens when billable resources are also the marketing implementers? The marketing works—the billable resources stop marketing and start delivering. A new project rolls in from a current client—billable resources get busy and stop marketing. The marketing isn't working and new projects are scarce all around—billable resources get laid off; no one does the marketing.
Regardless of the scenario, in our experience they all end up in the same place—billable resources get distracted from marketing and efforts fizzle.
- Lead generation credit hoarding: Ask a professional, “Where did that new client come from?” and you'll get an honest answer, “I've been working them from my network for a year.” Dig deeper and you'll find that a year and a day ago the professional met the person after at a marketing seminar the firm delivered. Marketing efforts get no credit, and, like many business initiatives that don't seem successful, they don't get funded and eventually wither away.
- Too many cooks: Professionals are smart. Professionals want to be involved. Put six professionals on a marketing project and you get a marketing committee that, six months later, hasn't generated a lead. People get frustrated, don't see the point of all this ‘marketing' they are doing, and stop.
- It doesn't work: As noted before, lead generation efforts that are working well can be one of the primary causes of lead generation ADD. On the other hand, if they don't work because of poor strategy or implementation, professionals tend to state, “Marketing doesn't work for our service. We'll never spend a nickel on it again.” You can't win either way.
Given all these factors, we find that even if marketing is a priority for a day or a week, it often isn't a priority over longer periods of time. Let's face it, with actual client work to get done, doing the mundane day-to-day work of getting the word out drops to the bottom of the to-do list. What happens: marketing efforts just stop. Remember our partners discussing getting new leads? How do you think most of those conversations continue? They decide to get ‘right on doing some marketing,' set some meetings, and, in the end, nothing gets done. They don't know what to do, what is possible, what is needed for implementation, or how to measure success if they did. Three months after this conversation you will find them in a new conversation that starts with, “We need some new leads.” Six Steps to Keep your Marketing Efforts Moving There's no wonder drug to cure professional service businesses of lead generation ADD. But there is a six step program that, if taken seriously, can help you put it into remission: - Develop a plan: Decide what you want to get done over a span of at least 12 months, how you will do it, what is possible, and how much you want to spend (in both time and people resources) to generate new leads. Then implement.
Look at your plan as the beginning of rolling the snowball down a hill: the longer you keep it rolling, the more it will pick up what you want it to pick up.
- Pick your targets clearly: Focus your efforts on exactly who you want to reach. Where do your potential clients congregate? What do they read? Which trade shows do they attend? If you are not 100% certain about your target market, your marketing efforts will be too broad, campaigns will under-perform, and your cash will disappear quickly.
- Be realistic in your expectations: Most of us shouldn't worry about campaigns ‘creating more leads than we can handle.' If it happens you'll figure out what to do. More likely results will come in over time. Like trees in a grove, marketing bears fruit slowly. If you are realistic from the start, you won't get unduly discouraged.
- Communicate early and often: How often is too often to reach a prospect that you have targeted well? Once a year? Twice a year? Once a quarter? If you have something worthwhile to say, there's nothing wrong with contacting them monthly. E-mails, newsletters, invitations to seminars, direct mail, speeches, articles, phone calls, surveys, web sites, etc. Each one of these approaches can be a part of the marketing mix that will turn your prospects into clients.
- Make marketing everyone's priority: Actively working to bring in new clients should be a priority for the firm. Everyone can do something like writing articles, delivering speeches, facilitating seminars, and participating in many other tactics to sustain successful marketing efforts.
- Do not give up: The efforts you start today, if well planned, targeted, and consistent will produce results for you over the long-term. Do not get discouraged by seemingly under-whelming immediate results. Instead, view your marketing efforts as a part of a whole. They add up. In the words of Robert Collier, early 20th century self-help guru:
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."
It's a tough challenge, but if you stay with the program your firm, too, can overcome lead generation ADD. |