7 Rules for Professional Services Lead Generation

Growing a service firm’s revenue starts with positioning yourself to generate, nurture, and convert leads. Here’s 7 Rules to guide you:

1. Plan for outcomes and ROI.
2. Offer value in marketing and selling that will resonate with buyers and differentiate your firm.
3. Create and leverage offers and experiences like thought leadership in the form of books, white papers, seminars, speeches, and other tactics.
4. Use the right lead generation tactics for your firm.
5. Sustain lead generation and lead nurturing efforts.
6. Measure, test, and improve your lead generation and nurturing efforts.
7. Build your brand through lead generation.

Source: Professional Services Marketing by Mike Schultz & John E. Doerr

Planning your lead generation marketing begins with the end in mind (Dr. Stephen Covey), and in this case you should consider how many leads you expect to receive for your dollar spend. Are you hitting your return on investment benchmark?

Your firm can offer value in the form of free initial consultations, low-cost services, or free information that should benefit your prospective clients.

Provide deliverables that identify a problem and solution for your prospects, while elevating your status as an expert in the minds of your audience.

Not all lead generation is equal. Some methods are better suited for your industry. Figure out what works, then scale up or down your inertia to match your firm’s capacities to serve your conversions well – better yet, superbly.

Don’t drop the ball! – metaphorically speaking. Keep your marketing efforts running on auto-pilot so that you aren’t on a rollercoaster of ups and downs in business development.

Run A/B tests to maximize your lead generation, conduct quality assurance surveys among your audience to improve your nurturing efforts, and check in on your ROI frequency.

Strive to increase your firm’s recognition as the “go-to” firm in your niche/geographic region. Not only are you striving to achieve Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), but you want to create an insatiable desire within your audience so that they crave to work with you.

Lastly, convert your leads to buyers.

When your buyers are very, very satisfied with your service, they’ll become racing fans who love to tell others about their experiences working with you, which is the best type of lead generation of all – clients for life! (And referrals!)