Leads, leads, leads. Once the referrals and the circle of family and friends aren’t enough to keep your firm growing, it’s all about the leads. Yet, when it comes to generating leads, consulting firms get it all wrong in 10 very common ways.

Top 10 Lead Generation Mistakes

Avoid these common lead generation mistakes and you’ll start to see your pipeline fill.

Lead Generation Mistake #1: Spending on marketing activities that don’t produce ROI or are “vanity exercises” (e.g. excessive graphic design and image advertising).

Open up your local business journal, and without a doubt you will see an advertisement for a consulting firm trying to “generate awareness.” This organization is “generating awareness” among the 25,000 readers who may (or may not) be targets for its services.

Meanwhile, the funds to create the ad (and to run the ad week after week) can surely be much better spent by reaching out to the smaller, more targeted pool of, say, 1,600 key prospects your firm wants as clients. For the most part, spending on general awareness ads produces a very low ROI if any.

Focus your lead generation efforts and dollars on tactics that are going to produce strong ROI.

Lead Generation Mistake #2: Expecting marketing tactics to produce results without a clear call to action.

I recently saw an ad in Harvard Business Review for a major consulting firm touting the nature of the firm as offering “solutions” versus just “services.” Many people saw that ad—and did nothing because they were asked to do nothing.

If, however, the ad had focused on new research in intellectual property protection for technology companies that could be downloaded as a white paper, the ad could have been used to generate leads for the firm.

People will accept an offer—white paper, case study, article, book, research, sales call—from an ad. They will rarely, if ever, pick up the phone and go from ad to becoming a new client.

Have a goal and clear call to action and offer for each of your marketing tactics.

Lead Generation Mistake #3: Not implementing any lead generation tactics because of inefficient decision making.

I can’t tell you how many times I have met with a consulting firm to talk about lead generation, and these companies are hot to trot with their lead generation efforts—they want more leads and they want them now. Then, six months go by, a year goes by, three years go by, and they still have done nothing.

All too often in consulting firms there are too many decision makers who can’t get on the same page and decide what to do when it comes to marketing and lead generation. So, they end up doing nothing or even worse running another awareness ad in the business journal.

If you find yourself complaining about a lack of leads, yet unwilling to move forward with any lead generation campaigns, either stop complaining or do something about it.

Lead Generation Mistake #4: Not being able to sustain implementation over the long-term.

As much as you might like to shorten the sales cycle, buying complex, trust-based services takes time. Leads need to be nurtured over the long term so you are top of mind when the elusive time of need arises.

All companies want more leads and want them now. As a result, they plan and implement a lead generation campaign, but they impatiently dig up the roots after two weeks to see if it’s growing yet. (This is not a good way to grow a tree or to generate new leads.)

Lead generation efforts must be sustained over months to make them 1) work and 2) improve over time.

Lead Generation Mistake #5: Relying on one tactic only.

In Managing the Professional Services Firm, David Maister lists “first string” marketing tactics, which include small scale seminars, speeches at client industry meetings, and proprietary research. Maister calls direct mail and cold calls “clutching at straws tactics.” By themselves, they are. Very few prospects will go from receiving direct mail, an email, a cold call, or even a first conversation straight to being a client.

But the best way to get people to take advantage of those “first string” offers is a combination of “grasping at straws” tactics.

Lead Generation Mistake #6: Poor implementation (e.g. poorly written marketing copy and poorly designed or poorly targeted campaigns).

Let’s say you decide to run a small-scale seminar (a “first string” marketing tactic). You spend months preparing the content, practicing your delivery, putting together the invitations, and booking the facility. Then, the day comes and two people show up. So, what happens? You give up on seminars and declare, “We tried that, it didn’t work.”

On the contrary, seminars can and do work, you just implemented the marketing of the seminar poorly.

A number of tactics can be successful to generate new leads for your consulting services. Know what it takes to successfully implement each tactic. And if you don’t know what it takes, get help from someone who does.

Lead Generation Mistake #7: Dropping leads and failing to nurture leads.

According to a research report by BPM Forum, over 80% of generated leads are never followed up on, are dropped, or are mishandled. Professional services businesses are particularly adept at neglecting the leads that they already have in-house, just waiting to be called.

It’s also been our experience that with proactively generated leads, 25% are short-term leads while 75% are long-term leads. If you’re focused on the short-term, you might be missing out on three-fourths of your opportunities.

Don’t let leads fall through the cracks. Develop a long-term nurturing plan to win your fair share of the 75% of prospects who are not ready to buy right now.

Lead Generation Mistake #8: Not communicating your value in marketing.

We often hear from our clients that they want their prospects to perceive that they are credible and distinct, so they end up writing marketing messages that say, “I’m credible and distinct.” Or, “I’m trustworthy.” Or, “I’m innovative, yet solid.”

If you want your clients and prospects to believe you are credible and distinct, you must demonstrate that you are credible and distinct. You can do this by providing value directly in your marketing and selling efforts. When you interact with a prospective client, or send any message to them, that prospect is evaluating what it might be like to work with you. Help them understand that working with you after they become your client is much the same as what it’s like working with you before they become your client.

Lead Generation Mistake #9: Not integrating various marketing tactics well.

Lead generation is a multi-step process. It takes multiple touches to draw prospects into the seduction of your services. These touches need to be well-planned with a consistent message, at the right frequency, and with the right mix of offers. Not all prospects will be interested in attending a seminar or reading a white paper. While others will want to do both before engaging a conversation with you.

Consider this: do you think a prospect will accept a meeting with you from a cold email? Probably not. But will that same prospect provide you with their contact information in exchange for a new white paper that is relevant to their business? Probably. And will they accept a follow-up call to discuss the content of the white paper or an in-person meeting to discuss how the topic applies to their business and situation? More often than not, the answer is yes.

Integrate your lead generation efforts for the greatest success.

Lead Generation Mistake #10: Planning poorly for lead generation.

Value in marketing. Consistent messaging. Integration. Targeting. Lead nurturing. All of that is for naught if it is not well-planned, measured, and tested.

Planning for lead generation is not the kind of thing that happens one time and is forever etched in stone for the year ahead. When it comes to marketing and lead generation, some tactics work better for some companies than others—and you never know which ones work best for you until you test them.

Avoid these top 10 lead generation mistakes and you won’t end up waiting for the new leads. You will already have them.

Earlier this year, we asked you to share your selling services challenges. You flooded us with your challenges and concerns, which included communicating the value of your services, client relationship management, cold calling, and qualifying leads. In this blog series we identify 12 of the major selling obstacles you are struggling with the most and offer advice and suggestions for overcoming them.

Today’s challenge: keeping the pipeline full with leads.

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Generating leads is a top challenge many professional services businesses face. After all, how do you find time to prospect when you have to manage clients, deliver work, manage people, and run the business? How do you find time to maintain a full pipeline and a full roster of active clients?

The fact is: you can’t afford not to make lead generation a top priority. New leads are the life blood of your business. If you aren’t constantly filling the pipeline, you will not be able to sustain the business over the long term.

When it comes to generating leads, too many service providers have it all wrong. They are looking for the silver bullet, the one thing they can do that will bring in a flood of new leads. Unfortunately that silver bullet doesn’t exist. In fact, in our recent Lead Generation Benchmark Report we found that all tactics work for some firms (that’s right, even television advertising works for some).

The question, however, is not which tactics work best for others. The question is which tactics will work best for you? When choosing your tactics, you have to ask yourself a few questions:

• Does this sound right for my target audience?
• Will my prospects come to an event (or read a white paper or respond to my direct mail efforts)?
• Do I know who my targets are and how to reach them (names, mail and email addresses, phone numbers)?
• Do I understand my audience’s industry and specific business issues?
• Do I know what the objective is if we implement this tactic (e.g., increase brand awareness, cross-sell or up-sell to existing clients, nurture leads)?
• Can we do this well based on our skills, knowledge, and experience?
• Will we consistently pursue this long enough to be successful?

If you can answer yes to all of those questions, then the tactic is worth considering. Beyond that, you must also adhere to the three keys of lead generation success.

3 Keys to Lead Generation Success:

1. Consistency: Consistency is crucial. You have to have a well-planned, well-integrated lead generation strategy that feeds the pipeline over time. You can’t write one article, speak at one event, send one direct mail piece, leave one voice mail, reach out to those in your network one time, etc. You must have a consistent lead generation plan running on all thrusters to continuously fill the pipeline. As Jeremy Epstein, founder of Never Stop Marketing says: marketing must be at the core of a firm’s day-to-day activities, with all employees involved.

Each and every day you need to be working to generate new leads. This can be through reaching out to your network, inviting a current client to lunch, following up to a recent speech you gave, answering questions on LinkedIn, or working on a new white paper.

The amount of effort you put in over time directly correlates to the amount of new leads and new business you get.

2. Implementation: When it comes to implementing lead generation tactics, the devil is in the details. Much lead generation success and failure is determined not by the tactic choice, but by how well that tactic is implemented.

For example, if you decide to run a direct mail campaign, you must have:

• A clean and well-targeted list
• A compelling message and offer that resonates with the audience
• A well-written direct response piece
• A process for following up with everyone who responds to the offer and everyone who received the mailing
• A good tracking mechanism

It’s not as simple as writing a letter and plopping it in the mail. If you can’t implement a tactic well, find someone who can do it for you or learn how to do it well!

3. Patience, persistence, and follow-up: Lead generation, marketing, and sales take time. I’ve seen it take 8, 10, and 12 months just for a firm to get a first meeting with a prospect. Now, this meeting could lead to tens of millions of dollars, but just to get through to the decision maker takes a great deal of effort.

And that is just the beginning of the relationship; don’t forget the long sales cycle in professional services, which can add years to this time line. You need to be patient and persistent to nurture these leads and build the relationship to a point where the prospect is ready to pull the trigger with you.

It is easy on the seventh month to get frustrated and proclaim that your efforts aren’t working. However, marketing is cumulative, and overtime the efforts and investments you make early on will pay off.

Lead generation is an ongoing process. You can’t do one marketing push, get a flood of leads and new business, and then put your head down to work for three months. Do this and you’ll put yourself in a viscous cycle of feast or famine. Consistency paired with strong implementation and patience will help you keep your pipeline full with qualified leads.

Earlier this year, we asked you to share your selling services challenges. You flooded us with your challenges and concerns, which included communicating the value of your services, client relationship management, and qualifying leads. In this blog series we identify 12 of the major selling obstacles you are struggling with the most and offer advice and suggestions for overcoming them.

This week’s challenge: how to qualify sales leads.

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The definition of a qualified sales lead is generally accepted by most sales professionals as BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe to buy. If the prospect doesn’t have a budget, they’re not qualified. Done. Because of this notion, sales people are conditioned to seek budget upfront, which can put a prospect back on their heels, reluctant to buy.

In some instances, it’s the right move. Marketing strategist and RainToday.com contributor Vickie K. Sullivan, who brings in a large number of leads through writing and speaking engagements, qualifies prospects by putting her fees front and center to weed out those who aren’t willing to pay:

“My assistant responds first, gently telling them the fee ranges and offering group options for those not ready for one-on-one projects. That has cut down the time I spend on unqualified folks and increases my closing ratio. It’s also increased sign-ups for the group projects.”

But in the instances where the budget question is likely to kill the conversation quickly and abruptly, there is another approach. Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group, advocates using the new FAINT method of qualifying prospects. While it sounds like the latest Chuck Palahniuk novel, it’s actually a more productive method of qualifying prospects, especially when you are selling an unplanned purchase, one where a budget won’t be allocated (which includes most demand-driving products and services).

Qualifying sales leads is one of the biggest challenges of selling professional services

FAINT—the new definition of a qualified buyer—stands for:

* Funds: Focus initially on organizations and buyers that have the financial capacity or funds to buy from you. They may not have a budget, but they have the overall financial wherewithal to spend. Sell where the money is.

* Authority: Focus on finding the individuals who have the authority to make decisions on how to use funds. If the organization has the financial capacity to spend if they found something to be worthwhile, you must deal with the people who have the authority to allocate said funds.

* Interest: Generate interest from the buyer in learning what’s possible and how to achieve a new and better reality than the one they have today.

* Need: Uncover specific needs that you can solve. They’re likely to be latent—hidden beneath the surface—but they’re there if you can uncover them.

* Timing: Establish purchase intent and a specific time frame for doing so. This can, of course, take a number of conversations, might involve a number of decision makers and influencers, and may take some time to do. Once you do it, however, you now have a qualified prospect and a real opportunity in your pipeline.

Say, for example, you’re a consulting firm that helps billion-dollar institutions such as universities reduce their overhead spending. As one might expect, a university president is always looking to save money and improve his university, but he has his eyes set on grand endeavors such as increasing alumni giving and building a new football stadium; he isn’t overly concerned about getting the best deal on No. 2 pencils.

If you, as the salesman for the consulting firm, asked the president, “What’s your budget for my company’s overhead savings product?” he’d reply, “We don’t have one.” But what he does have is the authority to spend money, and herein lies the importance of communicating the value of the service/product. If you can show that you can save the university 10% on overhead on an annual basis, and University A spends $10 million a year on desks, electricity, pens, etc., the president will find the budget in order to work with you and save $1 million a year.

So, instead of scaring prospects off the line with early questions about budget, focus on showing the value of what your product/service can and will deliver. Once you’ve got them on the hook, it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Challenges abound when it comes to generating leads for professional services firms: selecting the right tactics to generate quality leads, implementing lead generation activities consistently, breaking through the noise and getting the attention of busy decision makers, measuring and tracking what’s working for you, and the list goes on.

In research RainToday.com conducted in partnership with ITSMA (2010), we found that the number one challenge companies face when trying to generate leads is finding a strategy, tactic, or offer that gets the attention of potential leads. Of the 845 B2B services professionals polled, 42.1% said this was extremely or very challenging.

Top 10 Lead Generation Challenges

Overcome Your Lead Generation Challenges

To help you overcome these challenges, we looked at what the top performing companies do differently than the rest. We define top performers as companies that:

• Increased revenue growth over the last three years
• Increased profitability over the last three years
• Rate themselves as either excellent or good at generating leads

If you want to overcome your lead generation challenges, emulate what the best do:

1. Know your audience. The first step to choosing tactics that are going to work (challenge #1) is to understand your targets. It’s marketing 101: target, target, target. And targeting goes beyond knowing the general profile of the types of clients you want. You need to know what’s important to them. How they make decisions. Where they look for potential service providers.

The top performers select lead generation tactics and offers based on deep knowledge of their target markets and the business issues they face. To get a better understanding of your audience, talk to some of your best clients. Ask them what challenges they were facing when they started looking for services like yours and why they ultimately decided to choose you. Ask them how they went about searching for service providers. Ask them what they would say if they were describing your firm to a colleague. Ask them about the benefits they’ve received as a result of working with you.

After speaking to a handful of your clients, a picture will begin to form. You’ll start to hear the same set of challenges and business issues where you help. You can then take this and develop messages and offers that speak to these specific challenges. You can target companies where these challenges are most likely to appear. The more you know about your audience and the issues they face, the better you’ll be able to develop offers and choose tactics that will break through the noise and get their attention (the #1 challenge companies face).

2. Make measurement a top priority. It’s no wonder you can’t agree on tactics (challenge #10) if you’re not measuring results (challenge #3). You have to become rigorous in measurement. You need to know where your clients come from, where each lead comes from, how many qualified leads you’re generating, what your proposal win rate is, etc. Consistent tracking, measurement, and analysis is a must.

The top performers measure not only the number of leads generated, closed deals, and revenue, but they also measure their progress at each stage of the sales pipeline. You need to have a closed-loop system in place to track all lead generation, lead nurturing, and sales activities. Do this and you’ll find that choosing (challenge #10) and funding (challenge #6) tactics become much easier.

3. Put the right people in the right roles. Two of the top 10 challenges have to do with who’s responsible for generating leads: challenge #2 , “having enough people/the right people to generate leads,” and challenge #9, “having appropriate skills/knowledge among people charged with generating leads.”

In professional services firms, often those responsible for delivering the business are also responsible for generating leads, leading sales conversations, closing deals, and managing clients. So, what happens when the delivery staff get’s busy with clients? All other lead generation activities come to a halt. If you want to succeed with lead generation, you must have an engine that continually generates new leads. You can’t “do” lead generation when you have time.

We found that in addition to seller-doers, top performers are much more likely to have staff dedicated to selling services compared to below-average performing companies (70.4% and 41.2%, respectively). You need to have the right people in the right roles to sustain your lead generation engine. Otherwise, you’ll fall victim to the services revenue roller coaster.

The challenges are plenty, but companies that meet them head on and follow these best practices reap the rewards of profitably and revenue growth. Do as they do, and you may find that you too will become a top performing firm.

Is online lead generation relevant to you and your company if you sell B2B services? Or is online marketing just another shiny-new-object distraction?

Rather than building online communities and optimizing your website, should you be making phone calls and attending events? Should you rely on proven, offline lead generation tactics?

The short answer: different lead generation approaches work well for different companies, depending on the target audience, where the prospect is in the buying process, and how well the company implements the lead generation program.

Should you use online lead generation or is it just a shiny, new object?

Sorry to disappoint, but there’s no one-size-fits-all tactic here.

You’ll need to figure out which approaches work for you—based on your targets and your abilities. Who is your ideal customer? How do they buy? Where do they gather? Once you answer those questions, then you can move on to find the prospects for your services and build relationships with them to develop potential new business opportunities or “leads” for your services. In other words, you’re ready for lead generation—online or offline.

Which Online Lead Generation Tactics Work?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, it’s helpful to see which tactics other B2B service providers use and which ones are proving most effective. Here’s some data from research RainToday.com conducted in partnership with ITSMA (2010).

Top 4 online tactics used.

We asked B2B service providers which online tactics and strategies they used to reach potential leads. Email (90%), social networks (78%), and website search engine optimization (SEO) (used by 76%) topped the list.

Most effective online tactics for lead generation.

But when we asked respondents to rate the effectiveness of these tactics in generating leads for their services, company-authored content published in their own online publications moved to the top of the list—with 27% rating this tactic as very or extremely effective.

In fact, the most effective online tactics are all content driven.

We also found that the best performing companies—in terms of profitability and lead generation success—shared a best practice: the use of content that is relevant (focused on the business issues), provides support for claims (proof points), and builds credibility.

This content can take different forms—based on your service, the audience, and where the prospect is in the buying process—such as white papers, custom content, ebooks, articles, blog posts, videos, case studies, and more.

But, remember, before you jump on board with content creation and online lead generation plans, make sure you have a good understanding of your target audience and their buying process. Map your content to your buyers’ needs based on where they are in the buying process. Then, take a lesson from the best performing companies and build your lead generation around content that is relevant, substantiates your claims, and builds credibility.

And, if the only thing holding you back then is your ability to implement… get help!

What do you think? Do you find your most effective tactics are driven by content?

(Photo by Ravenwood)

How are you reaching prospects and clients? If you’ve settled on one tactic (email, social media, or phone calls, for example), you might want to reconsider that. Chances are that one tactic doesn’t allow you to reach your entire audience. Different people like different approaches, and you owe it to yourself and your business to figure out what those are and use them.

What tactics are working for B2B professional services firms? Let’s take a look:

Online video: Prospects, when they don’t have a referral, turn to the web for advice, solutions to their problems, and companies who can help them solve their problems. Even if they get a referral, they will still go to your website to learn about you before meeting you in person. They’re trying to get a feel for you and if you are a right fit for them, and online video can help win them over.

“Videos are a strong marketing tactic for any type of professional services firm,” writes Sharon Berman in her article, How to Use Video to Get Up Front and Personal with Your Prospects.

You can create videos that show the people behind the firm, as well as video testimonials that have clients telling powerful success stories. Either strategy will allow you to connect with website visitors on a personal level, Berman says.

Webinars: Webinars take the online experience for prospects up a level. They allow you to demonstrate your expertise and skills, as well as interact with attendees through Q&A segments. For an hour you can help attendees work out a problem and give them an opportunity to get to know you and start to trust you. At the same time, you help build your brand and establish your thought leadership.

When done well, webinars can result in new clients. But the key is to do them well, stresses Lee Salz, author of Stop Speaking for Free: The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with Webinars. For example, you can’t write a white paper (which people can download for free) and then do a webinar on that white paper. That’s because you’re basically giving an infomercial on the paper, which people already have access to. No one will attend a free webinar on that topic, let alone pay to attend.

Salz explains in his podcast interview, How to Attract Clients and Make Money Using Webinars, strategies for producing webinars that not only get people’s attention but lead to new business and revenue for your firm.

Mobile devices/smartphones: These days when nearly every professional has a BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, or some other smartphone, you can count on those people to use those devices to access information quickly while they’re on the go. It could be to check email, get directions to your office, or learn more about your services after their friend recommends you. Is your marketing email mobile-friendly? Is your website optimized for mobile access? Can they easily find your phone number and address on your site?

Those are just a few things to consider when devising your mobile marketing strategy, writes Jessica Wilganowski in her article, The Rise of the Smartphone: Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Presence. If you have loyal clients, you might also want to consider developing a mobile application to keep them engaged with you and your firm.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming your prospects and clients aren’t interested in or won’t respond to mobile marketing techniques. Do the research to find out for sure. If there’s interest, and your competitors aren’t using them, this is your chance to distinguish yourself from the pack.

Articles and white papers: Increasingly traditional advertising and PR campaigns fail to generate new leads. There’s too much competition and what prospects see doesn’t help them connect with providers. They’re seeking advice and solutions, and articles and white papers provide that while at the same time put your name in front of them.

e-LYNXX Corporation, a high-tech firm that helps organizations with print projects, has seen significant success with that type of content, writes Karen E. Klein in her case study, How a Specialized High-Tech Company Used Monthly Articles and White Papers to Reach C-Level Execs. The company is leveraging in-house expertise to write monthly articles, building media relationships, and taking advantage of free online posting opportunities.

“We feel that an article or an interview carries more influence than a paid-for advertisement, and that is another reason why we develop editorial content as tools for telling our story,” says company founder William Gindlesperger.
The effort is paying off for e-LYNXX. As a result, it gets its expertise in front of thousands of c-level executives and it ranks at the top of search engine results.

What Doesn’t Work

If prospects and clients think Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will help them make a good decision about which provider is best for them, they are greatly mistaken, writes Charles H. Green in his article, Open Letter to Clients: Why You Should Drop the RFP.

While RFPs serve a purpose for government contracts, where “the appearance of improper influence is per se destructive of our faith in government,” and in private organizations where there’s a history of buying abuse, in most other cases they are used “to the detriment of the buying organization,” Green says. For example, they prevent prospects and clients from having open dialogues with providers. With RFPs clients shut themselves off from any advice and guidance a provider could offer—usually for free.

Fear is often the motive for RFPs, as buyers are afraid that weasely sales people will talk them into something they don’t need. But any professional worth his grain will stay away from doing that and instead provide “some level of insight, perspective, and information that the client didn’t have, if only to demonstrate their competence,” Green says.

Your goal as a services professional is to help prospects and clients understand that.

Are you doing the right things to turn cold prospects into new clients?

There’s a distinct difference between those prospects who contact you to learn more about your services (we’ll call these inbound leads) and those prospects whom you contact and secure a meeting with to talk about your services (we’ll call these outbound leads).

When it’s an inbound lead, the prospect comes to you because they have a need and already have an understanding that you are someone who could help them.

When generating outbound leads through your marketing and selling efforts the dynamics are very different. The prospect often is unsure of the need, the value you bring to the table, and if it’s worthwhile to engage in a conversation with you.

The differences are obvious, yet our marketing and sales process and communication for both types of leads is often the same. This leads to unproductive conversations with cold prospects that go nowhere. Outbound-generated leads can and do result in new clients; however, the process requires a different approach. Here are five tips to help you turn those cold prospects into new clients:

1. Be patient with the prospect.

Don’t expect the prospect to go from a first conversation to a new client in 30 days. It rarely happens that quickly. Remember, this is a “cold” prospect, he’s never heard of you before, and you are initiating the conversation.

Have patience with these prospects, and be prepared to shepherd them through a long buying cycle. Trust, credibility, and expertise are essential elements to a professional services sale and do not happen overnight. Be prepared to invest time in the relationship to help it grow.

2. Stay in touch with the prospect.

Nurturing and planned follow-up is required. Refer to tip #1—it is a long buying cycle. Develop a touch plan where you reach out to the prospect monthly through direct mail, phone, and email. Stay top of mind, and when the prospect’s elusive time of need does arise, you’ll be the first person they think of.

3. Provide value in each contact.

With every touch provide some piece of value. Following up just to “see how it’s going” will not enhance the relationship. Instead, answer questions and send articles. Have a reason to reach out. Provide examples of how you helped similar companies with case studies and stories.

If it is a first conversation, have questions that start a dialogue and uncover needs related to your services. Then share some best practices based on your experience working with companies in similar situations.

These types of value touches help build the credibility and trust necessary to win an initial engagement with any prospect.

4. Focus your energy on leads that will be a good fit for you and your services.

Your first task when initiating a conversation with a cold prospect is to determine if they are a good fit. This involves knowing your ideal client profile, including industry, revenue size, and level/title of individuals within the company.

Beyond that, it also requires determining the prospect’s BANT—budget, authority, need, and timeline. Focus first and foremost on the authority and need. If you can uncover a need with a decision maker and move it up his priority list, that person can usually find or make a budget and develop a timeline.

5. Have a clear value proposition.

The goal with any prospect is to start a relationship, and all relationships start with a first conversation. The key is to have a compelling and succinct value proposition so the prospect understands the value you bring to the table and the areas where you can help. Demonstrate how you are different from the thousands of other accountants, lawyers, or consultants out there.

With these five tips you’ll eventually see the temperature of those cold prospects rise, along with your revenue.

With so many tactics to choose from to generate leads, and so little time to decide (if you don’t want to lose prospects to faster-moving competitors), how can you create conversations with the most qualified buyers for your services?

You can speak at conferences or seminars. Take advantage of the many PR opportunities available. Or you can cold call, send direct mail pieces, set up affiliate or referral programs—the list goes on.

Not knowing which tactic to choose and what to expect from your lead generation efforts can be a service provider’s worst nightmare. You have to zero in on what’s going to make the biggest splash in your pool of prospects. But how do you know?

Over the course of 2010, Wellesley Hills Group has conducted research from over 800 professional services providers; they’ve told us what’s worked, what hasn’t, and how they plan to generate leads in the future.

Join us on June 15 as Mike Schultz will be sharing findings from Wellesley Hills Group’s yet to be released What’s Working in Lead Generation 2010 report.

You will learn the answers to those sticky questions such as:

• How can I fill the front end of the pipeline with qualified prospects that will buy?
• Which tactics look good, but don’t work well for lead generation?
• How does lead generation work with other marketing and business development activities?
• Which tactics will work for my firm, given the dynamics of what I sell?
• What are the keys to developing a culture that supports ongoing lead generation success?

When: June 15, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (continental breakfast and networking begin at 7:30 a.m.)

Where: Newton Marriott – 2345 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, MA 02466

All attendees will receive a complimentary executive summary to the What’s Working in Lead Generation 2010 benchmark report.

Register for Lead Generation Success for Professional Services>>>

Which B2B lead generation tactics should you use?

With all the lead generation options available to B2B professional services firms today, how do you decide which ones to use?

How should you spend your time, energy, and money to achieve the best ROI?

How do you know which tactics will generate the most qualified leads for your firm?

Should your mix include cold calling, conference speaking, publishing, seminars, direct mail, PR, referral programs, social media, Internet marketing, or something else?

They’re critical questions—that’s why RainToday’s benchmark lead generation research published in 2007 is among our best-selling reports. Obviously, a lot has changed in the business environment and marketplace since then, so it’s time to update. This year, we’re excited to partner with the good folks at IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) in this important lead generation research.

We’d be pleased to have you participate in the research and receive a free summary of the results. Just sign up for RainToday’s newsletter, Rainmaker Report, before Thursday, March 11 at 10 a.m. (EST). When you sign up, you’ll be added to our email list, and on Thursday, March 11, will receive an email with a link to take the online survey. When the results are analyzed, you’ll receive the research summary by email.

If you’re involved in marketing and sales for your B2B professional services firm, you’ll definitely want to participate in this.

>>Click here to sign up for our enewsletter and you’ll be added to the email list to participate in the research.

An example of a successful white paper published by Wellesley Hills Group

Why do white papers remain a popular approach in B2B marketing?

It’s simple: they work.

Michael Stelzer, the white paper guru and RainToday author, recently shared the following data with us:

Here’s some proof white paper marketing works (from a very recent study by Eccolo Media):

• White papers yield powerful influence: 84% of businesses find white papers either moderately or extremely influential in their purchasing decisions.
• White papers are the most viral form of marketing collateral: white papers are the most commonly shared form of marketing collateral, with 89% of readers passing them along to others.
• Decision-makers consume more white papers: 77% of business decision-makers read white papers in 2009, up from 68% in 2008.
• White papers yield the most strength early in the sales cycle: regarding the sales cycle, 80% of marketers claim white papers are most effective in the pre-sales process. However, white papers are also the leading form of collateral at all other stages of the sales process.

Right about now you may be thinking: hey, gimme some of those!

Quickly followed by: hmm, how do I create a really effective white paper marketing program?

First, you need to understand what a white paper is—and what it is not—before you begin to write and market one. As we describe in RainToday’s How to Write and Market a White Paper:

• A white paper is: an educational tool in the form of a persuasive essay. At its best, a white paper provides the kind of useful information about your service, thought process, or methodology that will win you new clients. It is best to think of your white paper as a credible source of information for your clients that will reach them before they need to make decisions. Reading a paper that contains logical arguments backed by facts fuels interest and desire. Interest and desire often lead to sales.
• A white paper isn’t: a thinly veiled sales pitch. Keep in mind prospects look to white papers for information that is thoughtful, factual, and helpful. They know a sales pitch when they see one, and if your white paper is a puff piece or self-promotional, your targeted clients are likely to dismiss it.

If this seems paradoxical, in a way it is. Walk the line well, and white papers can be an excellent plank in your marketing platform.

What is your purpose in writing a white paper? Do you want to set an agenda? Stake out a market? Attract new clients? Whatever you hope to accomplish, you should begin your writing with a clearly defined set of goals.

Many service professionals use white papers to generate new leads, to nurture existing leads and support their sales efforts, and to publicize their ideas and position themselves as thought leaders.

Notice the set of action words: generate, nurture, support, publicize, and position. An effective white paper is designed to get the ball rolling—for your prospects, and for your firm.

Generating New Leads

Having a white paper gives you a value-based offer to add to your marketing toolkit. Direct-mail marketing typically promotes your services, and then too often asks prospects to “call for further information.” These squishy, lifeless offers and advertisements yield notoriously poor results. Few of those calls are ever made.

Responses to marketing increase when you offer something valuable. Imagine this same direct-mail letter, but instead of asking your prospect to, “Call for more information,” it asks them to, “Go to our website to download our white paper, The 5 Trends in X, Y, Z that will Affect your Bottom Line.” Now you have something valuable to offer your customers—something they can actually use.

When you use a value-based white paper as your offer, you can expect to yield results such as:

Downloads: Many white papers are distributed online, making them easy for your prospects to access and easy for you to collect prospects’ information prior to downloading. This drives traffic to your website and introduces prospects to you and your ideas.

Direct requests (via phone or email): This is what you hope for—that the person who reads your white paper (or just sees that the white paper is available) will call for further information about your services.

Direct leads: Those who download your white paper are interested in the topic, which should directly relate to the services you provide. By following up with these people, you already know that this topic is on their mind and you can hone your pitch accordingly. (And they might just call you, as well.)

Nurturing Leads

The first white paper you write may end up being one of several white papers and other content pieces that enlighten your prospects and nurture them through the long sales cycle.

At first, your prospects may know little about your viewpoint in your area of expertise, and they may still be a long way away from buying your service. Additional white papers will help keep your prospects interested as time passes. Each new one adds more value and demonstrates your expertise.

White papers provide additional points of contact and encourage continued engagement with your prospects.

Thought Leadership Positioning

White papers continue to work for you long after they are written, framing your point of view, methodology, and philosophy for potential buyers. Building a reservoir of thought leadership pieces in the form of white papers and other initiatives also helps you bolster your identity as a forward-thinking market leader.

Having a thought leadership position brings credibility to your brand and gives a significant boost to your business development efforts.

If you want to attract high-quality leads and establish your firm as a thought leader, white papers can do the job for you.

For a look at some real-life samples of white papers, check out Jonathan Kantor’s blog, The White Paper Pundit. Jonathan, who is a presenter at the White Paper Summit, has gathered a nice collection of links to free white papers you can download for inspiration.