(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.

Are you letting leads fall through the cracks? (Photo by Ti.mo)

In conversation after conversation with services firm leaders, I hear the common lament:

“We need more leads!”

However when I start asking them about their lead management and nurturing process and what happens when they have a new lead, I quickly learn that it may not be new leads they need, but a better process to handle the leads they already have.

In my experience, services firms are particularly bad at staying in touch with leads over the long term. They attend to short-term leads and work them hard only to let their long-term leads fall through the cracks. There are a number of ways to stay in touch with these leads and nurture them (read this blog post I wrote on the topic: Your No-Nonsense Lead Nurturing Plan).

There are also a number of places to look where you can find a whole slew of leads that you already have. So, you may not need new leads; you may just need to do a better job of handling the leads you already have.

5 Places to Find Leads

1. Lost proposals: A lost proposal is not the end of a relationship. Even when you lose a proposal, you should make a point to stay in touch with the prospect. Every three months or so check in and see how the project is going. Just because they didn’t choose you for phase one doesn’t mean they will not choose you for later phases of the project or other projects. If you keep in touch and remain up-to-date with what is going on and with the new challenges they are facing, you will have the inside track.

2. Leads that aren’t ready to close right now: These are the most common leads to get lost in the shuffle. On our priority list, these long-term leads fall to the bottom and receive little, if any, attention. The relationship is damaged and future opportunities disappear.

3. Current clients: Don’t neglect your current client base. They are the ones that, through repeat business, are going to make up a large portion of your business. (That is unless you are a turnaround consulting firm—in that case, you hope not to see any repeat business.) Just because you work with a firm doesn’t mean they know all about you and the various ways you can help. Often your client knows very little about your firm past the people and projects they are directly engaged in.

Tapping your current (and past) client base, introducing them to other services, and networking your way through the client firm are all ways to grow and get new projects. Your direct contact can act as an internal champion for you and your services to introduce you to other decision makers within their organization. Plus they can refer you to other businesses that may need your services.

4. Prospects that may not have been the perfect fit (two years ago): Businesses change at an amazingly fast clip. Maybe you had a conversation with a business two years ago that at the time was not ready to make the investment for your services, or was not the right size, or didn’t have the urgency to act right away. That doesn’t mean that they are in the same position today. Unless you stay in touch with these folks, you have no idea if their situation changes.

5. Web leads: What’s your firm’s process and policy for handling web leads? Does every lead that comes in over the web—every download, contact us form, email inquiry—get a response and get added to your database? If there are any gaps in the integration between your website and contact management system, you can be sure that leads are dropping out through them.

Long-term nurturing programs help you stay in touch with these leads on a regular basis. It keeps your message and brand in front of your prospects. Email, direct mail, and periodic phone calls are all great ways to keep the relationship alive so when the need does arise, you are the first ones they think of.

So, go run a report on your contact management system searching for lost proposals, old leads, current and past clients, and web leads. I’m sure you’ll find leads that have been sitting right beneath your nose this entire time.

Fail to nurture leads and money will slip away (Photo by Brooks Elliot)

Here’s the scenario: You have a great conversation with a prospect, you uncover needs and know your services can help. They’re the right size firm, and you’re talking to the decision maker. But the prospect is not looking to do anything right away. Despite your efforts to move your project up the priority list, there are too many things in front of it. You know eventually the need will get so bad they have to address it, it’s just not going to happen right now. It’s a long-term lead.

This is a scenario we all can relate to. In our lead generation research we found that only 25% of leads are “sales ready.” That means that the other 75% are either not qualified or require further nurturing.

In my experience, professional services firms are inherently bad at staying in front of and top of mind with these long-term leads, and they leave great opportunities for future revenue on the table. I often hear:

“We’re resource constrained and we don’t have the time to develop the follow-up required.”

“I’m great at starting the relationship, but it is tough to keep the momentum going when the sales process drags on.”

“I don’t want to be pushy by following up too often and asking, ‘Are you ready yet?’”

You can create a consistent follow-up touch plan, and it doesn’t have to be that hard (or expensive).

Here’s a system you can put in place and put on auto-pilot while you focus on client delivery, sales, and firm management.

1. Send a monthly e-newsletter. Add all clients, leads, referral sources, anyone you meet at conferences, etc. to your newsletter list. Whether you have five contacts, 500, or 50,000, sending a newsletter keeps you top of mind and allows you to demonstrate your knowledge by sharing expert insights, tips, and stories of how you’ve helped other clients. (Follow these email newsletter tips.)

With all the different technologies out there (Constant Contact, iContact, and MailChimp to name a few), sending a professionally designed email newsletter has never been easier or more economical.

2. Call leads quarterly. Make a point to call all of your long-term leads on a quarterly basis (at least). You never know when their priorities might shift. Staying in touch, one-to-one, on a regular basis allows you to strengthen the relationship and probe to see if there’s been a change in the prospect’s organization. Remember, half of business development success is timing.

3. Send a direct mail piece quarterly. Reaching out to long-term leads in multiple ways will give you a better chance of breaking through the noise. Direct mail letters do work, as do hand-written notes. If you see an article that might be of interest to a prospect, send it to them along with a hand-written note. This can be very powerful. If you write a new white paper, send prospects a letter letting them know it is available to download on your website.

4. Connect on social media sites. When it comes to social media, at the very least you should be on LinkedIn. Look to connect with your prospects here. Become an active participant by answering questions and posting updates. Watch what your prospects are doing and whom they connect with. You can learn a lot about them simply by following their updates.

Twitter is another great tool to connect with prospects. Simply by following them you’ll start to get a sense of what’s important to them. You can build the relationship by commenting on something they’ve posted. In turn, prospects can get a sense that you are indeed an industry expert by following you back and seeing that you are active participant.

5. Start a blog and post a couple of times a month. A blog can be a very powerful lead nurturing (and lead generation) tool. It provides you with the fuel (content) for your newsletters, your social media updates, and the direct mail pieces. Each touch leads the prospect back to the blog. It allows you to build a pool of thought leadership that you can use to keep prospects warm and excited about your services and more importantly you. Not to mention that search engines index all of the content on your blog, which makes it easier for those searching for your type of services online to find you.

And did I mention that setting up a blog does not have to be time consuming or expensive. I’m a big fan of WordPress (this blog uses the Thesis Theme on WordPress), and there are plenty of designers who will design and set up a straightforward site for you for short money.

The Devil is in the Details

I know what you’re thinking, “This all sounds well and good, but there’s no way I can get all of this done.”

Fooey. Take one weekend and map it out (I’m a whiteboard person). You’ll see it’s not as overwhelming as you think, and you can get help setting up. Assign someone at your firm to help manage the technology and process or hire a virtual assistant.

Nurturing leads will pay off in the long run. It requires an up-front investment in time, but once you have the pieces in place you can essentially put it on auto-pilot. Many of the tasks, such as putting together and sending out the newsletter, editing and publishing the posts on your blog, and sending out the direct mail letters, you can hand off to someone else.

It doesn’t have to be that hard; it just takes a bit of forward thinking and planning. With a lead nurturing plan in place, you’ll surely win more than your fair share of those long-term leads.

Think you need new clients in order to generate new revenue streams? Think again. More often than not, existing clients are the best source of new revenue, writes Randy Shattuck in his article, Do You Really Need New Clients? New clients have greater risk, may not remain good clients over time, and can be costly to acquire, he says. In addition, “it’s easier to sell something new to an existing client than it is to sell an existing service to a new client.”

To do that, of course, requires planning and close work with clients to create new services that will appeal to them. Following the strategy outlined in Shattuck’s article not only can generate new revenue streams but can revitalize client relationships.

What if you truly do need new clients? How can you get them? RainToday’s How Clients Buy Benchmark Report shows that corporate websites play a significant role in lead generation. As this week’s chart shows, 83% of the buyers surveyed say a service provider’s website holds at least “some influence” over their decision to engage in initial discussions.

That means you must think of your website as the hub for your marketing and thought leadership activities. No matter what lead generation tactics you employ, the first stop a prospect is going to make is your website.

You can also improve your chances of acquiring new clients by getting on a prospect’s buying decision team. Sound like an impossible task? Not if you help facilitate the process, writes Sharon Drew Morgen in her article, How to Get on the Buying Decision Team. Drawing on a past experience, Morgen describes how she acquired a new client by helping them decide what type of service they really want and navigating them through their internal decision issues. Doing so creates trust and ensures you’re on hand when the prospect is ready to buy.

But if you want a prospect to accept your proposal, you must prove that you are innovative and a thought leader in your industry, says Michael W. McLaughlin in his article, The Information Advantage: How Firms Can Avoid the Road to Obsolescence. In this electronic age, your prospects and clients already know the basics. Providing them with more of the same only means you will get lost in the noise. Get them to take notice of you by offering innovative ideas and advice.

Suppose, however, you propose your innovative solution and the prospect says they aren’t interested? Is it the end of discussion? No, says John Doerr in his podcast interview, Client Objections: No Doesn’t Have to Mean No. When a prospect or client objects to something—whether it’s a proposed service or the cost of your service—it’s an opportunity to ask questions and find out what the true issue is. You can then explain and perhaps offer a new solution—and get them to say yes, he says.

Trust—it’s what you want all prospects and clients to have in you. But it takes work to earn that trust. As Nancy Fox says in her article this week, 5 Ways to Win Business and Influence Decision Makers, you “gain influence and trust with business decision makers when [you] demonstrate that [you] understand them, their business, and the needs and wants of their business.” Start by identifying the real decision makers and then develop a relationship with them, paying attention to the client’s wants and needs.

Charles H. Green reinforces that thinking in his article, When You Fling Mud at Competitors, You Get Dirty, Too. You want to focus on your client, not your competitor. You may be tempted to point out what you do better than your competitor and point out your competitor’s flaws, but that doesn’t sit well with clients. They may think you care only about winning the sale and beating the competition, not about really helping them.

“Focusing on your client, not on your competitor, is the trustworthy thing to do,” Green says. “And when trust in businesses is declining, those who act in a trustworthy manner differentiate themselves. Isn’t that what you want?”

You also instill feelings of trust, as well as demonstrate understanding of clients, when you write and speak about issues important to them. By writing a blog, publishing articles, or speaking at events, you show prospects that you have the expertise they need. Getting to that level, however, also takes work, says author Tom Davenport in his podcast interview, So, You Want to Become a Thought Leader? But if you do it well and set yourself apart from others also trying to show their thought leadership, the benefits are enormous.

That thought leadership, combined with effective PR, will also help catch the eye of the media. And when you make a name for yourself in the media, you increase your trust factor even more. The easiest way to spread news about you and your firm is through press releases, says Paula Phelan in her article, PR Strategies That Get the Media to Notice You, but those press releases must be interesting. Even if you don’t have any “hard” news, you can get the media to take notice using service announcements, client case studies, and articles written by industry experts.

The Role of Social Networks

You can take your media connections a step further and develop relationships with writers and editors via social networks. Make them aware of your expertise and your willingness to talk to them about issues, and they will seek you out when they need analysis and quotes for stories.

It was social networking and online marketing that helped networking solutions company Juniper Networks increase its contact base and allowed the company to engage with potential customers, writes Stephanie Tilton in her case study, Networking Solutions Company Discovers the Power of Email and Social Networks.

“Juniper tapped into Web 2.0 technologies and social-media platforms, including YouTube, live chat, forums, and Twitter. By embedding ‘forward-to-a-friend’ mechanisms into its communications, Juniper made it easy for recipients to pass them on and for the company to measure activity. By the end of the campaign, nearly all emails ended up going viral. Plus, [they] could see how many contacts it had built up and how quickly they responded to various promotions.”

The company opened the channels to allow customers and advocates to communicate with them and share ideas and suggestions. In return, Juniper Networks created a web portal that includes online lab facilities, an online forum, webcasts, and education programs.

Further evidence that digital marketing channels are becoming a priority for marketers comes from Econsultancy and ExactTarget. A survey that they conducted shows 66% of B2B marketers will increase investments in digital marketing such as social media in 2010. Traditional marketing, on the other hand, is dropping considerably.

No matter what marketing tactic you employ, make sure you use it to show prospects and clients how you can help them. Avoid the sales pitches and being part of the “me-to” noise. You want people to trust you and to seek out more information from you—not run away from you.

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.

Are you doing enough to stand out from the crowd? (Photo by talk2frank)

Over the past few years, a lot has changed with direct email. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 laid out enforceable rules for content, sending email, and unsubscribing from lists; more lists became available for purchase; and email became the marketing tool of choice for many firms.

One thing that hasn’t changed, notes Eric Rudolf, is the quality of email. Businesses continue to make the same direct email mistakes that they were making a decade ago, he says in this week’s article, 5 Rules for an Effective Direct Email Marketing Campaign. They write bad subject lines, don’t put the important information in effective places, and bombard subscribers with too many email messages—among other things. All of those factors lead to receivers automatically deleting email, not to mention wasted time and money.

Email done well can be an effective tool for nurturing leads. You can update prospects with information about your services and send prospects articles and other resources to help them with issues they’re dealing with. But the most important things you need when nurturing leads and trying to turn prospects into clients is patience and persistence.

You must be willing to pursue the relationship; do not give up easily, says Peter Bregman in his article, The Key to Becoming a Sales Star (It May Surprise You). Prospects push back, cancel meetings, and reject proposals. The key is to stay the course and continue to reach out to them. The more you do it—just like anything in life—the better you will get.

Don’t Push

Bregman’s advice is similar to what Jill Konrath advises new sellers in her article, Sales Basics: Top 5 Tips for New Sellers, particularly her tip to slow down to speed up sales. Do not be too eager to close sales quickly, for if you try to rush things, your prospects will become more resistant. “When I learned to slow down, parcel information out over multiple meetings, and simply advance the sales process one step at a time, suddenly my sales increased,” Konrath says.

You can speed up the sales cycle slightly with effective search engine marketing, points out Mike Cooch in his podcast interview, How Search Engine Marketing Can Improve the Sales Cycle. That’s because when you do that well, you don’t have to take as much time to educate prospects about the services you offer or sometimes even what it’s like to work with you. Prospects already have that information. When you have a strong online presence that includes quality content (articles, podcasts, and video), case studies, descriptions of services, social media, and paid search engine ads, prospects are prepared to talk about the details of how you can help them, Cooch says.

In fact, those are many of the things buyers look for on a firm’s website, according to a recent RainToday survey. They want the staples, but you need to give them the extras if you want to stand out.

You can also take some of the content on your website and create booklets or downloadable PDF documents with them. Nancy Juetten, founder of Main Street Media, did that, and her booklets quickly became a hit, as she says in this week’s case study, PR Maven Turns Free Services into a Six-Figure Business. The booklets feature a collection of tips and are sold during her speaking engagements. Those who buy the booklets, she says, often engage her services.

Recognizing that people learn in different ways, Juetten also reaches out to people using various media. She created audio files and a live workshop, and she launched a blog. As a result of these efforts, Main Street Media has become a six-figure firm and brought in as much revenue in 2009 as it did in 2008, a time when many firms saw revenue drop. It clearly found a way to stand out in an ever-growing crowd.

After you cast your net for prospects, make sure you keep only those good for your firm

When times are tough and it’s difficult to sign on new clients or get current clients to buy additional services, we’re all tempted to take any business that comes our way. But that is a mistake. You must have a discriminating eye when considering prospects. You want a client who will stick around for the long haul and will help you grow your business.

With that in mind, Vickie K. Sullivan this week writes about the types of prospects you must have in your sales pipeline (3 Types of Prospects You Want in Your Pipeline Now):

• The Ready and Willing
• The Willing and Exploring
• The Small and Steady

Each group has its own qualities, and their members are all serious buyers.

We’d all be wise to look at each prospect that comes along and evaluate whether it’s the right fit. If it isn’t, throw it back. As Sullivan says:

“Pipelines with too many false buyers create a low close ratio, a low cash flow, and a high degree of frustration. Effective lead generation campaigns catch the attention of many buyers and have a system to distinguish between serious prospects and the wanderers in the wilderness.”

Buying Is an Emotional Experience

Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology —Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, says buying is an emotional experience for the purchaser. Whether people buy a product or services, their emotions are always part of the equation.

Mike Schultz and Robert Croston explore that concept in their article, Use Your Brand Symbol to Trigger Emotional Responses in Buyers. Looking at the successful use of cookies in the marketing strategies of DoubleTree Hotels and Midwest Airlines, Schultz and Croston point out how those two companies used a brand symbol to appeal to travelers by creating an experience those people will value.

Professional services firms can do the same thing, they say. Ask yourself what feelings are associated with working with you and then find a symbol that represents and elicits those feelings.

Another way to get prospects comfortable with you and help them understand the value you offer is to produce online audio such as podcasts, says Randy Shattuck in his article, Podcasts: Powerful Marketing and Sales Tools. They can significantly improve lead nurturing and give you a leg up on the competition. Shattuck says:

“Audio tools such as podcasts and MP3 files can have a major impact on client acquisition, perceived value, and profit per deal. When prospective clients understand your firm’s value, expertise, and unique vision before they talk to you, you’ll realize a shorter sales cycle, higher close rates, and enhanced profitability. “

The key, however, is to produce business-class audio. Badly created audio will hurt you—you won’t be considered professional. Review Shattuck’s five best practices for producing online audio so you can avoid that.

Such communication with prospects and clients is actually public relations, Drew Gerber points out. You’re developing relationships with them—your public—and you need a strategy for doing so, he says in this week’s podcast, Get Prospects to Notice You: What Every Marketing Campaign Must Have. Listen as Gerber discusses techniques for reaching your public, whether it’s via traditional or social media; what’s required for a good PR campaign; and the success businesses can see as a result.

CRM Magazine (December 2009)

“Experience” takes on many meanings in a professional services business:

• The years of experience you have in your chosen trade of consulting, accounting, law, marketing, and engineering.
• The experience you have with specific industries and niches.
• The client experience you provide through the relationships you forge.
• The success your clients experience as a result of working with you.

“Experience” is a powerful word and a concept that can make or break a professional services business. “No Substitute for Experience” (CRM Magazine, December 2009) references a study released earlier in the year, “Customer Experience Boosts Revenue,” in which Bruce Temkin, a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, modeled the potential impact of even modest improvements in customer experience:

For a company with $10 billion in annual revenue, Temkin determined benefits might total $284 million to $65 million in additional sales, $116 million in the reduction of customer churn, and $103 million boost through word-of-mouth recommendations.

In professional services industries where client retention and referrals are king, client experience becomes all that more important. Even if your annual revenues are $1 million, $10 million, or $100 million, you can see how improvements in your customer experience can substantially improve revenue.

But client experience is only half the story. You need to think about your prospect experience—the interactions we have with your prospects before they become clients. These are just as important to the health of your business and the ability to grow over the long term.

Improving the Prospect Experience: Applying Temkin’s 6 Laws

The article goes on to reference Temkin’s “6 Laws of Customer Experience”. Here I’ve taken a look at how those laws can be applied to the professional services marketing and sales process to improve the prospect experience.

Law #1: Every interaction creates a customer reaction.

All of your marketing and sales–whether it’s a newsletter, direct mail piece, sales conversation, article, email, etc.– is a representation of what it’s like to work with you and a representation of your brand. Each and every interaction works together to form an impression in your prospect’s mind. What type of impression do your communications form?

Law #2: People are intrinsically self-centered.

Prospects care first and foremost about WIIFM (what’s in it for me). They care less about your unique blend of process, people, and technology and how great your services are. And they care more about what you’re going to do for them. What value do you provide to your clients? How can you help your prospect with their unique situation? What are the common outcomes of your services on your clients’ businesses? Frame what you do within the context of your prospects’ challenges, and they’ll be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

Law #3: Customer familiarity breeds alignment.

Professional services marketing and selling is all about building relationships. In RainToday’s How Clients Buy Benchmark Report, we found that after referrals, “personal recognition” (aka brand) was the top way buyers find service providers. People buy from people they know. You can’t expect to go from first meeting to having new client overnight. It takes time. The more the prospect is familiar with you and your brand, the more trust and credibility you’ll have built up, giving you the inside track.

Law #4: Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers.

Does your client-facing staff engage in real relationships with clients (see #6) and look for additional opportunities where your services can help? Do partners and business developers have the prospect’s best interest in mind when proposing new solutions or are they just looking to make the next sale? Are your staff members truly and sincerely committed to helping prospects and clients? All employees must put the success of your clients and prospects in the front of their mind. Let this drive your actions and everything else will fall into place.

Law #5: Employees do what is measured, incented, and celebrated.

Do you have a marketing and business development culture where everyone is expected to contribute to developing new business? Are marketing and sales supported by leadership? Billable staff won’t put the energy, effort, and commitment into marketing and sales if they are not expected, supported, and incentivized to do so. Remember, professionals at your firm did not go to school to study marketing and sales; they went to school to study accounting, law, consulting, etc. Marketing and sales efforts need to be supported by the organization. Make marketing and sales a priority in the organization and get leadership on board and the rest will follow.

Law #6: You can’t fake it. Be genuine and sincere. If you don’t really care about the success of your prospects, perhaps you should think about being in another type of business. Your clients and prospects can smell a fake a mile away.

Before you send out any marketing communication, remember it contributes to the overall prospect experience. Ask: Will the prospect find value in this (#1)? Is it prospect-focused not company-focused (#2)? Do you already have some sort of relationship with the prospect where they will recognize you and your brand (#3)? Do the employees sending these communications have the prospects’ best interest in mind (#4)? Is leadership on board with the communications and do they support your efforts (#5)? Are your communications and intentions genuine (#6)?

Answer “yes” to those questions and you’re well on your way to providing a great prospect experience. When you treat prospects like you treat your clients, more of them will become your clients.