Think about the last conference you went to. Chances are there was one speaker who droned on while reading the text from his PowerPoint slides while audience members checked their email or even nodded off. And then there was one speaker who energized the room, woke everyone from their drowsing, and perhaps got people tweeting what he said. He was interesting, energetic, entertaining, and offered ideas and advice. People couldn’t get enough of him.

I would bet that Mr. Persona acts similarly with prospects and clients, causing people to seek him out for his opinions. He stands out among his many competitors, who in most cases don’t take the time to understand clients’ needs or to develop a core expertise. He is, as Andrew Sobel says, “a person of interest.”

“This is not about charisma or personal flair, but rather about authenticity and value—about being an interesting person to spend time with, someone that clients feel stimulates their thinking, someone from whom they learn and get ideas,” Sobel writes in his article, What You Can Do to Keep Clients from Walking Away.

It means you must become a “Deep Generalist.” This is someone who has a well-developed core expertise about an industry, function, or other niche and layers broad business knowledge on top of that, Sobel says.

“This enables you to have discussions with your client about their business issues—whether they’re talking about operations, organization, or strategy—and to always put your specific solutions in the context of the overall enterprise,” he says.

Vickie K. Sullivan adds that successful service professionals also possess certain qualities that clients and prospects are unable to describe, but they “know them when they see them.”

“There are three things that require a unique way to communicate and turn into a signature persona. When buyers see these dynamics, they are instantly attracted,” writes Sullivan in her article, 3 Traits that Instantly Attract Buyers to You.

The three traits Sullivan writes about are comfortable transparency, effortless brilliance, and being approachable yet unavailable. Those three things tap buyers’ emotions, which drive most sales. Use them to “create a persona that intrigues a crowded marketplace,” Sullivan says.

Dynamic Phone Conversations

The traits Sobel and Sullivan describe are not restricted to in-person meetings. Wendy Weiss, the Queen of Cold Calling, says they apply to initial phone conversations you have with prospects. If you want the conversation to result in a meeting, you must be prepared to speak with the prospect and you must communicate things in a compelling manner.

“A lot of people don’t do the upfront homework that they need to do to understand the issues, the challenges that those prospects might have, and how to introduce [themselves] in such a way that it resonates with the person that [they're] talking to,” Weiss says in her podcast interview, Don’t Let these Myths and Misperceptions Derail Your Cold Calling Efforts.

The key is to talk about things your prospects are interested in and in a way that compels them to learn more.

Writing with Flair

You can also apply your communication style and business and industry expertise to your writing—articles, blog posts, ebooks, tweets, etc. Take a look at the tweets of industry gurus Alan Weiss (@BentleyGTCSpeed), Scott Ginsberg (@nametagscott), and David Meerman Scott (@dmscott). Or consider Seth Godin’s Blog and Jill Konrath’s Selling to Big Companies blog. Notice how their distinct style and voice comes through while at the same time they give you information you can apply to your business. It helps drive their success in the social media world.

Their success using social media often results in their content going viral. Hundreds if not thousands of people share their content via Twitter, Facebook, and email. Such viral success, however, is not limited to well-known gurus. As the Geisheker Group discovered, if you uncover a need, the solution you create to meet that need can lead to not only a surge in web traffic but thousands of dollars in revenue.

In a case study about the Geisheker Group, How a Small Company’s Ebook Went Viral and Generated $100K in Revenue, Gwen Moran explains how the firm’s ebook fulfilled a need many small businesses were struggling with—creating a marketing plan—but also established the company as an expert in the field and resulted in new clients.

“While some firms balk at giving away ideas and intellectual property, this has been a windfall for [founder Peter] Geisheker,” writes Moran. “By sharing his marketing ideas via the ebook and his information about specific marketing tactics each month in his newsletter, the firm has landed more than $100,000 in new business.”

Social Media Isn’t for Everyone

If all this talk about social media has you feeling pressure to use them, relax. The fact that these marketing vehicles exist does not mean you have to use them, says Andrea Obston in her article, Social Media: Take Two Breaths and Email Me in the Morning.

“They won’t necessarily drive the right clients to your bottom line if they don’t suit your marketing objectives and their needs,” she says.

Before you jump on the social media bandwagon, you need to ask yourself a few questions about your clients, what they want from you, how they want it delivered to them, and what it would take to get them to automatically seek you out.

If it turns out social media provides the vehicles your clients and prospects are interested in and you’re ready to commit to it, remember to use your distinct voice and persona, as well as your expertise, to add value. Add an interesting voice to the conversation; don’t bore them with talk about just you and your services.

Photo credit: Adam Bindslev

How do you reach C-level execs?

Getting the word out about a high-tech company with a specialty service is always a challenge. But when the service is a patented procurement process, traditional approaches such as advertising and public relations are particularly ineffective.

William Gindlesperger, founder of e-LYNXX, recognized this, and he knew it would be crucial to market his patented technology exclusively to key decision makers.

For years, Gindlesperger relied on word of mouth from satisfied clients. But once his pending patent was approved and ready to be marketed, he needed to ramp up the company’s marketing efforts.

Here’s what they did to reach C-level executives:

• Build on your strengths. For many years, Gindlesperger wrote regular columns for the national and regional printing trade press. When he wanted to get the word out about the new technology, he returned to that venue.
• Get the word out. Once an article was written and edited, the marketing staff sent it to journals and trade associations that have published the company’s material in the past. They then posted the article on the company’s website and distributed it through free news release websites.
• Follow up. Once trade journal articles were distributed, marketing staff followed up with the publications’ editors to see if they wanted to interview someone at the company or have them customize an article just for their publication.
• Demonstrate expertise with content. White papers delivered the substantiated facts that B2B technology buyers required. Within one year, e-LYNXX wrote three white papers that were circulated during prospect and client meetings, as well as on its website.
• Never turn down the chance to make presentations to industry groups, business clubs, or potential clients. “I know that if I talk to a room of 100, 20 people will love me, 20 will hate me, and 60 will sleep right through my presentation,” Gindlesperger says. “That’s OK if I can connect with the 20 who love me.”

[Excerpt from RainToday case study How a Specialized High-Tech Company Used Monthly Articles and White papers to Reach C-Level Execs by Karen E. Klein.]

(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 already posting case studies and white papers on your website? Are you sending a newsletter (via email or print) or blogging?

If so, congratulations, you’re a content publisher!

Content marketing, sometimes called educational marketing, is not new for most professional services firms. You may not call it that; maybe you call it thought leadership or your publishing platform.

In any case, it’s old hat to many professionals in consulting, accounting, financial services, and other fields. You deal with the challenge of selling an untangible—your services. And publishing content that demonstrates your expertise and communicates your business approach is an effective way to begin to build the trust required for a client to retain you.

If you’re a services professional producing this content, you know how challenging it can be. You have client work to deliver and business development responsibilities. And now you have content to create?

With the proper planning and a strategic approach, however, it can be done effectively and relatively painlessly, as you’ll learn by listening in on my interview with Joe Pulizzi, author of Get Content Get Customers and founder of the content matching website Junta42.

Here’s the takeaway for creating or enhancing your professional services firm’s content strategy:

1. Do a simple content audit: what are you doing right now? a newsletter? white papers? Write a list. What are these content pieces doing for you?
2. Identify your objectives and your target audience’s information needs.
3. Next, match your audience’s information needs with what you’re currently doing. Keep what’s working and take this content to the next level. Step away from content that’s not working.
4. Now, do you have any gaps to fill in?
5. Pick the content that is not only compelling to your clients, but that you do and do well. What can you be the best at with the resources you can allocate?
6. Don’t try to do everything. Pick three types of content for your primary platform, adding secondary types of content to feed your primary platform.

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.