Inconceivable! – 7 Misconceptions About Professional Services Lead Generation

By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Wellesley Hill Group

Vizzini: "Inconceivable!"
Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means
what you think it means."
- The Princess Bride

As service firms begin to awaken from a long recession-inspired hibernation period, they are again beginning to think about proactive lead generation. If your firm is stepping-up your outbound marketing, your first step should be to re-examine your firm's thinking about what works and doesn't work.

Consider the following seven service lead generation misconceptions. Destroying these myths can lead to more production and better return-on-investment for your marketing time and dollars.

1. Cold Calling Doesn't Work: Time and again we encounter an aversion to cold calling from service firm leaders and rainmakers. Most service firm gurus argue that cold calling doesn't work – inconceivable even, that you would give it a second thought.
   
   Many professionals have tried cold calling and it hasn't worked for them. Another subset of professionals believe that cold calling can work, but because they find it so distasteful they neither engage in it nor advocate for it.
   
   Service lead generation misconception #1 steers many service firms completely away from cold calling. Yet, applied correctly, cold calling can be an amazingly successful lead generation tactic that can return excellent results, often times very quickly.
   
   Having generated more than 1,000 face-to-face and telephone meetings for clients over the last year or so, and seeing the millions of dollars that have resulted from these meetings, I know that cold calling can be successful. True, there are many ways that you can try cold calling and fail, but there are also—if you're willing to seek them out—cold calling strategies that consistently yield above-average ROI.
   
   
2. Websites Don't Affect Lead Generation: "We have a website up because we have to have a web presence, but our website has no affect on whether we attract or win new clients."
   
   Service lead generation misconception #2 was effectively debunked at a seminar a few months ago. There were about 40 people in the room and I asked the audience, "When you're buying something for your business, do you, at some point in the buying process, visit the website of the vendor firm?" All the hands in the room went up. Then I asked, "Who isn't at least somewhat influenced by what you find there?" All hands went down.
   
   My third question was, "Have you ever been referred to a service firm and, after visiting the website, decided not to contact them because of what you saw on their website?" About half the people raised their hands.
   
   Websites affect the buying patterns of 100% of this group, and affect at least 50% of the attendees' decisions to become sales leads for another company. Let's put this misconception to bed right now. Also, a website can generate leads from search engines, registrations for events and seminars, and can also act as a communication channel between a firm and its prospects.
   
   Bottom line: contrary to popular opinion, your website greatly affects your ability to succeed with service lead generation.
   
   
3. We Need More Brand Recognition First: No, you don't. So you're about to spend $20k…$200k…or something else on ‘brand recognition' to prime the pump for the lead generation you'll do in the coming months.
   
   Why not just start with directly generating the leads? For every well-known service brand there are dozens of service firms that most people have never heard of. Yet, they find clients and do well. Name recognition doesn't hurt, but for the most part name recognition building should be a by-product of something else like lead generation campaigns, PR and publishing, events and speaking, or word-of-mouth about your services.
   
   In the end, regardless of your brand recognition, what you need to do in order to fill the front end of your sales pipeline is develop a compelling value proposition and then find qualified prospects. If brand recognition is the goal in-and-of-itself you'll end up spending a lot of money with little return.
   
   
4. We Need More New Leads: According to a report by the Aberdeen Group, over 80% of generated leads are never followed up on, dropped, or mishandled. Service firms are particularly adept at neglecting the leads and business opportunities that they already have in-house just waiting to be called.
   
   And the negative results are staggering. BtoB magazine reported in April 2003, "An 11% reduction in dropped/lost leads, combined with a 1% improvement in lead-to-order conversion rate, increased annual gross profit by 136%." Seems far fetched, but I've run the numbers…they're right.
   
   Many service firms think they need more leads when, in fact, they could see improved results just by better handling and nurturing the leads they already have.
   
   
5. Let's Run Some Ads: Service firm leaders – those that hold the purse strings for the marketing budget – are subjected to thousands of ads a day just like every other person. These ads do a great job too, as they influence many service businesses to equate service lead generation and marketing with advertising.
   
   Service firms run ads in business journals, trade magazines, and trade shows with eager anticipation. They're proud of the ad's creative design, copy, and message. More often than not, however, they're disappointed with the ROI from advertising.
   
   Ads are a waste of money for most service firms. As a service lead generation vehicle, advertising should be on the bottom of your list.
   
   
6. Direct Mail Doesn't Work for Services: Earlier in this article, I noted that 40 out of 40 breakfast seminar attendees indicated that they visited websites before purchasing new products and services. I also asked how many of them were attending the seminar because of the direct mail invitation we sent to them. About ½ raised their hand. (To be exact, 53% had heard about the event through direct mail.)
   
   Another 30% had registered for the event through our website (see service lead generation misconception #2), and a whopping 80% of attendees had never heard of our firm before attending the event (see service lead generation misconception #3.)
   
   There are a thousand ways to fail with direct mail. Yet, much like cold calling, direct mail can be a major vehicle for service lead generation success.
   
   
7. Don't Market to Current Clients: "We have about 5,000 target companies for this service. About 1,000 are already our clients, so we should focus our lead generation campaign on the other 4,000."
   
   Sure, you want to bring the other 4,000 companies into your fold and make them your clients. Good idea. But if you're looking to generate maximum response from your lead generation campaigns, and maximum revenue for your investment, don't ignore your current clients. Don't worry about upsetting your current clients by interrupting their time with your marketing message.
   
   First, a current or former customer, assuming they're relatively satisfied with your services, is an order-of-magnitude more likely to respond favorably to your lead generation campaigns than are non-customer companies. 
   
   Second, your competitors want to get to your customers (and they're trying), and other companies are vying for their attention. If your clients are not focusing on your messages and value, they're focusing on someone else's.

If you want to have above average success with lead generation, you first have to squelch the misconceptions that will keep you from moving in the right direction. By doing so, you can take advantage of (dare I say) inconceivable tactics that everyone else mistakenly writes off, and you will be all alone out front generating the leads your competition is missing.