Whether you’re an insurance agency, manufacturing firm, a law firm, or some other professional services organization, more than likely, you’re not too well equipped to do what you need to do best to generate leads for your organization.

Simply having your sales team drum up leads when they’re trying to manage existing clients or in the throws of presenting to new ones…or relying on your President or Principal to do it when they have to focus on managing the business, isn’t going to be the most effective or most efficient way to manage the lead generation process.  

But if you decide to take it on inside let me share a few things that make for a successful lead generation programs…elements that we’ve found are central to building solid pipelines of new business opportunities for the organizations we represent:

1. Be Marketing-Centric.  Before you hand over the reigns to anybody, you need to first establish a clear, concise, and well differentiated message for your “brand”.  Without it, what is someone going to say when asked “Why should I consider you”?

I’ve learned from years of interviewing heads of organizations that most don’t know how to look at their business objectively when it comes to marketing and positioning.  Ad agency principals (folks you think would “get it”), as an example, will more often than not say the same things when asked what makes them different.  I recently presented to a group of agency executives and 15 out of 16 gave the same answer when asked for their elevator pitch.

Before any prospecting is done by LeadArchitects on behalf of our clients, we develop what we call a “Brand Story” or communications strategy that highlights the firm’s reasons to believe (RTBs) that define what really makes a firm different.  Could be expertise, process, insights, or some other dimension – or a combination of a number of these.  Key is being objective, or bringing in a group that can take an objective look at your world.

Once you create this communications strategy, carry it throughout every touchpoint:  letter copy, key talking points for your new business manager, web copy.  A good lead generation firm or consultant should be able to see the big picture and guide you through the changes needed to ensure consistency in your marketing communication.

2. Be Consistent.  Asking sales people to sell, and manage accounts, and generate leads will not prove of success to the organization.  Have the Principal or the President act as part time lead generator will only lead to less than part-time success.

If you put a program together to generate leads, you need to make certain that there are no breaks in the action.  Because the lead generation “game” is as much an aperture marketing game as it is a positioning and process and skill set game, maintaining consistency of reach-out is key.  Today your prospect may be fine, tomorrow they have an issue or a problem that their current supplier or law firm, or accountant isn’t doing a good job of fixing – you need to be there.

3. Be Relevant.  The last thing you want to do is simply pound on doors in the hopes of one opening up.  Do that and you don’t look very strategic, you don’t look like a good potential partner, and you don’t look like you know a lot about your prospect’s business.  Being relevant takes time and focus – the kind of focus a well-organized, strategic group can bring to the effort. 

Before any call is made into any prospect, the new business manager at LeadArchitects conducts news searches on the prospect, checks the website for releases, and scours the category’s e-publications for a nugget of an insight they can bring to the table.  This way, you exhibit empathy and understanding when you connect and are better able to “bridge” the prospect’s situation back to challenges you yourself have solved for your own clients.  Prospects appreciate this – they like to be heard, not to be told.

4. Be Particular.  The problem with many prospecting efforts is they are more about numbers and not about the quality of the engagement.  As the manager of a lead generator, you need to establish clear and measurable qualifying criteria upfront. 

There are different points at which qualification can occur:  when the list is built; when the list is cleaned; and when the prospecting begins.  Key is making sure your person or your firm has a clear handle on what the qualifiers are, and stands up to deliver them.

We build lists for 90% of our client programs.  When building lists we can screen for prospect size (e.g. revenue, employees, etc.) type, location.  When we clean the list before it’s used, we can qualify for things like decision maker status, or insights relative to the nature of the business.  And when the work really begins and we start prospecting, we can dial it down to a very granular level and glean information on virtually any dimension (so long as the prospect is willing to share it!).   

One step we take that should be a step that any organization takes even if they manage the prospecting inside, is to conduct an open assessment after the first couple of meetings to ensure that what’s being delivered is on par with expectations.  If it isn’t, clearly define the deficiencies and put the plan in place to correct it so you maximize the productivity of the program.

5. Be Value-Added.  The best long-term partner is one who goes beyond the task at hand and brings new thinking, new processes, new ways of doing things to the table for your client.  In the end, if you can be a real value-added partner, your clients will be more forgiving when things are going just right and more likely to keep you on board, longer. 

The same holds true when you reach out to your prospects.  Not only is it important to reach out with relevancy, showing you understand your prospect’s situation, but it is also important to show that you want to help the prospect by sharing news, ideas, suggestions with them to help their business.  At LeadArchitects we continually reach out to prospects on behalf of our clients with interesting industry news, updates on trends, or insights about competitors – all with the goal of suggesting we’re there to partner.

So bottom line is, there is a lot you need to consider if you’re going to build an effective lead generation program inside.  It’s not as simple as picking up the phone and dialing…if you want to do it right. 

If you’re going to manage it inside, try and follow the steps outlined above and you’ll end up with more leads, better prospects, and find yourself in a stronger long term position with your clients.

However, looking at it from a big picture standpoint…if you’re a law firm, you got into the business of helping manage your client’s well being…if you’re an accountant, you got into the business to manage client’s taxes, or if your in the manufacturing business, you got into to the business to build, create, and sell – not generate leads.  In the end, you’re probably best off keeping overhead low by not trying to build up a sophisticated infrastructure to manage a process that can feed quality leads, better position your firm in the marketplace, and keep you looking like the real value-added partner you are.