In post #3 of 5, I introduced – How to Use Content to Generate a Steady Flow of Leads Today we tackle Step #4 – How to Perfect Your Lead Generation Follow-up The current infatuation of the internet marketing set is complex automated lead funnels. What you need is a client generation system. Let’s say you have four clients right now, and you would like to get six more. With the math above it will take you 24 sales meetings to get the additional six clients needed to fill your practice and meet your revenue objectives. For example, as a marketing consultant, I can use a set of tools that can show me how badly a business needs marketing help. Create your workhorse piece of content Remember back on day three we talked about producing one piece of content per month, but make it awesome. Use this list to build a custom Facebook audience and further create an expanded lookalike audience to increase the number of potential targeted prospects. As you can see this post has a form of content upgrade offer above, but in this case, I’m not asking for any sign-up. Offer value to those who respond Once someone responds to your content upgrade offer, simply reach out and offer to provide a valuable service for no charge as a way to demonstrate how great it might be to work with you. As part of this discussion I might add something like: “Let me warn you, I can’t help everyone – I can only help people who already have a solid service/product, are looking to increase their online presence and are willing to work hard at getting a return on what I ask them to do.” Do the research and deliver the value Once you’ve established a need and qualified for fit, do the research required to over deliver on what you promised as you set the appointment.
In this post – 5 Steps to Restart, Recharge and Revive Your Marketing Right Now! – I introduced an aggressive initiative to help any business owner struggling to stay on plan with their marketing for the year. The idea is to take the mid-point of the year and get a fresh restart.
In post #3 of 5, I introduced – How to Use Content to Generate a Steady Flow of Leads
Today we tackle Step #4 – How to Perfect Your Lead Generation Follow-up
The current infatuation of the internet marketing set is complex automated lead funnels. Go on Facebook, and you’ll likely be hit with ads offering to show you how to make it rain thousands of leads on autopilot.
While I’m not opposed to teaching lead generation techniques, I do think there is an issue with just thinking about the lead funnel as a standalone. After all, you don’t just want leads—you want new and returning customers on a consistent basis.
What you need is a client generation system.
I work with a lot of independent marketing consultants and service professionals, and most of them simply want to work with about ten of the right clients at any given time.
So let’s do some math. Let’s say you have four clients right now, and you would like to get six more. The typical consultant acquires new client by attracting a lead that wants to meet and learn about how you might help them. Let’s say one in four of those meetings turns into a client. (That’s terribly low for the approach we teach, but I’ll use it be conservative.)
With the math above it will take you 24 sales meetings to get the additional six clients needed to fill your practice and meet your revenue objectives. So, in building a lead generation and conversion system, there are two primary questions.
What does it take to get a consistent flow of appointments and how can you convert more appointments to clients. Build a system that does that, and you won’t need to worry about all of the lever pulling elements and moving parts in most lead funnels today.
If you need six clients, build a system that gets you in front of 10-12 qualified prospects, and you’ll land six clients in a matter of weeks, it’s that simple.
Below you’ll find the ten steps involved in creating a customer generation system for your consulting business.
Set a goal for meetings
The very first step is to determine your revenue goal for the year and go backward to determine how many clients you need to reach that goal. Then break it down to determine how many meetings, proposals, and pitches you need to make to hit that goal.
Example:
Goal – $250,000 in revenue in 12 months means that if you sell a $500, $3000, or $5,000 service, you will need either 42, 7, or 4 clients respectively to reach that goal.
$500 $3000 $5000
X 42 clients X 7 clients X 4
X 12 months X 12 month X 12 months
From this point, you simply need to factor how many appointments it will take to land one new client, and you’ll have your primary metric – X meeting per month. (You may not know how many meetings, but it’s a number you need to watch and reduce as much as possible – lowering this number is the key to success.)
Narrowly define your ideal client
Back on day one of this little restart adventure I asked you to describe your ideal client.
Of course, it’s my hope that you have a pretty good idea of who makes an ideal client for your business but if not keep this in mind. At first target the group you can help the most, the fastest. The reason I advise focusing on this group is that you’ll probably be able to demonstrate how you can help them easily and by getting quick results, build some raving fans.
For example, as a marketing consultant, I can use a set of tools that can show me how badly a business needs marketing help. It’s a matter of auditing their online presence and matching it with a few other bits of data such as industry and even local reputation or groups they might belong to.
Create your workhorse piece of content
Remember back on day three we talked about producing one piece of content per month, but make it awesome.
Now it’s time to create a valuable piece of content that will resonate with your target audience. Most likely this will come out in the form of a blog post.
You may have some ideas about the kind of content that will attract your target audience if you want to make sure this one piece of content is the workhorse you need for your system, spend some time researching the questions and problems your target audience experiences the most.
You can start with a tool such as keywordtool.io to identify the most frequently asked questions around a subject. Then move to a forum search by typing forum+your keyword topic (this can be an industry, i.e., forum+chiropractor), and you’ll find forums where your target…
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