post # 332 — Friday, March 16, 2007 — a Client Relations post

Lead Generation Tactics

Rain Today.com has published the Future Of Lead Generation, in which they report on the answers given by over 700 professional service firm leaders about their lead generation activities – what works, what doesn’t, and what they are planning to do in the future in regards to tactics, offers, and budgets.

There is an excellent 20+ page free summary available and you should check it out. It offers the 6 key insights that come from the study:

1. Brand Matters. Firms that said they were very well known in their target market were also more likely to say they were good or excellent at generating leads.
2. It helps (a lot) to know the names of the key decision makers in the organizations you are targeting (and many firms do not.)
3. Cold calling can work – if you use it to set a meeting to introduce yourself and to learn about the prospect, not to go into a detailed sales pitch.
4. The most effective mix of tactics reported were ‘warm’ phone calls to existing contacts, speaking at conferences, running the firm’s own in-person events, becoming members of an industry association and (most surprising to me) connecting with the press to gain PR.
5. Firms reported that 25% of their leads were considered “sales-ready’, 50% required further nurturing and 25% of their leads were disqualified.
6. Actually, as you’ll see when you look at the free summary, insight number 6 is a well-designed ‘teaser’ entitled “Indicators of the Future of Lead generation” which does a good job of making you want to buy the full report.

Apart from offering substance, Rain Today.com does a superb job of marketing itself. They targeted me as a blogger to mention this report, and kept in touch (politely, but insistently) with helpful reminders until I responded with this blog. They can (and DO) give lessons in how to be effective marketers!