Where have all the good leads gone?
Posted on | March 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
I woke up this morning and found out there is a twitter channel just for agency layoffs (@adagencylayoffs) and I was reminded, again, that I’m pretty lucky to be in a position at a company that’s not only growing, but that my job puts me in control of the growth. It’s a pretty powerful position – if I’m confident in what we can do for a client, I really get to choose who we work with and what we get to do.
But there’s a timeliness to this profession, which became clear to me when a friend of mine, a freelance copywriter, asked me (in seriousness) where I get my leads. Well, geez, the vast majority still come in as referrals, and sometimes then we’re still competing (with other companies that were also referred to the client), but referrals can be hit or miss, and if you sit around waiting for referrals to come in all day, you could miss out on an opportunity to pursue a client that really excites you.
The copywriter’s question came up because one of her biggest clients, a local web designer, has been in a tough position over the last few months – for the lifetime of his business, he’s had a steady stream of referrals, only to have it dry up recently do to the Adult Recess. Now he has to prospect in order to survive and getting started isn’t any easy one. Hence, her question: Where do you get your leads.
I hate to admit that a large piece of my lead list over the past year has come from an outside lead generation group, although I should call them a lead research group, and mention that I don’t think they did a very good job. I’ve got this huge list now that mostly looks like it came from a phone book, and many of the numbers were disconnected (this, before the Adult Recess really got started). Then, if the phone number works, and I’m talking to someone, inevitably they ask how I find them- (errrrrrrrrrr . . . . .linkedin?)
For our recent iPhone contest, I was given a list of companies and phone numbers. This is a far more fun way to operate! I like the combination of research online as well as the challenge of reaching the right person on the phone. And with so many people using linkedin or posting their biography to the company site, I can see when people are doing something exciting or interesting and hopefully strike up a conversation about that. I try not to waste too much time doing research on the website it self – you never know what projects people have already in the works. Not to mention, with Adult Recess going on, everybody’s doing the cold call game, but I’m not sure if everyone is quite as prepared as we are to meet that challenge of turning a name and a number into someone who realizes that you are trustworthy and may have some good answers.
As you can imagine, the power of the company I work for has been driven for the most part by the years of sales work completed by Boss Lady, who now often does speaking engagements to present our work in various industries – a highly successful channel for gaining new clients. Getting speaking engagements can be a bit of a sales process unto itself. Boss Lady is a sales woman at heart, but at the same time, she has become quite an industry leader in SEO. I think now she’s compelled to really help her clients innovate their web offerings to provide an extremely high level of value to their customers.
As for me, I’m thinking about gettng my name out by attending some of the Social media and seo meetings and panels that are pretty popular in Chicago right now. Some people at the company don’t think they are really worth the time, but I figured if it on my off-hours, why not? If nothing else, I can meet some new people and keep my ear to ground.
Tags: adult recess > boss lady > generating leads > recession > sales
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