Because much of the effort that goes into business development is tedious, it can be very hard to be consistent in following up on prospective clients, mining for new prospects, qualifying and nurturing leads – all while trying to close business. For most firms, there just isn’t enough time – it’s as simple as that.
Consider some of the areas where you spend your time:
Research & maintain prospect lists with accurate contact information
Setting up and managing your CRM
Sales Processes development & reinforcement
CRM and Lead generation training
Creating emails, landing pages & scripts with a consistent message
Email and Telephone Prospecting
Lead Qualification and appointment setting
Sales pipeline metrics, custom reports & dashboards
Now stick a dollar value on these. Outsourcing lead generation activities to someone who is an expert at such things may not be a bad idea. Let’s face it, even if a firm has a dedicated business development resource they usually don’t relish the drudgery of calling cold prospects and keeping warm leads warm.
There’s another equation to keep in mind here, how many clients have you lost because you weren’t doing these things? Nurturing not only builds trust, it helps you introduce your firm in a non-invasive way and gives your prospect a valuable resource for making a decision.
It only makes sense that if you are proactively providing the kinds of materials & interactions that answer prospects questions, they’ll get a professional image of your firm and develop trust in your ability to understand the value they are seeking in a relationship with you.
Conversely, if you don’t engage during this early part of the decision making process or if you are sporadic with your follow-up, one of your competitors is likely to be perceived as a better partner. Keep the conversation going throughout your prospects decision making process. It keeps you top of mind – a perfect position for you to be in.