(Semi) weekly insights from us about…
expertise-driven marketing principles, strategies, and examples.
- Insights extracted from our research and work within the niche-expertise-driven consulting market.
- Breakdowns and analysis of noteworthy lead generation approaches we find interesting, effective, and worthy of study.
- Thoughts on the intersection of positioning, marketing strategy, and copywriting for experts with services that require nuance to explain.
Finding 5: Referrals and networking dominate
Right into the next CLG Study finding… Referrals and networking were listed most frequently as the primary client acquisition methods firms employed (55% and 26% respectively). And when asked here’s what some of the firms had to say about it: …
High Value, Low Volume Lead Gen (Two More CLG Findings)
So just last month we enrolled our daughter (upon her own request) in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It’s super fun because she’s not even four yet… So along with her similar-aged classmates, most of the experience involves some light tugging and throwing …
The power of patience
Why do I get the sense… That in reality, most marketing problems could be solved via this single piece of advice?
The trouble with consulting sales cycles
Speaking of the difficulties involved in selling ideas, consulting sales cycles are long. I know… NEWS FLASH! But this was a question I wanted to put some numbers to. Here’s how the CLG Study participants answered: Almost all of the …
The Selling Ideas Problem
Alright, let’s recap. Last week we established that most consulting firms haven’t quite solved the lead generation problem. One reason this may be the case is a lack of transparency into what works and what doesn’t. Another may be related …
How to find the problem
A bit more on the problem-finding question from yesterday. Is lead generation really the problem? Or is there something else about your business that needs to be addressed? Locating the problem first is important. And Dan and Chip Heath (in …
Are we solving the right problem?
“We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.” ~ Russell L. Ackoff, Redesigning the future Let’s take a quick step back for a moment before we go …
The Revenue Roller Coaster Problem
Aside from the transparency problem we discussed yesterday… Another (and I think more significant) contributor to the difficulties consulting firms experience with lead generation is what we’re calling The Revenue Roller Coaster Problem. It goes something like this: Principals are …
The Transparency Problem
Last week I sent over the first two findings from the CLG study to kick off the discussion with some details on the problem we’re aiming to solve. Virtually all of the bad marketing advice we’re mired with neglects this …
Marketing questions are business questions
If there’s one thing this research endeavor has taught me so far, it’s that good answers to lead generation and marketing questions are actually answers to core business questions. For example, one of the key extensions of the findings from …
The first two CLG Study findings
Well… I did it. Granted, I went a bit scorched-earth in the process. In fact, you may have thought I decided to renounce my internet access and drop off the grid. But the deed is done, and v0 of The …
How patient are you really?
How patient is patient, you ask? At 6:49 in this video, Ryan Serhant describes a pretty remarkable scenario: Nine years pursuing the same client. Without getting frustrated. Without acting needy. Without feeling “owed” the business. Now clearly, in order to …
The canvas strategy
Quote of the day: Be lesser, do more. Imagine if for every person you met, you thought of some way to help them, something you could do for them? And you looked at it in a way that entirely benefited …
Go behind the scenes
Quote of the day: Give people a backstage pass and show them how your business works… People are curious about how things are made. It’s why they like factory tours or behind-the-scenes footage on DVDs. They want to see who …
My system (today’s the day)
Quote of the day: This brings me to my system… I figured my competitive edge was creativity. I would try one thing after another until somethign creative struck a chord with the public. The I would reproduce it like crazy. …
Specialization reduces dependence
Time for another quick update as I continue to make my gleeful slog through this quite interesting data set. Two things I’ve uncovered: (And please forgive the crude display of said data.) Thing 1: Apart from a few individual examples …
Turning ideas into impressions
Quote of the day: All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas. The difference betwixt these consists in the degrees of force and liveliness, with which they strike …
The new safety zone
Quote of the day: There’s still a safety zone, but it’s not in a place that feels comfortable to you. The new safety zone is the place where art and innovation and destruction and rebirth happen. The new safety zone …
Overcoming misconceptions about randomness
Quote of the day: The theory of randomness is fundamentally a codification of common sense. But it is also a field of subtlety, a field in which great experts have been famously wrong and expert gamblers infamously correct. What it …
Vertical specialization is sparse
I’m churning away on the CLG Study version 1 analysis and decided to pop in for a short update. A surprising thing I’ve uncovered: Only 6 of the 51 firms studied are vertically specialized (e.g. we consult for regional telecom …