Generating Consulting Leads

[alextb]

I have been working through my own company as a business consultant for the past 8 months. Most of the project work I'm doing is for companies that I knew via contact from my previous employment. I am keen to promote my services to SME companies but have not found a successful way of generating the required sales leads.

I have a website which includes an SEO service and I also use google adwords. However my budget is limited.

There are companies who essentially sell franchise businesses to those looking to consult in the SME market but I'm not keen to hand over upwards of £40k to these guys either.

Does anyone have any successful methods for generating consulting leads in the SME marketplace.

Thanks,

Alex Tylee-Birdsall

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

What about getting involved in local Chamber of Commerce activities and networking groups. We belong to the Greater Manchester Chamber and they have lots of networking opportunities and most of the members are SMEs.

You are in a very active market where there is a lot of competition. The personal touch will always be better than people finding you via PPC or website alone.

I bet you will find a lot of SMEs haven't even heard of SEO, so not sure how many will be searching for you!

Good luck.

James

[profitxchange]

I confirm the previous contributor. I was a BL adviser for 10 years and a consultant for 7 before that. SME's are notoriously difficult to access. BL's services were free and they had lots of difficulty getting the penetration the Govt wanted.
Nevertheless, the best way is networking - get yourself amongst SME's, go to BL events and seminars. The delegates have self selected themselves because they want/need the benefit of the seminar/event. Go to chamber and any other business community activity. Write an article(s) in the local newspaper. Have testimonials and referees available. Get existing clients to refer you to their suppliers and clients. Offer to give a seminar for one of the Business communities - it lets them (delegates) taste how good (or otherwise) you are.

[ebonybailey]

Have you considered telemarketing, we do telemarketing for Gartner in this area to all sizes of companies.

Let me know if its of interest £40 would last you 10 months with us!!!

michael@ebonybailey.co.uk

Michael

[Edward Green]

Hi Alex,

As a consultant myself I know how it feels to be where you are. I can tell you that once you get a profitable marketing system in place and keep it running even when you are overrun with enquiries you will never need to prospect again.

In fact as a mentor of mine used to say "Prospecting Sucks" and they aint kidding.

The former mentioned joining your chamber of commerce which is a good start but you will need to learn how to cultivate the referral market for your business.

You must get others signing your praises. This can also be called host parasite marketing which I am a huge fan of. You use other people’s contacts to further develop your business. It works great for everyone concerned. Obviously you help them with their business leads also.

They is a few shortcuts but they aren't for publication here.

I hope this has helped a little. Just learn referral marketing techniques.

Regards

Ed