Management Consulting: How to Get Leads for Your Business

The simple truth is this: it doesn't matter how good your product or service is, how qualified your consultants are, or how good your personal network is if you're not investing in top-quality lead generation. And in a field as competitive as management consulting - and industry with a market size of over $340 billion -  generating leads must be a top priority.

But here's the rub: 61% of marketers say lead generation is their most challenging task. The bottom line is that finding quality leads in a target audience bombarded by competitors can often feel like an uphill struggle.

At Leadium, we've been harnessing our founder-led lead generation strategies to secure reliable top-of-funnel sales opportunities for management consulting clients for a decade. So when it comes to hooking potential customers who convert into real revenue growth, we know what we're talking about.

To answer all your questions about lead generation in the management consulting industry, we've put our heads together and come up with this all-in-one guide. We'll cover, in concise detail, the step-by-step lead generation strategies you need to know to start filling your pipeline with quality leads today.

Let's take a look.

What is lead generation?

Before we get started with our expert advice on how to generate leads that convert, let's quickly go over what exactly we mean by 'lead generation'.

Management consulting firms need to continuously reach out to and engage with potential customers (whom we call 'leads') in order to maintain revenue growth.

Traditional lead generation methods include cold calling, direct mail, and networking events, although today most new leads come from online lead generation efforts. These include:

1. Social media outreach
2. Content marketing
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Email marketing

But lead generation is no small topic. When we factor inbound lead generation vs outbound lead generation, lead nurturing, software technology, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), we realize just how complicated effective lead generation can be.

That's why many management consulting companies choose to outsource lead generation to agencies like Leadium. These third-party B2B lead generation and sales development services are essentially ready-made lead generation sales teams who'll source, verify, and convert quality leads through a tried-and-tested methodology.

How management consulting firms can generate leads

So how best to pack a punch with your target audience and start generating leads (through online lead generation or traditional methods)?

Let's explore some of the fundamental principles and best methods companies like Leadium leverage to secure high-value top-of-funnel sales opportunities.

1. Know your audience

In order to efficiently allocate resources to generate leads online (and save time and money in the process), you need to deicide who exactly you're trying to sell to.

Many businesses make the mistake of settling on too broad a target audience - for example, 'business leaders' or 'account managers'. That's a good place to start, but it fails to specify what kind of business leader or account manager. After all, how many millions of people hold those positions in the U.S. alone?

Spend time figuring out your ICP - that's your Ideal Customer Profile. Consider:

• Your best existing customers and commonalities between them
• Your customers' pain points
• Buyer behaviors and preferences
• Key demographics (such as age, location, job title etc.)
• Your prospects' needs and goals

Evidence suggests that companies with well-developed ICPs and buyer personas outperform those without by significant margins.

In short: you need to know your potential customer inside out.

2. Build brand awareness

Did you know that over 80% of consumers feel they need to trust a brand before they buy from them? Well, it's true - so building your online presence to a level where consumers recognize your brand as a trustworthy option is crucial.

We can break down this process into a few key points:

1. Use a professional website
2. We all know how it feels to use a bad website: more often than not, we're likely to leave it as soon as we encounter even the slightest problem. Perhaps its interface isn't intuitive, its information is outdated, it doesn't work properly, or it's visually displeasing.
3. Whatever the case, such websites are sure to put off paying customers and quality leads.
4. A great management consulting website will feature a clean layout, up-to-date information, useful content and resources, clear information, and a great design. If you want to generate leads, having a professional website is essential.
5. SEO and content marketing
6. You can boost inbound lead generation ('inbound' is marketing that attracts leads to your business, rather than reaching out to them) with killer SEO and content marketing.
7. This involves learning how search engines rank content and exploiting their algorithms to ensure your business ranks highly. You can do this by consistently producing (and distributing) high-quality, informative content about your industry and optimizing your landing pages.
8. This method takes time, sure, but the results are undeniable: an incredible 74% of marketers agree that content marketing increases lead generation.

3. Leverage social media

When talking about online lead generation, we couldn't possibly miss out social media.

Sites like LinkedIn (which has over 830 million members) are pots of gold when it comes to lead generation. That's especially true for industries like management consulting. Business leads and decision-makers make up a huge part of that user-base - sales leads just waiting to hear about your solutions.

Here are a few tips for generating leads on social media:

• Choose the right platform
• Different social media platforms have different user-bases. 18-29 year olds favor Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram, for instance, whereas 30-39 year olds prefer LinkedIn and X. For management consulting, LinkedIn is definitely the way to go.
• Develop a content marketing strategy
• Thought leadership articles, industry news, success stories - all types of valuable content that suit different platforms and industries.
• Engage
• Don't leave it at content; in order to establish a strong presence, you need to engage through likes, comments, shares, and more.

4. Use client referrals

There's no better advertisement for your company than happy customers. And it shows, too: 'Customers acquired through referrals spend 200% more than the average customer.' So in order to establish more leads for your business, you need to encourage existing customers to recommend you.

Of course, you can do this by simply asking for testimonials from paying customers or through marketing channels, but that's not particularly reliable.

A better idea would be to develop a great referral program. That way, you could offer incentives for existing customers to recommend you, thereby increasing the likelihood of securing more leads for your business in the future.

Other essential methods

Powerful lead generation campaigns leverage a combination of these lead generation methods to generate sales leads. But this list is by no means exhaustive. Other vital lead generation efforts include:

• Paid advertising
• Cold calling and email marketing
• Networking events and partnership-building
• Analytics

Access top lead generation tools to get sales qualified leads today

Forming a great lead generation strategy - whether that's inbound lead generation or outbound lead generation - requires vision and hard work. It takes time. But the results can take your management consulting business to the next level.

Although effective lead generation is complex, there a are a few fundamental principles you can get to grips with in order to start attracting more potential customers today: firstly, and most importantly, your team must develop a comprehensive ICP that gives you a target to aim for. Using that data, you'll be able to leverage your social media presence and outbound methods to find the perfect sales leads. A strong website and attractive customer referral program should also underpin your lead generation strategy, so potential customers can recognize you as a top competitor.

Lead generation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Small businesses and large companies alike need a variety of professional expertise and lead generation tools to see their strategies take flight. So if you're looking for new sales leads, you're in the right place: Leadium's blog is packed with useful tips and expert lead generation insights you can use to hone your knowledge today.

Plus, our team is always waiting to hear from business leaders like you. Our decade of experience and founder-led approach make us a top choice for management consulting leaders searching for a killer lead generation strategy to reach potential customers - so if that sounds familiar, why not reach out? It's what we do.