Do you wish you had a consistent stream of leads

coming into your business without spending money on paid ads?

That's exactly what I'm going to be chatting about in this

episode of architecture business club, the weekly podcast for

solo and small firm architecture practice owners, just like you.

Who want to build a profitable future proof architecture business.

That fits around their life.

I'm the host, John Clayton.

And if you want a business in architecture that gives you more

freedom, flexibility on fulfillment.

Then go to architecture, business club.com forward slash blueprint.

And download the architecture business blueprint.

It's the step by step formula to freedom for architects, architectural

technologists and architecture designers.

And it's absolutely free as a gift from me.

Now let's discuss lead generation.

Hey, everybody.

Welcome to the show today.

I've got something to talk about today, which I hope is going to

be really helpful for everybody.

We're going to be talking about lead generation, so how we can

generate new leads for our business.

So I wanted to kind of.

Get back to basics to begin with and talk about.

What is a lead.

So a lead is essentially, it's a person who has expressed an interest in the

product or service that you sell.

So, so in essence, they are.

A potential customer.

And lead generation.

That is the, the process of identifying and cultivating those

potential customers or your prospects.

That might be interested in buying your products and services.

That you sell.

So why is it so important?

Well, lead generation is really important because.

If you aren't able to generate a consistent stream of leads each month.

Your business is going to go through cycles of feast and famine.

So that's either not having enough clients or just having too much

work to handle at a given point.

And.

Both of these things that they can play havoc with your cashflow.

Your time management.

And ultimately make it really difficult to grow your business.

So what common myths are there about lead generation?

There are quite a few,

I'm just going to summarize some of the main points that I feel are the

main myths around lead generation, firstly, that, that you don't

need to do in a lead generation.

If you already have clients.

And that if you have a website and perhaps a peer in a few business directories

online, like Google maps, yelp.com back cetera, that the leads will just

keep coming in automatically over time.

And that posting your work on social media counts as lead generation.

There are different types of leads.

And I think this is an important distinction to make, particularly

between inbound and outbound leads and what the differences are.

So.

What is an inbound lead?

An inbound lead are the ones that come to you first.

So these are the ones that just seem to trickle in naturally the,

they might have discovered you via a Google search and maybe.

Stumbled across your Google business listing, or maybe they've, they've

been looking online for a local architect or practice and they've

stumbled across your website.

Or maybe randomly found a social media post that you put out there.

There may be a referral from a friend or a past client.

These are the leads that most businesses rely on.

As your approach to them is passive.

Basically you just, you do sitting back and relaxing.

Getting along with your other things that you're working on and

waiting for them to contact you.

So you're waiting for the phone to ring you, just waiting

for the email inquiry or.

Somebody to fill in your website, contact form.

So this is the approach that.

Many practices take, especially so practitioners and micro sized

practices that may not need to have many clients to stay in business.

Or perhaps those practices who are situated in a location where the demand

for architectural services or for their particular area of expertise.

Outstrips the local supply.

So that could be perhaps if there had a very specific niche,

something quite unusual in architecture that they did that.

The parts aren't many other businesses locally that do it.

The thing with the, with inbound leads is you, have, you got no control over the

volume and consistency of inbound leads.

So problems can occur.

When in braille, inbound leads naturally slow down, perhaps due

to a change in the wider economy.

Increasing prices.

Or perhaps new competitors in your area or your chosen niche.

Or problems can occur if you're wanting to grow your practice and

you find yourself in a position where you need to bring in a high number

of leads every month than before.

Then what naturally filtered in previously?

So what is an outbound lead to an outbound lead?

Is a sales lead that you contact first.

So this could be for a variety of ways.

It could be.

Depending on the types of client you work with, it could

be cold calling direct mail.

Advertising could be through an event, email campaign, content marketing, or

even a social media campaign or, or reaching out to them through social media.

This is something that you can actively do any time you have more control in

generating outbound leads than inbound.

And this is really what lead generation is all about.

And perhaps then the main thing that I want to talk about today.

So what are the first steps in generating outbound leads?

There are many different ways to generate outbound leads and to nurture them.

But, before you rush off to put up that big advertising billboard

or spend hundreds of pounds or dollars on Facebook ads, The first

thing you need is a strategy.

Firstly, I would consider your business strategy first, before you think

about any lead generation strategy.

I have a think about what those income goals are and what services that you plan

to be selling over the coming months.

How many packages do you need to sell?

How many new clients do you need?

Once you're clear on that.

You can then think about the best approach to generate leads based on your

business strategy for the coming months.

There are three types of leads that, that you're really going to

need, depending on how far along they are in their journey with you.

And these are cold, warm, and hot leads.

I'm going to use an analogy here.

I'm a big music fan.

So.

Let's just imagine you're in a rock band on your you're going on your next tour

and you, you want to sell out every venue.

Your cold leads don't yet know about you.

They've never heard of your band.

Or they've never heard any of your music, so to help them discover you.

You may need to create content online, like social media posts,

maybe write some blog articles or share your music on Spotify.

Or apple for them to find.

Your warm leads are already connected to you some way they are a little

bit more familiar with what you do.

They may have listened to a few of your songs already.

Maybe they follow you on Instagram or have signed up to your weekly

email newsletter to hear about your latest album or your tour.

And your hot leads are your big fans.

They are.

Typically your past customers.

So they've bought your albums.

They've paid to see you in concert before.

Maybe they've even bought the t-shirt.

They are the people that are most likely to buy a ticket for your upcoming tour.

So if you need new customers fast, these are usually the best people to focus on.

So your hot leads are the most likely to buy soon.

Your cold leads are the least likely.

So you're going to need to nurture them for longer.

To get a sale from someone that's a cold lead.

So let's talk a little bit about some of the common mistakes.

Well, one of them is focusing too much of your time, money and

resources on marketing activities that are best suited to cold leads.

So remember those are the ones that need the most nurturing that are

least likely to buy any time soon.

They're going to take the longest time to convert into a paying customer.

And the sorts of activities that you might be doing for those leads are things like

posting to social media, writing a blog.

Writing case studies, adding glossy photos of finished.

Renovations and buildings to your portfolio, or maybe running paid ads.

Often we focus on these things as they can feel more comfortable to do.

And you can still feel like you've accomplished something if you do though.

I mean, it's almost a form of.

Procrastination.

And feeding, like you're doing something that is contributing towards

generating leads and getting sales.

That doesn't feel anywhere near as uncomfortable as reaching out to somebody

personally or getting on the phone with them and having a conversation.

Another mistake is just not Jeweling time for lead generation.

I'm a big believer that if things aren't scheduled, that they don't get done.

So, if you want to generate leads for your business, you're going to have to schedule

some time to do it and try and make it.

A regular habit.

So try and set aside some time each week to generate a nurture leads and

depending on the position you're at and how many leads do you need to generate?

That's going to have a bearing on how much time you need to set aside.

Another mistake is being just reactive rather than proactive.

You tend to be reactive to inbound leads.

You, you sit around and wait for them to come in.

And then as, and when the lead comes in, you react to it.

You get, try to get them to make the next step, whether that's booking a sales call

or you start the conversation with them.

But if you want to generate outbound leads and you're looking for more

consistency with lead generation, you really need to be more proactive.

The reactive.

You've got to do the work to attract, connect, nurture, and convert.

Those leads and prospects from being just a prospect to being a customer.

Another Columbus state is just.

Failing to spot the signals of a potential lead.

So there might be people out there that you are.

Connected to in some way that or in your, your audience or your

social media, following the AR.

Raising their hand, maybe giving off some kind of signals.

You've got to learn to be able to spot those.

There are different signals that people can give to indicate a

possible interest in working with you, or at least somebody like you.

The may have recently followed you on social media, or maybe they've even

followed one of your competitors.

That's another indication that they might be looking for somebody like you.

They might have likes shared or commented.

On one of your social media posts or accepted a connection request with you.

Maybe they've opened an email newsletter and clicks one of the links.

If you have an email list that you've been emailing regularly.

Or maybe they've been on your website and downloaded your

client brochure or price guide.

Maybe they've entered a survey, a poll or a recent competition that you've

run, or maybe they've just asked a question in a group about extending,

renovating or working with an architect.

All of these things are little signals.

Triggers or what's sometimes called hand-raisers that signal to you.

That this person may, at some point in the not too distant future, but interested.

In working with you.

Remember.

Don't forget to download the architecture business, blueprint the

step by step formula to freedom for architects, architecture, technologists,

and architecture designers.

You can grab the blueprint without any charge@architecturebusinessclub.com

forward slash blueprint.

And if you enjoy this episode, then please leave a five star review or

rating wherever you listen to podcasts.

Now, back to the show.

Another common mistake is just not following up with people or

having a method to track the leads.

One of the things that you might've heard people talk about is having a CRM system.

So this is a CRM stands for, I think it's like customer relationship management or

client relationship management system.

And really what this is.

It's just having a method or system to be able to track those leads

and to make sure that you don't forget to follow up with them.

And this can be something really simple.

There are a number of software packages that you can subscribe to that are

specific CRM systems or sales pipelines, you can pay anything from 10 to 20 pounds

a month, right through to hundreds of pounds a month for one of these systems.

Or you can use something like a task management system.

You might've heard of some of those, like Click up a sauna.

Trello notion.

All of those are software systems that allow you to set up your own

simple CRM, using that platform as a method of doing that and sort of

those do offer free plans that you can use, or, it can be as simple as.

Google sheets or.

An Excel spreadsheet doesn't have to be anything complicated.

I think it's just a case of finding something that you can

use that you're going to find.

Easy to keep updated.

And that it aligns with your available budget.

So if you don't have much money spare right now, that may be something

like a Google sheet or just an Excel spreadsheet is the way to go.

So just think about each step or stage that your lead needs to

go through from when you first identify them as a lead, right?

The way through to becoming a customer.

List them out typically it's like from left to, right.

So for example, On the left-hand side, it might be spotting the new lead.

And then as you progress from left to right, it might be

messaging them, getting a reply.

Having a conversation, qualifying them as a good fit, inviting them to a call,

et cetera, et cetera, all the way to them becoming a pain client or customer.

And your aim is just to keep adding leads into your CRM system and moving

those leads from the left-hand side of that table, over to the right hand

side, where they become customers.

Simple right.

Why aren't we all doing this?

So To move on now to just some examples.

I'm just going to share just a couple of tactics, really, and an all of

these things, all of these things that we see people doing from posting on

social media to email campaigns, to running events and competitions there.

They're all just tactics that the trick, I guess, is.

Making sure that the tactics that you choose aligned with that business strategy

that we talked about those business goals, because if you are, , nurturing a.

An audience of subscribers on your email list for some training program that

you're launching at the end of the year or group program for home renovators to,

, guide them through extending their home.

The tactics that you'd use for that are going to be very

different for somebody that is.

Just wanting to fill.

The one-to-one slots for the next month.

So you might have a gap on your calendar this month.

You might need a new client and you might have several days available

to work on a design to support somebody with a drawing package.

Or maybe even to do some subcontract work for another practice.

That's going to be a very different strategy from the person that's

launching the course or group program later in the year.

So one example, tactic to generate and nurture a cold lead.

That might be something like say creating a long, long form piece of content.

So this could be something like writing a blog article.

Or case study that you can post on your website or perhaps creating a video.

That addresses one of the main pain points that your service solves, or

one of the desires talks about the desires that your service helps fulfill.

So an example might be something like.

Seven common myths about extending your home or 10 things to consider

before you decide to renovate or.

, X number of things to think about before you, , Choose an architect,

something along those lines.

What you can then do is snip out segments from that blog or

video or article and use those.

Repurpose those to create a series of social media, captions

graphics, reels that you can post.

Over repeat over a given time period to help.

Peak people's interests.

You can then start engaging with the people that have liked.

Shared or commented on those posts sent.

Ultimately start conversations, nurture those relationships and

eventually get them on a call.

An example, tactic for a hot lead.

The hot lead is typically either current or previous customer of yours.

Or somebody who already knows likes and trusts you.

This is typically.

In the cases where you need fast sales.

These are the people that you should focus on.

I've thought a hot lead that you wouldn't normally expect to get results from.

The interactions you have with somebody after posting a blog or a social

media posts for hot leads, you're typically going to do some high touch.

Proactive outreach.

These can be things like picking up the phone could be calling

past clients or people that you have in your existing network that

potentially may need some extra help.

That could even be a friendly competitor.

Past colleague that you used to work with a practice that you used to work out.

So maybe even your past employer.

Call them up.

You can check in with them.

Have a catcher part of a coffee.

Whether that's in person or virtual coffee online, find out the things

that they're working on and find out if they need any extra support or help

with anything you might be surprised.

You might just be able to plug that gap on your calendar.

This is something that I did a few years back.

I had a lean period.

One winter, I looked at my calendar and thought, wow, I don't really have much

work on, on the lead up to Christmas.

I thought, what, what is the fastest way that I can fill that gap?

The fastest way was just being a little bit vocal about

it and letting people know.

But I had this gap in my diary and I knew there was going to be other people out

there, particularly at other practices that were busier than I was at that time.

So I contacted them.

I emailed a few practices that I had a working relationship with already.

I spoke to some people that I've worked with in the past

that had their own practice.

And I just said, Hey guys, As things happened.

I I've got a gap.

I've got a gap this coming month that I want to fail.

And before I reach out to anybody else, I just wanted to reach out to you and see.

If you needed any extra support.

, if you're busy, Let's have a chat and see if there's any way that I can help you.

If you have an email list, you can send out short sales campaign over a series of

days with a simple time sensitive offer.

And if you do post a social media, You can make it more of a sales post.

So rather than, , posting.

Value based content.

So, so maybe previously, if you've been sharing your blog that you've written,

or, or maybe you have been sharing some graphics or images, photos of a completed

projects or something you're working on making it more of a sales post.

Be explicit about it.

Tell everybody you have a gap in your calendar that you're looking to fail.

And I would share any natural urgency that already exists.

If you're a sole practitioner or if you're a micro sized practice.

There is natural urgency already because you you've only got so many hours

available to fill, to serve your clients.

One-to-one so already there is some natural urgency.

There there's some scarcity.

Mentioned that in the post or the emails or those conversations tell

people that you only have X number of hours or days or slots free to film.

I think the main thing that I'd like to take away from this is that.

Conversations lead to conversions.

So if you're looking to convert, some of those leads into customers.

That really that's the main thing is that you need to look for those little

triggers, those signals of intent.

To move people from just liking your social media post or

clicking on a link in your email.

You need to look to find ways.

To have conversations with those people.

Whether that is in-person.

Over the phone or to begin with, it might even just be in the

comments of a social media post.

Or moving it from a comment in the social media post to your direct messages, and

then moving them over to a conversation over the phone or Zen, or even in person.

So hope that's been helpful.

There's absolutely no way that I could cover.

Every single different tactic and strategy around lead generation

in one short podcast episode.

But hopefully that's given a helpful overview to a few of the

things that you should consider.

And just one or two tactics that you can use to generate a few

new leads for your practice.

The topic of today's episode on lead generation was suggested by

listeners, Rachel Reed and Ash Wilson.

So I just wanted to give them a share sale if anybody else has got

any other suggestions for topics for forthcoming episodes, then

please get in touch and let me know.

Next time.

I'll be talking to Rhonda Jackson about getting paid on time and recovering debts.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of architecture business club.

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Remember.

Running your architecture business.

Doesn't have to be hard and you don't need to do it alone.

This is architecture business club.