Lead Generation Trust Velocity
Most lead generation advice is bad advice...
This 3-minute video explains a new approach to lead-gen for the high-trust, expensive sale
If you need to generate leads for expensive services, the table below is critical...
Most advice about generating leads is missing critical information about whether trust is also being builtThat’s why I profiled 46 B2B lead generation techniques based on their trust velocity, the effort required to implement them, and how suitable they are for a freelancer or dev shop just starting out with lead generation and needing fast results.
The results of this research are below in a convenient, sortable table of B2B consulting/freelancing lead generation techniques:
Lead Generation Activity | Trust Potential | Speed to Maximum Trust | Trust Velocity (1-100) | Effort or Difficulty | Prep or Lead Time | Bootstrap Coefficient (Higher number = better leads faster) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keynote talk at national or international conference | 10 | 10 | 100 | 10 | 10 | 1.00 | Gold standard in trust, most difficult and time consuming to execute. |
| JV webinar with known, trusted name | 9 | 9 | 81 | 6 | 4 | 3.38 | |
| Solo webinar | 8 | 9 | 72 | 4 | 2 | 9.00 | |
| Host in-person educational event | 8 | 9 | 72 | 8 | 7 | 1.29 | |
| Referrals | 8 | 8 | 64 | 2 | 5 | 6.40 | Effort is low because all you have to do is ask, lead time is high because you don't control the timing. |
| Publishing original research | 9 | 7 | 63 | 10 | 10 | 0.63 | |
| Major mention in mainstream press | 7 | 8 | 56 | 6 | 4 | 2.33 | |
| Major media interview | 8 | 7 | 56 | 9 | 8 | 0.78 | |
| Secondary talk at big conference | 8 | 7 | 56 | 10 | 10 | 0.56 | |
| Invitation-only executive briefing | 8 | 7 | 56 | 10 | 10 | 0.56 | |
| Guesting on a podcast (combined with great CTA) | 7 | 7 | 49 | 3 | 2 | 8.17 | |
| Resource center/content hub | 7 | 6 | 42 | 7 | 5 | 1.20 | High inital effort, evergreen payback |
| Minor mention in mainstream press | 5 | 8 | 40 | 3 | 4 | 3.33 | |
| Single guest post on major publication | 6 | 6 | 36 | 6 | 5 | 1.20 | |
| Hosting a podcast | 7 | 5 | 35 | 7 | 4 | 1.25 | |
| Preferred partner status on root authority website | 7 | 5 | 35 | 8 | 5 | 0.88 | |
| Short conversation at an event with the right person | 4 | 8 | 32 | 6 | 1 | 5.33 | AKA networking |
| Single guest post on minor publication | 5 | 6 | 30 | 5 | 5 | 1.20 | |
| Become a vendor on something like CodersClan, do loss leader work, then upsell to a direct, higher price relationship | 7 | 4 | 28 | 7 | 3 | 1.33 | |
| Lead magnet on trusted 3rd party website | 5 | 5 | 25 | 5 | 3 | 1.67 | |
| 15 or 30m free micro-consultation | 3 | 8 | 24 | 3 | 4 | 2.00 | |
| Regularly showing up in prospect's email inbox with relevant content | 7 | 3 | 21 | 3 | 2 | 3.50 | Lead nurture, not lead-gen. Worth including anyway. |
| Public teardowns | 4 | 5 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 2.50 | |
| "Lumpy Envelope" campaign | 4 | 5 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 1.00 | The book "Ultimate Sales Machine" describes how to do this. Trust potential comes from the personalization and persistence of this approach. |
| Job aid, calculator | 4 | 4 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2.67 | |
| Email course | 4 | 4 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 0.44 | |
| Active social networking | 5 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 1.00 | |
| Few large but regular emails to your list | 3 | 5 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 0.42 | Lead nurture, not lead-gen. Worth including anyway. |
| Outbound cold call | 2 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 1.75 | Higher trust potential than email because it's a live voice interaction |
| Embedded Education (providing educational value in places like Quora, StackOverflow, LinkedIn, etc.) | 4 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 12.00 | |
| Lead magnet on your website | 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2.00 | |
| Content upgrade | 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2.00 | |
| Hosting an online business group (http://thebookedbook.com/) | 4 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1.33 | Inconsistent results depending on many execution factors |
| Newsletter sponsorship | 4 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1.20 | Ex: https://www.launchbit.com/ |
| Educational video | 3 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 1.00 | |
| Many frequent, small but valuable emails to your list | 3 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 0.40 | Lead nurture, not lead-gen. Worth including anyway. |
| Subscription curated lead service (letsworkshop, letsmakeapps, etc.) | 3 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 | The trust potential comes 100% from how good your response to the lead is. Not evergreen. |
| Subscription bespoke lead service | 3 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 | The trust potential comes 100% from how good your response to the lead is. Not evergreen. |
| Retargeted ad | 3 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Blog article on your own site | 3 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 0.36 | |
| Passive social networking (Twitter lead cards, etc.) | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Listing in reputable directory like Clutch, G2Crowd, etc | 3 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1.20 | Effort is high because you don't just submit a listing, you also get reviews, etc. |
| Trade show presence | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0.17 | |
| Highly targeted demographic ad | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1.00 | Facebook ad, for example |
| Tests, quizzes, or surveys | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1.00 | |
| Contact form on website | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | |
| Contest | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | |
| Search-intent ad | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0.33 | Google PPC, for example |
| Outbound prospecting/sales email | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0.13 | |
| Display advertising | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0.10 | |
| Directory listing (clutch.co, etc) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0.50 |
Want your own copy of this table to customize? Help yourself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m6tBF6xWISJUKNvIfdVeNLPAr0Z1Q1_44adAFIZLvnU/edit?usp=sharing
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