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 | N00b-friendliness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | |
| Secondary talk at big conference | 8 | 7 | 56 | 10 | 10 | 0.56 | ||
| Major mention in mainstream press | 7 | 8 | 56 | 6 | 4 | 2.33 | ||
| Major media interview | 8 | 7 | 56 | 9 | 8 | 0.78 | ||
| 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 | ||
| 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 | ||
| 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. | |
| "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. | |
| Email course | 4 | 4 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 0.44 | ||
| Job aid, calculator | 4 | 4 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 2.67 | ||
| Few large but regular emails to your list | 3 | 5 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 0.42 | Lead nurture, not lead-gen. Worth including anyway. | |
| Active social networking | 5 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 1.00 | ||
| Outbound cold call | 2 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 1.75 | Higher trust potential than email because it's a live voice interaction | |
| Hosting an online business group (http://thebookedbook.com/) | 4 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1.33 | Inconsistent results depending on many execution factors | |
| Many frequent, small but valuable emails to your list | 3 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 0.40 | Lead nurture, not lead-gen. Worth including anyway. | |
| Lead magnet on your website | 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2.00 | ||
| Educational video | 3 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 1.00 | ||
| Content upgrade | 3 | 4 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2.00 | ||
| Embedded Education (providing educational value in places like Quora, StackOverflow, LinkedIn, etc.) | 4 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 12.00 | ||
| Newsletter sponsorship | 4 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1.20 | Ex: https://www.launchbit.com/ | |
| Blog article on your own site | 3 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 0.36 | ||
| Retargeted ad | 3 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 3.00 | ||
| 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. | |
| 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 | ||
| Passive social networking (Twitter lead cards, etc.) | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3.00 | ||
| 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 | ||
| Outbound prospecting/sales email | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0.13 | ||
| Display advertising | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0.10 | ||
| Search-intent ad | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0.33 | Google PPC, for example | |
| Contest | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 |
Get Your Own Copy of This Data to Customize
Where can I send you an XLS and ODS file that contains this data? You'll be able to customize it to fit your lead generation needs.
Key Assumptions:
- The blog article, conference talk, etc. is relevant to the needs/interests of your lead. If it's not these numbers aren't really relevant.
- Numbers are scaled in a relative fashion to match what a new or intermediate professional services business owner would experience them. Ex: doing a big keynote might be easy for a seasoned consultant, but very difficult for a newbie.
- Numbers are not relevant to businesses with low customer LTV (SaaS, etc.). Lead gen techniques that have almost no ability to build trust--like spamming a purchased list--are excluded from this list.
- You do a competent job of executing. Otherwise the trust numbers aren't accurate.