The view that professional sales forces should be used to sell professional services is gaining acceptance. One regional accounting firm in Irvine, California, has a dedicated staff of six salary-plus-commission sales people who pay for themselves and then some.

But for those firms who are still trying to "do it themselves" versus "hiring it done," or for smaller firms who can't yet afford a dedicated sales person or staff, what is the best way to augment your selling efforts?

In the typical accounting firm, law, architectural or consulting firm, how can you take the efforts of one and multiply that effort? By definition a true rainmaker generates far more business than he can handle himself, and so develops a practice that keeps many others busy. But, what if most of the marketers in an organization are excellent reactive sales people, but aren't as comfortable generating leads?

Your Friends: Your Richest Source of Leads

In many professional services firms, the builders of practices have established a strong reputation and a lot of contacts. Indeed, the whole idea of lead generation is that you are using your business and personal connections to develop relationships and opportunities that can be closed by professionals.

What these practice-builders should be teaching their budding marketers about is the quality of those contacts, people who already know you and what you can accomplish. These contacts, generally people who are friends or business associates you've come to know over the years, can be the richest source of leads.

Keeping in touch with your friends is, in itself, an art. Use contact manager software on your personal computer to keep track of and maintain regular contact with your friends. Your current industry contacts could be potential clients for your services, or they may be able to effectively refer you to someone else. Either way, maintaining relationships with current industry contacts helps to maintain a positive level of business:

Pros

• You have an existing relationship, it's not a cold call 

• They are aware of your capabilities and accomplishments (and goals) 

• They may have high visibility in the market/s you serve 

Cons

• They may not be in a position to help 

• They may not be associated with your target markets 

• They may not have the information or skills necessary to "sell" you to prospects 

The 'One-Sheet' Wonder

Just as your friends and business associates may be powerful advocates for your services, they may also not have the information or skills necessary to "sell" you to prospective clients.

In order to help friends and business associates understand what you do, and how you can help a client, you may consider adopting the use of a simple marketing tool called a "one-sheet".

Those in the technical professions aren't the only ones using these: public speakers and actors and other professionals who enlist the assistance of agents or brokers to represent their talents to others have historically employed the use of such promotional pieces. Think of a "one-sheet" as a one-page resumé, only substitute your typical resumé headings for headings designed to convey the information a colleague would need to help promote your offerings.

A sample of a well-formatted "one-sheet."

Think of a "one-sheet" as a precursor to a brochure. It may be given to a prospect, but its primary intended use, however, is to teach your referral sources how to talk about you. It's called a "one-sheet," incidentally, because the information you write should fit on one side of one sheet of paper: brevity is divine.

Consider the following headings (you may substitute more creative versions of these, or others you deem relevant) for your one-sheet as you develop or refine it:

Our mission

• why you're in business, what your values convey about who you are
• could also use a "tagline" or key phrase to convey the value you provide or "what business you're in"

What we do

• your or your firm¹s services, areas of specialty
• bullets work especially well, reduces time required by your reader to absorb key points

Who our ideal client is

• by size, geography, industry, if you want to be specific, or
• may be incorporated in a more general way into your biography or other part of the sheet, like the client testimonials

Projects, clients or testimonials 

• architectural firms like to list project emphasis, for example, while consultants like to cite satisfied client-testimonials, and some firms like to list clients with clout, high name recognition or industry status

How we can help

• demonstrate benefits associated with your service, for example, "our services have increased sales, improved teamwork, saved money" etc.

Biography

• works well for consultants or individual professionals who want to build their practices

A good one-sheet also should include a "head-shot" photography of the individual, if the service being sold is a professional or personal service. If the one-sheet is intended to represent the firm at-large, project photos are good to use, or a photo of the company's headquarters might suffice. Some visual interest, in any case, is a key goal.