The way clients find professional advisers is changing rapidly. For years, professional services firms worried about Google rankings, websites, referrals, networking and more recently, LinkedIn.
Now we can add another increasingly important channel. AI.
Potential clients are asking ChatGPT and other AI platforms questions such as:
“Who are the leading employment lawyers in Manchester?”
“Recommend an accountant specialising in healthcare businesses in London.”
“Who can help our law firm improve business development?”
Being discoverable through AI search is becoming another important part of professional services marketing.
But there is a danger. Being found isn't the same as being hired. Visibility only gets you through the first door
How to convert opportunities in to clients.
You can rank highly on Google. You can have 10,000 LinkedIn followers. Your firm can publish hundreds of articles. You can even be recommended by ChatGPT. None of these things automatically creates a client.
They create an opportunity. And professional services firms sometimes spend enormous amounts of money creating more opportunities while paying remarkably little attention to what happens next.
I've always believed there are three distinct stages involved in winning professional services work:
Visibility × Credibility × Conversion = New Clients
And if any one of those is weak, growth suffers.
Visibility: Can they find you?
This is where marketing plays an increasingly important role. Your website, LinkedIn activity, speaking engagements, articles, videos, referrals, networking, podcasts and now AI search all contribute towards making you visible. But simply being visible isn't enough. Because the potential client then asks:
“Why should I trust you?” Why are you a better option than other providers?
Credibility: Why should they choose to speak with you?
This is where specialisation becomes powerful. A lawyer saying, “I specialise in commercial law” is considerably less compelling than demonstrating deep understanding of the problems facing a particular industry.
The same applies to accountants, consultants, engineers and wealth advisers. Case studies help. Testimonials help. Thought leadership helps. Books, speaking engagements and recommendations help.
Most importantly, demonstrating that you understand the client's world helps. Credibility gets you onto the shortlist. But there's still another stage.
Conversion: Can you turn the conversation into a client?
This is where I believe many professional services firms leave significant amounts of money on the table.
Someone makes an enquiry. A referral is received. A prospect or potential referrer agrees to coffee. A potential client attends your seminar. A LinkedIn conversation becomes a meeting.
Then what?
Winning the work requires professionals to know how to ask good questions, listen, uncover the real problem, demonstrate value, overcome objections, agree next steps, follow up and, eventually, ask for the business.
These are learnable skills. Yet many firms invest considerably more in generating leads than they ever do in teaching their professionals how to convert them.
Before generating more leads, look at the ones you've already got
Imagine your firm generates 100 genuine opportunities each year and converts 20%.
You could invest significant money increasing those opportunities from 100 to 120.
Or you could improve conversion from 20% to 30%.
The second option produces 50% more new clients without generating a single additional lead.
That's why one of the first questions I ask when discussing business development with professional services firms isn't: “How can we generate more leads?”
It's: “What happens to the leads you're already generating?”
AI is going to make it easier for potential clients to discover professional advisers. That's exciting, especially as AI searches convert at a higher rate. But discovery is only the beginning.
Visibility gets you found. Credibility gets you considered. Conversion gets you hired.
Before spending another £10,000 trying to get more people to find you, perhaps ask a rather more uncomfortable question:
What percentage of the opportunities you already generate, actually become clients?
If you and your team need assistance with conversion, be sure to reach out. My ‘How to Convert Coffee Meetings into Billable Work’ sessions are very popular.