From time to time, I receive enquiries from prospective clients who say things like,
“We’ve tried several marketing agencies, and nothing has worked.”
When I hear that, it sets off a massive red flag in my mind 🚩
Picture this: if your business is pulling in less than £50k-100k per month, outsourcing your lead generation can be compared to getting into a taxi without ever telling the driver your destination. You sit back, cross your fingers, and hope they’ll somehow get you home. Spoiler alert: it rarely ends well.
Let’s break this down. For an aesthetic practice—or really any business—leads and sales are absolutely crucial. They are the lifeblood that keeps your company running. So why in the world would you want to outsource that one function that determines your financial stability? It really makes no sense whatsoever.
When you hand off lead generation, you’re essentially giving up responsibility for a key aspect of your success and hoping it all works out. But let’s face it; if you haven’t yet learned how to generate leads and convert them into sales with a proven offering, no marketing agency is going to swoop in and save the day.
Even if an agency somehow brings you leads, there are a host of factors that come into play, such as:
* Your offer might be falling flat and not converting.
* Your follow-up process could be lacking, or maybe even nonexistent.
* Your sales strategy might need some serious tweaking.
No marketing agency can turn around a business that hasn’t established product-market fit or isn’t operating with effective sales systems…
It’s like trying to bake a cake without a recipe and then blaming the oven when it doesn’t rise!
Now, I get it. You don’t have to struggle through this all by yourself. I’m not suggesting that you figure everything out in a vacuum. Get all the help and training you can, but keep your lead generation in-house until you hit a certain level of revenue.
No one will ever care about your business as much as you do. You know your offerings better than anyone; you understand your audience on a personal level, and you grasp the nuances of what you’re trying to achieve. When you hand over lead generation to an external agency too soon, you lose that personal touch and oversight.
This is exactly why I focus on empowering you and your team with the systems and frameworks to generate enquiries IN HOUSE. The goal is to make lead generation so straightforward that anyone in your business can take it on without needing to rely on expensive marketing agencies or specialised new hires.
Think of it this way: master the essential elements of lead generation first; really get a feel for what works and what doesn’t (you’ll find a lot of useful guidance in my online course) Once you’ve built a solid foundation and understand the process inside and out, then consider outsourcing it if you choose. But don’t flip the script and try to outsource it before you even grasp the basics.
It’s all about understanding your business and its needs before throwing money at external agencies that may not fully grasp your vision or what you stand for.