Professional Services Marketing

How the Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success

Mike Schultz, John E. Doerr, Lee Frederiksen

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118688434
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Consulting
• Index: Business

A proven approach to revenue-generating marketing and client development

Professional Services Marketing is a fully field-tested and research-based approach to marketing and client development for professional services firms. The book, now in its Second Edition, covers five key areas that are critical for firms that want to grow and become more profitable: creating a marketing and growth strategy; establishing a brand and reputation; implementing a marketing communications program; executing lead generation strategies; and developing business by winning new clients. You will also read real-world case studies that illustrate major points, as well as quotes and stories from well-respected professionals in the industry.

• The Second Edition features new research and updates throughout, including new chapters on social media and online marketing, as well as new case studies and interviews
• Authors Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr are the coauthors of the Wall Street Journal and Inc. Magazine bestseller Rainmaking Conversations and Professional Services Marketing; Lee W. Frederiksen is coauthor of Online Marketing for Professional Services
• Will be widely promoted via multiple online routes and direct mail marketing

Firms of any size can use this proven approach to marketing and client development to attract new clients and grow their professional service businesses.

Part I

Strategy and Planning

1

What Marketing Can Do for a Firm

The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often, and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.

—Sergio Zyman

Marketing is the single most important function within a modern professional services firm.

This might strike some as overly bold given the widespread lack of respect that marketing receives within many firms. More than a few of today's principals believe marketing is only loosely connected to the success of their firms.

To be fair, the way marketing is done in many firms is of limited value. But it doesn't have to be that way. To understand why, we need only to look at today's most successful firms.

Inside the High-Growth Professional Services Firm

About five years ago, we began a series of studies that looked at high-growth professional services firms.¹ To qualify for the study, these firms had to have a minimum compound annual organic growth rate of 20 percent or more. And these firms were exceptional on many fronts.

Compared with their peers, these firms showed:

Growth rates that were 5 to 10 times greater

Profitability that was 2 to 5 times greater

Valuations that were 2 to 10 times higher

Marketing costs that were slightly less than average

How did these firms do it? What did they do differently?

As it turned out, there was not a single industry, strategy, or size that defined this group. These firms existed to varying degrees in all professional services industries. They included firms of all sizes and categories, served target clients of every ilk, and pursued a wide variety of different strategies.

So what characteristics did they share in common? For one thing, they tended to have a clear target client group that they understood very well. Their services were tailored to solve their clients' important problems. And they usually had clear, easy-to-understand differentiators that were believable and relevant to their target clients.

The marketing strategies they used gave them easier access to their target audience, both online and in the traditional offline world. And although their business strategies were diverse, they were easily understood and communicated.

As you step back and reflect on some of these characteristics, it becomes clear that all of them are related to the discipline of marketing. Understanding and selecting the right markets and target clients, offering the right services, and building a firm's visibility and reputation in the marketplace are what marketing does (or should do) in a professional services firm. When combined with a capable sales operation, marketing should produce a steady stream of well-qualified prospects and new clients. We know of no other functional area that can have such a profound and far-reaching impact on a firm's success.

But that's not the end of the story. You see, the modern professional services marketplace is anything but stable.

The Revolution in the Professional Services Marketplace

Once upon a time, professional services marketing was a small player in a comfortable and familiar marketplace, driven almost exclusively by personal relationships.

Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, that marketplace has changed. And with that change, marketing has become more essential for a firm's success and even its survival.

What are those changes? We have identified five major interrelated trends that are reshaping the professional services marketplace.

1. There is a new generation of buyers and influencers. Anyone who has worked for 20 years or less has not known a workplace without computers. Increasingly, these digital natives are becoming decision makers or influencing the selection of professional service providers. For this rising category of leaders, using online resources to learn about and evaluate providers is second nature.

2. Technology offers new options. You see it everywhere. Technology has reshaped so many industries, from entertainment to medicine. And it is reshaping the professional services, too. From low-cost communications technologies to the automation of “professional” tasks, the professional world is changing—fast. Need to incorporate your company? Do it yourself online. Need to understand a new piece of technology? Google it. Want to meet a potential vendor across the country (or even the world)? Use Skype.

3. Geography is collapsing. Today's low-cost communications technologies are shrinking the business world. It is becoming as easy and natural to work remotely with a professional service provider as with a colleague who works from home. Of course, some activities require on-site work. But that list is shrinking day by day.

4. Transparency is expected. We are becoming used to a culture that expects, and even demands, transparency. We want to know the “user ratings” of our plumber or home remodeler. Why not our accountant or structural engineer? If a firm isn't forthcoming about its expertise and thought process, will people think it has something to hide?

5. Excellence is expected. The Internet has made it easy to find the best of practically anything. We are no longer restricted by the limitations of our local communities. Our favorite wines, those hard-to-find books, the clothes we love from that tiny specialty retailer—if we want these things, they are but a few clicks away. So why should it be any different for buying professional services? Businesses today don't have to settle for the best local option. They can get online and find the best option. . . period. This gives a tremendous advantage to the specialist.

So how does your firm navigate this shifting landscape? The answer is through the competent application of modern professional services marketing. But what are the specific ways it can help your firm succeed?

Effective marketing at a professional services firm produces four measurable outcomes:

1. New conversations with potential buyers

2. Better odds of winning client engagements

3. Higher revenue per engagement and per client and higher fees for services

4...