;
3 quick and simple steps that professional service firms (lawyers, accountants and consultants) can take to hugely improve their sales:
- Cut the marketing and advertising budget in half
- Take the money you’ve saved from this and use it to reduce the billable hours targets of your partners and get them to focus on business development activities instead
- Ensure that the business development activities are being carried out effectively
Typically professional services firms spend too much on ineffective “getting our name out there” marketing and advertising – and don’t spend nearly enough money and more importantly time on more direct business development activities.
Professional services are complex, intanglible products. Before people can buy, they must know that you are credible and that they can trust you.
Activities which can build credibility and trust include: speaking at client industry conferences, networking at client industry events, writing and publishing relevant articles (in publications your clients read), organising small-scale seminars, performing and publishing relevant research and face-to-face issue-led discussions with clients.
They don’t include generic corporate advertising and marketing.
Onward!
Ian
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
As an advertising sales professional, i can’t agree with your advice to cut the ad budget in half. Perhaps, a happy middle ground for us would be to cut the ad budget to zero and then vigorously review the purpose of all the advertising before allowing it back in the budget. Perhaps, the expenditures end up lower and perhaps not but at least the advertiser could feel good about their choices and move on to implement the rest of your fine advice.
Lol – I guess you can’t please everyone all the time Tim – and the post was deliberately controversial.
But seriously, if professional services firms did as you say and built their business development budgets properly based on what would have the biggest impact then most would spend far less on advertising and market recognisiton activities and far more on personal selling.
Professionals often dislike selling and find it much easier to focus on “back office” activities rather than facing personal rejection when attepmting to sell.
Ian
with my own company in S.A. I spent minimum on advertising and more time on one on one selling, and developed 12 top clients which afforded me sustainable business.
Greye