THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
The science and art of professional services marketing have come a long way in the last few years. It is no longer impossible to find examples of marketing efforts planned well, executed well, and measured well. Yet, in spite of these great strides, I continue to see the same marketing sins committed over and over again to the detriment of the firms and the people steering the marketing ship.
What’s frustrating about these sins is that they are all made by intelligent people who have the good sense and ability to avoid them.
Marketing Sin #1 – Marketing by Consensus
Professional services firms are comprised of extremely competent people who know their area of expertise (law, accounting, engineering) well. After all, they are professionals. But that doesn’t mean that they are marketing professionals.
So why do they feel they are all equal in the marketing decision making process? It is usually because professional service firms are partnerships and partners share. As a result, marketing committees are formed which either produce a camel when a horse is needed or, in too many cases, end up with absolutely nothing.
To avoid this sin, recognize the shortcomings of the committee process and allow a senior person or partner with an ear or eye for marketing to make the decisions…then get out of the way.
Or even better, let the marketing professional whom you have hired do her job. The results can’t be any worse than the $100,000 worth of ads the committee decided to spend to generate “awareness” that resulted in no new business.
Marketing Sin #2 – Expecting Marketing to Be a Substitute for Selling
In very simple terms:
Marketing is for reach. Finding the opportunity to speak to someone who may need your services.
Selling is for coverage. Turning those opportunities into a new client (or new services with existing clients).
Marketing can be used to generate leads, draw people into the seduction of your services over time, or facilitate sales conversations with new people. Marketing will not actually land you the new client, or create the enduring relationship that is so essential for you to develop longstanding business. But marketing can go a long way to get you there.
Use marketing efforts to find the sales opportunity, and remind everyone that at some point, it’s the professional (not the marketing piece) who will have to close the deal.
Marketing Sin #3 – Misallocating Budget and Resources
You don’t go after a mosquito with an elephant gun or conversely chase down an elephant with a water pistol. Yet, time after time, I see professional service firms fail to execute a marketing strategy commensurate with the goal.
If you want to grow by 40-50%, then do enough and spend enough to get there. If your growth objectives are more modest, then calibrate accordingly without wasting your dollars or time. (By the way, the former situation is far more common).
In What’s Working in Lead Generation, published by Wellesley Hills Group and Raintoday.com, we found that 36% of firms that spent 10% or more on marketing grew by 50% or more, whereas only 21% of those spending less grew at that heady rate.
Marketing Sin #4 – Not Doing What It Takes to Project Your Brand
Too often, “brand” is dismissed as the latest marketing buzzword when, in fact, it's the crucial element to long-term marketing success, client loyalty, and new client acquisition. Sadly, too few professional service firms recognize its imperativeness. And even if they do, they give it only peripheral attention, or worse – none at all. Shortfalls here abound, but two are especially harmful.
The first is the failure to invest in identifying your market position, and the specific attributes that constitute your brand. Without this fundamental intelligence, your marketing will be haphazard, your market confused, and your return will fall far short of your marketing investment.
The second is the failure to integrate brand messaging into all marketing and sales activities – not consigned to a tagline or sporadic mention in copy.
For brand messaging to have an impact, it needs to consistently permeate every piece of marketing communication – print and electronic – every presentation, every sales conversation. If your firm does not speak in one voice, you will not break through the noise, capture market attention, and emerge as a market leader.
Marketing Sin #5 – Poorly Executing the Tactics You Employ
Professional services firms don’t all have departments dedicated to the creation, design, and execution of marketing. Partners and talented company laymen often step into marketing roles as needed.
However, because they are service professionals first, service delivery can supersede marketing. When this happens, it always shows…reworked brochures or thinly disguised sales copy pose as white papers; “monthly” newsletters issued erratically...when time allows.
These inconsistencies and quality lapses undermine brand and project a sloppiness that sullies the perception of your services. If your funds or time are limited, follow the wisdom of the old adage, “better to be a master of one than a jack of all trades.” A few carefully executed tactics far outweigh a long list of half-hearted attempts.
Marketing Sin #6 – Marketing the Chain Instead of the Link
Another common blunder in professional services’ marketing is the insistence on letting everybody know every service you offer with every outreach. The fastest way to shut down prospective (and current) clients’ attention is to barrage them with a long, comprehensive list of your skill sets. A marketing piece designed to do everything, in fact, does nothing.
When I ran a large management training company, I quickly learned this expensive lesson. We spent a great deal of money putting together marketing pieces that featured an inclusive list of our functional areas (financial management, supervision, public speaking, etc.) along with all the various training formats (seminars, books, software, videos. etc.).
The effort failed and failed big. We overwhelmed the market with too many options, and our marketing attempts foundered.
Marketing is effective only when you target your audience, and focus on one service (the “link”) that is couched inside an offer, such as a pilot program or educational event. Once in the door, you can introduce the “chain” of other services that might benefit the prospective client.
Marketing Sin #7 – Abandoning your Website
Because so many professional services firms rely on referrals and repeat business in order to sustain and grow their business, many ignore their website’s design and content because, they claim, “nobody finds us through the website.”
This may (or may not) be true for your current base or those prospects who have been routed to you through existing clients. But it is most certainly not true for those looking for a company that has the type of services you offer.
In How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report On Professional Services Marketing And Selling From The Client Perspective, published by Wellesley Hills Group and Raintoday.com, we found that an overwhelming majority of buyers will not only look at your website before buying, they will also use it as criteria for evaluating whether they should use your services.
Vital elements like out-of-date content, broken links, and poor site navigation reflect poorly on your firm. This image can quickly highjack your odds of being selected as a possible partner, and seriously jeopardize growth from outside your referral base.
***
The bad news first: These seven sins are common and are all-too-easy to commit. The good news: It is not difficult to exercise the vigilance necessary to climb out of that hellish rung reserved for desperate managers of stalled businesses, and initiate the launch into that celestial space enjoyed by market leaders.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM - To learn more about this author, visit Laurie Stafinski's Website.
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By John Doerr
The science and art of professional services marketing have come a long way in the last few years. It is no longer impossible to find examples of marketing efforts planned well, executed well, and measured well. Yet, in spite of these great strides, I continue to see the same marketing sins committed over and over again to the detriment of the firms and the people steering the marketing ship.
What’s frustrating about these sins is that they are all made by intelligent people who have the good sense and ability to avoid them.
Marketing Sin #1 – Marketing by Consensus
Professional services firms are comprised of extremely competent people who know their area of expertise (law, accounting, engineering) well. After all, they are professionals. But that doesn’t mean that they are marketing professionals.
So why do they feel they are all equal in the marketing decision making process? It is usually because professional service firms are partnerships and partners share. As a result, marketing committees are formed which either produce a camel when a horse is needed or, in too many cases, end up with absolutely nothing.
To avoid this sin, recognize the shortcomings of the committee process and allow a senior person or partner with an ear or eye for marketing to make the decisions…then get out of the way.
Or even better, let the marketing professional whom you have hired do her job. The results can’t be any worse than the $100,000 worth of ads the committee decided to spend to generate “awareness” that resulted in no new business.
Marketing Sin #2 – Expecting Marketing to Be a Substitute for Selling
In very simple terms:
Marketing is for reach. Finding the opportunity to speak to someone who may need your services.
Selling is for coverage. Turning those opportunities into a new client (or new services with existing clients).
Marketing can be used to generate leads, draw people into the seduction of your services over time, or facilitate sales conversations with new people. Marketing will not actually land you the new client, or create the enduring relationship that is so essential for you to develop longstanding business. But marketing can go a long way to get you there.
Use marketing efforts to find the sales opportunity, and remind everyone that at some point, it’s the professional (not the marketing piece) who will have to close the deal.
Marketing Sin #3 – Misallocating Budget and Resources
You don’t go after a mosquito with an elephant gun or conversely chase down an elephant with a water pistol. Yet, time after time, I see professional service firms fail to execute a marketing strategy commensurate with the goal.
If you want to grow by 40-50%, then do enough and spend enough to get there. If your growth objectives are more modest, then calibrate accordingly without wasting your dollars or time. (By the way, the former situation is far more common).
In What’s Working in Lead Generation, published by Wellesley Hills Group and Raintoday.com, we found that 36% of firms that spent 10% or more on marketing grew by 50% or more, whereas only 21% of those spending less grew at that heady rate.
Marketing Sin #4 – Not Doing What It Takes to Project Your Brand
Too often, “brand” is dismissed as the latest marketing buzzword when, in fact, it's the crucial element to long-term marketing success, client loyalty, and new client acquisition. Sadly, too few professional service firms recognize its imperativeness. And even if they do, they give it only peripheral attention, or worse – none at all. Shortfalls here abound, but two are especially harmful.
The first is the failure to invest in identifying your market position, and the specific attributes that constitute your brand. Without this fundamental intelligence, your marketing will be haphazard, your market confused, and your return will fall far short of your marketing investment.
The second is the failure to integrate brand messaging into all marketing and sales activities – not consigned to a tagline or sporadic mention in copy.
For brand messaging to have an impact, it needs to consistently permeate every piece of marketing communication – print and electronic – every presentation, every sales conversation. If your firm does not speak in one voice, you will not break through the noise, capture market attention, and emerge as a market leader.
Marketing Sin #5 – Poorly Executing the Tactics You Employ
Professional services firms don’t all have departments dedicated to the creation, design, and execution of marketing. Partners and talented company laymen often step into marketing roles as needed.
However, because they are service professionals first, service delivery can supersede marketing. When this happens, it always shows…reworked brochures or thinly disguised sales copy pose as white papers; “monthly” newsletters issued erratically...when time allows.
These inconsistencies and quality lapses undermine brand and project a sloppiness that sullies the perception of your services. If your funds or time are limited, follow the wisdom of the old adage, “better to be a master of one than a jack of all trades.” A few carefully executed tactics far outweigh a long list of half-hearted attempts.
Marketing Sin #6 – Marketing the Chain Instead of the Link
Another common blunder in professional services’ marketing is the insistence on letting everybody know every service you offer with every outreach. The fastest way to shut down prospective (and current) clients’ attention is to barrage them with a long, comprehensive list of your skill sets. A marketing piece designed to do everything, in fact, does nothing.
When I ran a large management training company, I quickly learned this expensive lesson. We spent a great deal of money putting together marketing pieces that featured an inclusive list of our functional areas (financial management, supervision, public speaking, etc.) along with all the various training formats (seminars, books, software, videos. etc.).
The effort failed and failed big. We overwhelmed the market with too many options, and our marketing attempts foundered.
Marketing is effective only when you target your audience, and focus on one service (the “link”) that is couched inside an offer, such as a pilot program or educational event. Once in the door, you can introduce the “chain” of other services that might benefit the prospective client.
Marketing Sin #7 – Abandoning your Website
Because so many professional services firms rely on referrals and repeat business in order to sustain and grow their business, many ignore their website’s design and content because, they claim, “nobody finds us through the website.”
This may (or may not) be true for your current base or those prospects who have been routed to you through existing clients. But it is most certainly not true for those looking for a company that has the type of services you offer.
In How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report On Professional Services Marketing And Selling From The Client Perspective, published by Wellesley Hills Group and Raintoday.com, we found that an overwhelming majority of buyers will not only look at your website before buying, they will also use it as criteria for evaluating whether they should use your services.
Vital elements like out-of-date content, broken links, and poor site navigation reflect poorly on your firm. This image can quickly highjack your odds of being selected as a possible partner, and seriously jeopardize growth from outside your referral base.
***
The bad news first: These seven sins are common and are all-too-easy to commit. The good news: It is not difficult to exercise the vigilance necessary to climb out of that hellish rung reserved for desperate managers of stalled businesses, and initiate the launch into that celestial space enjoyed by market leaders.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM - To learn more about this author, visit Laurie Stafinski's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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