WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING SERVICES: WE DON'T DO MARKETING

By Mike Schultz and John Doerr

As we speak with leaders of professional services firms and ask them, "What do you currently do for marketing?" a certain percentage of them reply, "We don't do marketing." What we find, however, is maybe they do more than they think.

The Marketing Services Conversation:

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: What do you do for marketing?

Service Firm Leader: We don't do marketing. And we certainly don't do branding. We tried marketing a few times, like advertisements, sponsoring conferences, and even direct mail, but it didn't work. We have a brochure. Every firm needs a brochure...but it's outdated...and we have a website, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: Fair enough. So how do you generate new clients?

Service Firm Leader: A certain number come from referrals, though they are slowing down. We've always generated new clients through conversations at speeches and sometimes people call us when they read our articles in trade publications.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: Oh? How many speeches do you deliver? And where?

Service Firm Leader: I'm not really sure. Every partner manages their own schedule, but I'd say among the 15 partners we probably give about 60 presentations a year at trade events, conferences, and seminars.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: Are those the only events where you speak?

Service Firm Leader: Yes...unless you want to count our bi-monthly breakfast and lunch seminars on various topics for our clients. So I guess there are six more.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: Can you open those breakfasts to non-clients?

Service Firm Leader: I don't see why not. Never really tried to, though.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: And you mentioned articles? Where do you publish?

Service Firm Leader: Usually in the three core trade journals that our clients read. Plus, a few of our partners are on the boards at professional associations so we publish on their websites and in their magazines.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: Are those the only places you get press?

Service Firm Leader: No, we often get quoted by journalists in our area of specialty. Two of our partners published a book a few years back. Since then we've been dubbed 'experts' by the press and have been quoted often ever since.

Professional Services Marketing Consultant: One last question: how would your clients describe you if someone asked what it's like to work with you?

Service Firm Leader: We're very clear about what we're shooting for there. 1) Our work is always top quality. 2) We never leave the office until we finish what we promised to finish. 3) We're a pleasure to work with.

I believe that our clients would tell anyone some variation of these three things.


Is It Marketing?

All this and they "don't do marketing" and "don't do branding." Of course all of this is marketing—it's simply not defined as marketing by this firm's leadership (and by many of the leaders with whom we speak).

Many service firm leaders are experts in their chosen fields. The heads of engineering firms are engineers, accounting firm leaders are CPAs, technology firms are run by...you guessed it. Most of them aren't however, career marketing or sales people.

The marketing these service firm leaders are familiar with is aimed at them as a consumer in their non-work lives—the detergent they buy, the shoes they wear, the cars they drive. Since most consumer marketing comes in the form of television commercials, radio advertisements, billboards, magazine ads, and direct mail, these are the types of activities that service firm leaders equate with marketing.

But service marketing looks and feels different than consumer marketing. Wrigley's Spearmint Gum and Ford Explorers rarely write white papers. Nike shoes don't facilitate seminars, and we haven't seen Ivory Soap quoted as an industry expert in the Wall Street Journal for as long as we can remember.

So how do you recognize service marketing? All service firm marketing, regardless of industry, has one common characteristic: if the purpose of engaging the activity is, in whole or in part, to attract and retain profitable customers, it is marketing.

Let's Do Some Marketing

In the course of our consulting work we are often brought in to help start a professional services marketing engine for our clients. Their first comments are something like, "We'd like to start a pro-active marketing program, but we don't do anything yet, don't know where to start, and don't know what we're supposed to get out of it."

After an initial conversation with the clients (often like the one we described above) we typically find most firms do some level of speeches, events, trade show exhibiting, networking, publishing, and regular client communications. And they sometimes even engage direct marketing or some other more recognizable 'marketing' tactics.

Since these initial activities are, indeed, marketing activities, we often ask questions such as:


Do you have expected outcomes for the professional services marketing activities you are already engaging?


Do you measure the client generation results from these professional services marketing activities?


Do you know if you are getting the greatest possible new client generation you can from these activities?


Have you brainstormed ways to get additional revenue generation or client retention with what you are already doing in terms of marketing?


Have you discontinued any activities that are not producing results?


Do you know if you are focusing your firm's energy on the right services marketing activities with the right levels of investment in time and dollars?


Do you test new services marketing activities to see if they'll work as well as or better than what you're currently doing?
More often than not, the answers are 'no...not really...not systematically...not lately...get off my case already' or something to that effect. Yet, this may be a blessing in disguise.

Improving Your Revenue and Client Generation Results

If you have clients, you are generating them somehow—this is your marketing. Very few professional services firms generate 100% of their clients from networking and referrals (and if you do, you can probably generate even more with the right pro-active marketing).

So if you ever find yourself saying, 'We don't do marketing,' ask yourself the following question, 'Do we engage in activities for the purpose of attracting and retaining profitable clients?' If the answer is yes, then you do marketing.

The second question, then, is to ask yourself, 'If this is marketing, can we get better results?' If this question opens up a whole new can of worms at your firm (and it just might), you should be thrilled. It means greater growth and profitability are not only possible, but could be in your very near future.


WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING SERVICES: WE DON'T DO MARKETING - To learn more about this author, visit Laurie Stafinski's Website.

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