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What Service Professionals Can Expect in 2012

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

michael mclaughlinLast month, the good folks at RainToday.com asked several of their contributors to take a crack at answering these questions:

  • What do you expect to happen in the new year as it applies to professional services marketing, sales and business growth?
  •  Are there any trends you see taking hold?
  • Are there things you think firms should do in 2012?
  • Do you have any advice for handling the still-challenging economy and buyer habits?

Here’s a link to the answers the group gave to these questions.

My response:

Maybe it’s a cliché to say that we’re awash in information. But it’s hard to paint a true picture of today’s world without that reference.

Think about it: More data was transmitted over the Internet in 2010 than in all previous years combined, according to researchers at Intel. It’s a safe bet that the numbers didn’t shrink in 2011.

Every minute, 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube; each day, 200 million tweets are sent out; and every month, more than 7 billion photos are uploaded to the Internet. More than 4 billion devices are connected to the Internet, and that number is expected to reach 15 billion in just a few years.

The mind-boggling stats have profound implications for professional services providers in 2012 (and beyond). For starters, we have to re-double our efforts to remain effective information filters for our inundated clients.

Also, clients will become increasingly dismissive of those who try to market services by publishing over-simplified stuff like, “The 7 Secrets of Servant Leadership” in 300 words or less.

Service providers who rely on thought leadership to generate business will have to ratchet up the quality of what they produce, and they must be ready to distribute that content across the many channels clients will use.

Winners in 2012 will be both client advisers and publishers. They’ll apply the same uncompromising standards to their publishing activities as they do to client service. They’ll work tirelessly to put the “thought” into thought leadership.

They’ll stress substance and depth in their marketing content, not volume. They’ll be generous with their best ideas because they realize that’s the way to get clients to notice. And they’ll treat the communities they create through their publishing and marketing activities like clients—those they will listen to, serve, and eventually convert into buyers.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Status Report on Thought Leadership

August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Analysts at Sourceforconsulting.com reviewed consulting firms’ thought leadership marketing for the first half of this year to give us a sense of where firms are focusing their efforts and investments.

It’s interesting that 58% of the thought leadership published wasn’t industry or sector specific. Some firms choose to take the “generic” (cross-industry) approach to thought leadership development to maximize reuse of material across multiple industries, and to control costs.

Of the industry-specific thought leadership, the financial services sector was the most popular target with more than 25% of the material published. Next on the list of popular industries were health care and pharma, which together garnered almost 20% of the industry-specific thought leadership. Given the developments in both of those industries, it’s not surprising that firms are targeting them for business.

In the last six months, industry “studies” have continued to be a favorite choice for consulting firms, in spite of reports from Sourceforconsulting.com that clients aren’t especially interested in reading them. 17% of thought leadership falls into this category, with the Big 4 firms publishing 40% of that amount. Some Big 4 firms use these studies for specific client marketing activities and then publish them more widely at a later time.

Another area that’s gotten lots of attention is managing government regulation. 13% of thought leadership covered this topic, with content ranging from the strategic implications of regulations to the nitty-gritty details of regulatory compliance. Given that many firms have built substantial practices around compliance (think Sarbanes Oxley, for example), it’s predictable that firms would focus here.

There’s been little emphasis so far this year on practical issues like customer service, sales effectiveness, and new product development. These subjects represented less than 1% of the total. Maybe firms (and clients) feel these issues have already been covered ad nauseum.

Next month, researchers at Sourceforconsulting.com will release their assessment of the quality of the thought leadership they’ve reviewed. I get bleary-eyed just thinking about that task.

Find out more.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, Marketing Tagged With: ,

How to Pull Off a Great Webinar: Podcast with Roger Courville

July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Roger Courville

If you’re like me, you’ve attended many webinars or other virtual presentations. Overall, the quality of the sessions I’ve seen have been, at best, uneven. Given that, I thought I’d ask Roger Courville, one of the most articulate experts on this subject, what it takes to stage a great webinar.

Roger wrote the book on virtual presentations–literally. He’s the author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook, which helps virtual presenters develop and deliver content that engages audiences. He’s also the co-founder of 1080 Group, a firm that helps clients design and optimize web seminar programs.

In this podcast, Roger and I talk about the common characteristics of a great webinar, how speakers can hold an audience’s attention, and how to approach the creation of presentation slides. Roger also offers his perspective on the market for paid webinars, why webinar programs are an untapped opportunity, and what the future holds for virtual presentations.

We cover a lot of ground in less than 20 minutes.

Podcast run time: 17:38
Intro music exluna by Jakub Koter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: Managing Your Business, Marketing, Speaking Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Do You Call Yourself a “Trusted Advisor?”

May 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

michael w mclaughlinIn their bestseller, The Trusted Advisor, David Maister, Charles Green, and Rob Galford made the case that professionals need more than just technical expertise to succeed. They must also have the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients.

As the term Trusted Advisor became part of the language of the services business, a funny thing happened. Some firms started using the term as a marketing slogan. Here are some examples:

“Like you, we are much more than ‘just’ service providers to our clients. We are trusted advisors.”

“___________ provides these solutions by being a trusted advisor to our clients. “

“Before we become your trusted advisor, we discuss your values; goals; personal, professional and institutional relationships; assets; and interests.”

Even HP got into the act with a splashy press release:

“The HP Trusted Advisor service offers HP consulting experts who work closely with clients to consider all aspects of business operations, IT infrastructure and facilities, as well as the enablement of technologies, such as cloud and green computing.”

Becoming a Trusted Advisor marks a stage in the development of your relationship with a client. It’s a state you aspire to achieve, not something to assert as your marketing catchphrase. That’s like calling yourself world-renowned; someone else needs to give you the label.

Adopting Trusted Advisor as your slogan masks a real problem: You are basing your marketing strategy on an unsupported claim, and that’s likely to fall flat in the market. Just because you declare yourself to be a Trusted Advisor doesn’t mean prospective clients will see you as such.

Your marketing goal must be to find highly credible points of differentiation for your business. And there are many options to do that, from marketing your ideas to touting your people. Making unsubstantiated assertions could be the weakest marketing strategy of all.

So why continue to use it?

If you want to learn more about the authors of The Trusted Advisor, you might be interested in my interviews with them on various subjects:

David Maister on Strategy and the Fat Smoker

Charles Green on Who and Why Clients Trust

Robert Galford and Regina Maruca on How Legacy Thinking Makes Better Leaders Today

Filed Under: Client Relationships, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

What’s Your Ideal?

May 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

michael w mclaughlinIf you are looking to grow a services business, the effort can seem akin to pushing a two-ton boulder up a mountain with one arm. The market is crowded, strong competitors lurk around every corner, and price competition seems relentless.

You can sidestep those obstacles by defining precisely who you want to work for and what you’ll do for your clients. You might be saying to yourself, “well, that’s obvious.” But I’m not suggesting that you define your business by the clients you have and the work you can do. I’m saying to define your business—and your marketing strategy—by the work you want to do.

Marketing your business takes drive, determination, and passion. You need a ton of motivation to get up early and work late to get and keep your business on track. Long term, you’ll only put out that level of energy for clients and issues that you’re truly passionate about. Once you’re pursuing your passion, crowded markets, tough competitors, and price pressure become secondary concerns.

Who Is Your Ideal Client?

One thing you can do to ease your path to profit is to make good decisions about how you’ll go to market. Your first step: define your ideal client. Once you figure out who those clients are, then you can design marketing strategies to reach them.

Your ideal clients might be executives with specific titles, like CEOs, CFOs, or CIOs. Or maybe your ideal client leads a particular business function in sales, marketing, or manufacturing. For some, reaching the ideal client means directing marketing efforts toward specific companies.

What Do You Want to Do

But you shouldn’t stop with identifying your ideal client. Step two is to define your ideal project too. What issues or problems do you want to help with, what impact do you want to make, and how will you structure the way you work with your ideal client?

Granted, you won’t always get to work with the clients you really want. But you should market your business as though you can. It’s the prospect of working with those ideal clients that will keep you focused on building your business, even after the toughest day.

No service provider must give in to the notion that the market is saturated. Focus on your ideal client and project and you’ll get a boost in your innovation, marketing energy, and results.

Filed Under: Client Relationships, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Selling to the “C-Suite”

April 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

michael mclaughlinIt’s common to see articles, courses, webinars, boot camps, and other programs about accessing, communicating with, and selling to the so-called “C-Suite.” Being part of the “C-Suite,” of course, means that your job title begins with the letter C, as in CEO, CFO, CIO, and so on.

“C-Suite” executives, the reasoning goes, are an elite class of clients, and so people working with those executives need to possess enhanced skills. Granted, “C-Suite” people hold positions of seniority and usually have more responsibility than others. But the skills you need to succeed with them are the same ones you use no matter what “suite” you’re working in.

You may be a polished, “C-Suite-ready” communicator, but you’ll fall flat if you can’t grasp and synthesize a client’s issue and connect it to a range of workable solutions. It’s your expertise, diagnostic skills, ability to comprehend complex issues, and creativity that hold a client’s attention. And that’s true whether or not that person is one of the higher ups.

You can’t afford to stumble through any client presentation, but insight and expertise trumps a smooth talker any day. Your goal—no, your job—must be to continually explore every facet of your field in the search for ideas that can transform your relationships with clients.

The things you do when there isn’t a client meeting to prepare for, like brushing up on the latest industry research, or talking with other experts to expand your thinking, give you the essential foundation to make any client meeting go more smoothly.

That’s how you prepare to make an impact in the “C-Suite” and in every other client situation you encounter.

Filed Under: Marketing, Selling Tagged With: , , ,

The Client Value Dip

April 22, 2011 By 2 Comments

In a perfect world, the more value you give to clients, the more you receive. If you’ve got clients who fit the ideal profile below, hold onto them.

michael mclaughlin

But the value profile of most client relationships isn’t linear–it’s more like a sine wave, as shown below. The value you get (projects, referrals, compensation, and so on) grows for a while with the value you deliver, and then it dips. One common time for a dip is when you wrap up a project.

michael mclaughlin

When a relationship enters a dip, lots of service providers pack up and move on to the next opportunity. Predictably, the relationship fizzles out.

If you find yourself in a dip, take steps to make sure it is temporary. Often, you can pull out of a dip by staying in touch and visible, and by bringing new ideas to your clients. You’ll find that getting out of the dip with an existing client can be easier—and more profitable—than chasing after a brand new one.

Filed Under: Client Relationships, Marketing Tagged With: ,

A Blog You Should Read

April 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie

Ian Brodie, a UK-based consultant and coach, publishes a thought-provoking blog called Get More Clients in Less Time. If you are in the professional services business, there’s a lot to like about Ian’s blog.

He’s Been There and Done It

One of the things I like about Ian’s work is that he really knows his stuff—and sticks with it. He’s got real expertise in professional services and it shows. You can find other people writing about services marketing who mistakenly believe their general knowledge of marketing qualifies them to opine on the challenges facing services marketers. Ian’s not a pretender. He’s been there and done it.

Keeps It Fresh

Ian does a good job of posting on a regular basis. You’ll find fresh content every week, often with a counter-intuitive spin on conventional wisdom. Not long ago, he wrote an interesting post on Marketing Half Truths, which you’ll see challenges the “rules” of services selling.

Presents a Variety of Viewpoints

Recently, Ian added a podcast program called Authority Marketing. Each podcast is an interview with a leading consultant about how that person built an authority position in the market. He’s got interviews with people like Drayton Bird, John Seddon, Charles Green, and Tom Searcy.

Speaks Authentically

The blog’s intent is to support Ian’s sales process, but not in an in-your-face way. His writing style is authentic, engaging, and personable. Here’s an example from his bio:

“I’m far from a natural salesperson. But through study and experience I’ve learned what it takes for even the most reluctant of professionals to become highly effective at marketing and sales – and that’s what I teach my clients.”

Check It Out

Ian is doing interesting work and shares his expertise freely. If you haven’t seen his blog, it’s worth a look.

Filed Under: Managing Your Business, Marketing, Selling Tagged With: , , ,

The Fallacy of Standardization

April 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

It’s fairly common to hear the advice that service providers should package their services into product-like offerings. That is, if they want to grow their businesses more quickly, close sales more easily, and rack up the profits.

The reasoning is that clients will have an easier time understanding and buying a “product” than grasping the benefit of a pure (intangible) service offer. To make the buyer’s job easier, each service offer should have a standard methodology (not a bad idea), a brand name, canned “deliverables,” and a set price. That way, clients would know exactly what they were getting, thereby simplifying the buying process.

As a marketing strategy, standardizing your offerings does accomplish one goal: it helps clients evaluate what you’re offering. As a sales strategy, though, the standard offer usually falls flat on its face.

I don’t remember a client ever saying, “Just give me the standard package of services you give to everyone else.” Clients want new ideas that are relevant to their unique situations. That’s what they pay for. Your standard offer may get the door open, but the actual solution you design is what leads to differentiation—and the sale.

If you rely solely on a standardized “product” for sales, you strip the innovation from your service and risk landing on the pile of commodity providers who compete solely on price. To find the path to growth, you need the right balance between standardization and innovation.

It makes sense to describe your services in an understandable way by referring to a service name, an approach to delivering the service, and the benefits others have achieved. But if you try to sell any off-the-shelf service as-is, you’re leaving out the most important part of the service—your own creativity.

Filed Under: Managing Your Business, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

What’s in a Name?

April 4, 2011 By 2 Comments

what's in a name?It’s easy to overlook little things that make a big impression on clients. The job titles we use on business cards, email signature lines, and web sites, for example, convey a world of meaning to others, some of which isn’t helpful.

Take the title Business Development Manager, which seems harmless enough. The problem is that many clients will get the clear message that your aim is to develop your business, not theirs.

The same holds true for Account Manager or Sales Executive. You’re sending clients a seller-centered message, when they’re looking for someone who puts their interests at the center of the conversation.

Some people recognize this problem but make it worse with their solutions. Instead of Client Relationship Manager, for instance, they go with something lame like Chief Synergy Detector or the Grand Marshall of Morale Boosting. Besides making people roll their eyes, these titles are less useful than the run-of-the-mill ones.

So what do you use instead? If you feel that you must use a title (which I’m not convinced everyone needs to), begin by thinking about titles that reflect what you do for clients, not what you do for your business.

Maybe you’re a Supplier Productivity Specialist, Online Marketing Strategist, or a Leadership Development Manager. With such a title, you can use your calling card or email signature line to help convey your value to clients.

If you’re not inclined to use this kind of title, you have two options. Either dump the title entirely, or use a simple one like Consultant, Associate, Principal, and so on. Whatever choice you make, be sure it’s for the benefit of the client, not you.

 

Filed Under: Client Relationships, Managing Your Business, Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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