Some time ago, I was conducting a weekend-long workshop with a major professional service firm on the topics of marketing and selling their services. Many subjects were covered, including strategic positioning, targeting of key prospects, selling skills, client service, and the relative merits of seminars, brochures, and newsletters. Toward the end of this two-day workshop, … Read more

Marketing works when it demonstrates, not when it asserts. Marketing tactics that illustrate one’s competence (such as speeches, seminars, and articles) are infinitely more powerful than those which assert it (such as brochures, direct mail, and “cold calls” to “let me tell you more about our firm.”) Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by … Read more

Here’s what I want if I ask you to make a presentation. Sit down, distribute your materials in advance, and let’s go through them together. Don’t lower the lights, put up your slides, stand up, and walk me through your canned speech. It makes me feel like I am being lectured to. If I want … Read more

As you try to get me talking about my problems, demonstrate your sensitivity. I do not respond well to someone who asks me right up front “What are your problems?” That’s too assertive and you haven’t yet earned the right to an answer. Similarly, don’t ask “What’s not going well?” I’m not going to answer … Read more

One or two of the activities listed deserve some elaboration. “Volunteering to attend client’s internal meetings” is a particularly powerful tactic. As an illustration, suppose that a client service team learns that its client is holding a national meeting of, say, all of its branch managers, on a topic that is not covered by the … Read more

If existing clients offer such attractions, why is it that so many professional firms devote the vast bulk of their non-billable marketing time (and budget) to the pursuit of new clients? Part of the answer, of course, is that a steady flow of new clients is important to any professional firm. New clients are needed … Read more

Number of Words: 538 In many firms, there may be a need for training programs in client-contact skills. These should include training in classic client situations such as “How do you tell a client he is wrong?” and “What do you do if the client doesn’t like your ideas?” Accumulated wisdom in the firm on … Read more

Number of words: 817 A mailed questionnaire, such as that shown at the end of the passage, when used as a supplement (not a substitute) for other means of obtaining feedback, has the virtue that it is systematic. Its importance is that it not only obtains the feedback but, more importantly, it introduces an accountability … Read more

The importance of good relationship management (in the sense intended here) is borne out by another question in the study referred to above, in which we asked corporate executives about referrals. Only 10 percent of all referrals were found to be cases where technical considerations or “results” were given as the reason for the referral. … Read more

Number of words: 598 In a large-scale study I supervised for a major international professional service firm, corporate purchasers of a broad range of professional services (including audit, actuarial, consulting, legal, and marketing communications services) were asked, among other things, to rate their experience with professional firms on two key dimensions. First, we asked them … Read more