you only have three things to sell.
by bruce marcus
professional services marketing 3.0
it took about five years before the true meaning of the 1977 bates v. state bar of arizona decision finally dawned on the professionals.
more marcus: the delicate art of positioning your firm in the mind of the prospect | who’s better at marketing? lawyers or cpas? | even a random disaster can be controlled with risk management | managing risk in client relations | your clients love you? what if you’re wrong? | the three degrees of risk | four essential habits for building client trust | the nine hallmarks of a marketing culture | the four cornerstones to building a marketing culture | getting the client is only half the battle | practice development: it’s not rocket science | nine fundamentals for a healthy marketing culture in an accounting firm
editor’s note: 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 was privileged to have a long relationship with bruce w. marcus, who was ahead of his time in his thinking and practice in marketing for accounting. we are publishing some of the late expert’s evergreen work, which retains wisdom for the present.
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the professionals gradually came to realize that the decision meant that, for the first time in the memory of most practitioners then alive, they could now openly solicit one another’s clients – a practice that most professionals had never done before, nor had been allowed to do. it meant that the professionals had to face – and learn to deal with – not merely the polite and collegial competition of the past, but aggressive competition.
thus began a new course of practice, of professional firm management changes and of a new process of professional services marketing. for many accountants and lawyers of that generation, it was painful. moreover, it evoked that other fearful word, change.
in the attempt by professionals to find the path to successful marketing, for whom there was neither tradition nor experience in the marketing function, there was much groping. there were attempts to understand the concept of selling a service to people who might not immediately need it. products are marketed to persuade consumers to buy now. product marketing begins with the product, which is shaped to address not just the needs of the consumer, but the consumer’s desires – whether known, perceived or generated. thus, in product marketing, defining and even creating the product is as important as any other marketing techniques.
differences between product and professional services marketing
lawyers and accountants have historically not been concerned with the market – they are concerned with being lawyers and accountants, and meeting their own personal needs for professionalism. they are concerned with merely getting clients. that was sufficient pre-bates, but not now, because it’s not a competitive approach in a seriously competitive environment. as the marketing consultant janet stanton has pointed out, and as the insightful work of consultants donald aronson and larry smith have shown, lawyers too often know too little about how clients choose lawyers from the vast roster of professionals – or even how clients perceive them. surveys by the bay street group have found the same for accounting firms.
the late corporate philosopher, peter drucker, has often noted that the role of a corporation is to make a customer. lawyers and accountants have the same ultimate responsibility, to generate a client – not merely to collect clients, but to build a viable practice. but the path to it is different from the role of marketing for products. those differences significantly affect the nature and practices of law firm marketing. for example …
- product marketing sells products. law and accounting firm marketing sells knowledge, capability and skills. a product is static and defined in each iteration. a legal matter is dynamic, and frequently unique to each client.
- products have reliable consistency. the next tube of your brand of toothpaste is exactly the same as the last tube you bought. the human element in a product is subsumed by the product. lawyers’ and accountants’ performances vary case by case and by individual professionals and are the essence of professional services.
- product manufacturers are able to generate customer needs where none existed before. lawyers and accountants are constrained in their ability to create a need for their services where none had existed before (except to educate people about rights they didn’t know they had, e.g., class action or personal injury, appealing a tax levy).
- product marketing has greater flexibility to meet or shape the desires of the consumer. professionals have little flexibility to work outside the structure of the law and legal process or the rules of accounting. a corporation can market test its product, and the company can rapidly change it to adjust to customers’ tastes. professionals can’t change the laws or accounting principles to suit the needs of their clients, despite the opportunity to be creative within the boundaries of the law or accounting principles.
- there are flavors, emotional appeals, colors, and bells and whistles that product marketers can use to distinguish a product from its competitors. professionals are constrained by the law, by legal and accounting practice, and by ethical strictures. the adjectives of product marketing find little hospitality in professional services marketing.
- there may be a thousand people, and complex production processes, behind a product. the interface between these people and the consumer is the product itself. the interface between the professional and the client is the professional.
- when a salesperson sells you a vacuum cleaner, the vacuum cleaner stays and the salesperson goes. when a lawyer sells you his or her services, the professional stays.
- product marketing may specifically claim superiority over competitive products, but while one professional may be smarter, more energetic, more reliable and more imaginative than another, that professional can hardly promote that difference. you can’t say, “we write better briefs” or “we do better audits.” this is both an ethical and practical constraint because you can’t prove it.
- the reputation of a law or accounting firm can rise or fall on the performance of one lawyer or accountant and one client.
- the product company is experienced, with a long tradition in understanding its market and the concept of competing. it knows that it must actively define, pursue and nurture the consumer. lawyers and accountants know that most clients have no choice but to use their services (nobody ever woke up and said, “i think i’ll sue somebody today” or, “what i really need today is a good audit.”). the word competing didn’t seriously enter the lawyer’s lexicon until 1977 (bates). the product marketing tradition goes back centuries. there is virtually no active marketing or promotional tradition as we know it today for lawyers and accountants prior to 1977.
- product marketing can be measured by the number of products it sells. but professional services marketing can ultimately have only three significant results – building name recognition and reputation, projecting capabilities that contribute to choosing one lawyer or accountant over another when a lawyer or accountant is needed, and gaining access to a prospect that affords the professional the opportunity to sell his or her services.
- an ad campaign may drive a consumer to buy a product, but it can’t drive an individual or company to hire a lawyer or accounting firm. in professional services, the sale must be done by the professional, even when a non-professional supplies the access to the prospect.
- the product company understands that no matter what product it makes, it is really a marketing company that manufactures products to fill the channel opened by marketing activities. lawyers and accountants too often see themselves, not their consumers (clients), at the center of their universe. too bad. when professionals begin to understand that basic marketing concept, the earth will shake, walls will crumble, and the practice of law and accounting will change. but it will still be ethical, and the public will be better served.
- ultimately, a product is an abstraction – a symbol. it can be changed or replaced at the manufacturer’s whim, in response to a changing customer’s whim. last year’s kewpie doll is replaceable by next year’s barbie doll – all in response to the market’s whim. the law is the law, and accounting principles are immutable. there may be flexibility in application, or sometimes in imaginative approaches, but not at the whim of the client.
- if you sell a product, you’re selling against the competition. if you sell a process (such as a legal or accounting solution), you’re selling against (or to) the customer’s needs.
what does this tell us?
experience in functioning in this realm of differences tells us that law and accounting firm marketing can work when it’s designed to …
- enhance name recognition and reputation as a context for other marketing activities, and specifically, selling. in all areas of marketing, these two factors are particularly meaningful.
- project skills and expertise as the best way to distinguish one firm from another.
- enhance access to prospective clients, and, ultimately, sell.
- shape a practice to conform to your firm’s business plan.
- address constantly changing marketing needs, dictated by new laws, new business structures or new technology.
- effectively sell skills and capabilities to the prospects.
to accomplish these objectives, then, the tools of marketing – seminars, speeches, public relations, advertising, articles, social media, selling skills, etc. – must be tailored within the framework of projecting expertise. this also means that the adjectives, comparisons, and superlatives so common in product marketing have no place in professional services marketing. even when there seems to be a foundation for it, the boast rarely works.
a typical example of this process at work is in a direct mail letter or other direct response or targeted marketing campaigns. while most products may be sold directly in response to a direct response campaign, the well-crafted direct response campaign for lawyers aims to generate the opportunity for the professional to make a personal presentation. the sale is made in person, usually by the lawyer or accountant who will serve the client.
long ago, for a large international accounting firm, i developed a four-paragraph system that produced a return of 50 percent – 50 percent of the recipients of the campaign agreed to meet with us. in paragraph one, we stated the problem in the direst way we could. paragraph two said, “we can help.” paragraph three said, “this is who we are.” paragraph four said, “we’ll call you on monday to set up an appointment.” and 50 percent of the letters’ recipients agreed to meet. yes, 50 percent.
professional services marketing, then, is designed to move prospective clients to understand that when the need for legal or accounting services does arise, they should choose the marketer’s firm rather than another. retaining a lawyer or an accountant is rarely a discretionary purchase. buying a product, in many cases, is.
product marketing can persuade people to try a new product, or that your product is better than the other person’s. but you’re not likely to persuade someone to get an audit that isn’t externally demanded, or through marketing, to persuade a happily married person to get a divorce.
there are claims and promises you can’t credibly make in professional services marketing. this new competitive paradigm called for a new and unfamiliar form of marketing and a new kind of marketer. in every industry save one, the marketing department joins the other disciplines to help shape the product – not just its presentation, but the product itself. the marketing department is responsible for knowing the pulse of the market, and shaping products or services the market needs or will respond to. this is a crucial part of marketing products and non-profit services. the exception is professional services.