and the role it plays in client retention.
by bruce marcus
professional services marketing 3.0
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.
how do a firm and its people become part of professional services marketing 3.0?
more: professional services marketing requires flexibility | what your marketing program can and can’t do | have you planned how to service your new revenue? | how to set marketing objectives | nine reasons that prospects say yes | how marketing evolved to 3.0 | accountants don’t sell soap. | why competition matters most
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part of the answer resides in building a marketing culture within a firm, which means that everyone in the firm understands that he or she has an active role in marketing and practice development and understands what that role entails.
it means that professionals have an attitude that grants enthusiastic hospitality to marketing.
firms may have their rainmakers – the partner who could go into a revolving door alone and come out arm in arm with a new client – but in today’s competitive marketplace, one or two rainmakers are not enough, if only because the competitive firms have three or more rainmakers going after the same prospective clients that you want. the firms that want to grow and thrive must be turned into marketing machines – to have a culture that understands and supports a marketing effort.
defining a marketing culture
a firm may be said to have a marketing culture when its professional staff …
- understands and recognizes the role that marketing plays in firm management and developmen
- understands and respects the professionalism of the marketing professional and the marketing staff.
- recognizes the relationship between what they do and the needs of the marketplace
- understands and accepts its role in the marketing process
- understands and accepts that non-billable hours spent on marketing are an investment in the future of the firm, and are not simply non-billable hours
- participates in specific marketing activities
- retains and supports competent professional marketing staff
- structures the firm to develop and pursue a marketing program
- ultimately, is managed by people who understand and enthusiastically support the marketing effort
a firm that meets these criteria is one that will compete successfully, function profitably, and grow.
building a marketing culture
building a marketing culture is a process that requires …
- top management support
- good marketing professionals
- marketing education of appropriate firm professionals
- a sound and professional marketing structure within the firm
management support
merely to have the managing partner say, “ok, let’s do it” is not enough. whatever the management style – lead by example, exhort, mandate – it’s not the same thing as being able to understand and then explain why marketing activities are essential for the growth of the firm; that people will be rewarded for marketing activities; that a measure of non-billable hours applied to marketing is not only acceptable but cherished; that marketing activity is a factor that contributes to measuring partners, associates and other professional staff compensation. top management support means inculcating into the firm the concept that in all professional activities, the client is at the core. top management support means more than acceptance of marketing – it means leadership.
good marketing professionals
someone once said that if you’re smart enough to be a lawyer or an accountant, you’re smart enough to do your own marketing. sure. and you’re probably smart enough to be a nuclear physicist – but that doesn’t make you one.
marketing may not be nuclear physics, but it is a profession with its own practices, experiences, skills and techniques. the good marketing professional is trained in the tools and mechanics of marketing, in its ideas and concepts, in its highly focused point of view. experience tells the marketing professional what may work and what may not work. if the marketer is imaginative and deft in using imagination, you get a program that’s thoughtful and specifically relevant to your needs. and the good marketer understands your profession and its needs.
the good marketer understands the distinctive nature of lawyers and accountants, and is capable of working well with them. he or she has more than a passing understanding of the legal or accounting profession – how it functions, how it serves clients, how the firm is structured, and the professional wishes of the partners and staff. and understands as well the character and personality of the lawyer or the accountant. as a professional, the good marketer belongs to, and is active in, the aam – association of accounting marketers – benefiting from the experience of peers, and contributing as well.
the good marketing professional is also a teacher, who knows how to impart the meaning and techniques of marketing skills to lawyers and accountants who are not themselves trained marketers. the good marketer is a leader, capable of leading professionals in marketing activities and concepts, and of managing marketing staff. as a communicator, the marketer must establish and maintain a good working relationship with the partners and staff, and keep them informed of marketing activities and aware of each professional’s responsibilities in the marketing program.
remember, the tools of marketing are available to everyone. what counts, then, is the experience and imagination the marketer brings to those skills. it’s more than the sum of the skills and mechanics, it’s the artistry with which they’re used. when you’re hiring a marketing professional, then, don’t hire the mechanic – hire the artist.
the professional’s role
the marketing professional can build the marketing program that enhances name recognition and reputation, and that can project the lawyer or accountants’ skills and special capabilities, but ultimately, the client has to meet the person or people who are going to perform the legal or accounting service. the bond between client and practitioner – the trust needed in a professional relationship – is a personal relationship that no salesperson can engender for a professional.
but the marketing activities that the lawyer or accountant can do, particularly under the aegis of the marketing professional, are essential. for example …
- the professional – the lawyer or accountant – with the marketer’s help, can write articles, can participate in seminars, can make speeches.
- under the marketer’s guidance, the professional can improve networking skills, particularly under a carefully devised networking program.
- the professional can learn to contribute to such marketing activities as writing articles for a firm or firm practice newsletter or blog.
- the professional can learn how to follow up a contact made by direct mail, or by attending firm seminars and networking afterward.
- while the professional who is not an instinctive sales person is not likely to become one, any intelligent professional can learn the selling skills necessary to convert a prospect into a client. the process is a relatively simple business transaction.
- a professional can learn how to keep a client, once the client is in the house.
- a professional can learn to understand the broader marketing program, and his or her role in it, without having to become a professional marketer.
these are things that merely broaden individual intelligence and education for the lawyer or accountant at no cost to professionalism.
when a firm’s professionals participate in these activities, and each participant accepts responsibility for performance, you have three things – involvement, motivation and a firm marketing culture.
the practice group
while there are many approaches to structuring a firm for marketing and improving client service, perhaps the most successful, as defined by patrick mckenna and david maister in their masterful book, “first among equals,” is the practice group. for any firm with more than a few lawyers or professionals, the practice group is proving to be the most effective way to manage a practice. it recognizes that each practice area has a different target audience. the practice group allows the professionals in that group to address the specific practice and marketing problems of the practice, and to manage them effectively. among the advantages of the practice group are …
- it’s defined by a specific practice within a firm, or a specific target audience. it could be a real estate group, or a tax practice, or a group offering computer services – anything defined by a discrete practice or market that’s served by professionals within the firm. the advantages are that every member of the group shares a common set of skills with the others in the group, addresses a common market, and most significantly, has the intellectual capability to help develop a distinctive marketing program to attract that market.
- it can enhance the skills of its members.
- it can share the burden of a marketing for example, if the group publishes brochures, newsletters or blogs, each member can participate in writing. each member can participate in seminars or speeches. each member can participate in one of several organizations that are part of a networking plan.
- it can be a vehicle for communication with other practice groups within the firm, thereby eliminating unnecessary communication difficulties, while sharing ideas for a common goal.
- it motivates reluctant participants by having them share in the responsibilities for the group’s marketing efforts.
- it can monitor the group’s plans in the firm’s marketing program, to assure correct focus.
if, on the other hand, the nature of your firm doesn’t lend itself to practice groups, you might consider designating a partner as the marketing partner, with the responsibility to oversee the program, coordinate the efforts of marketing professionals with the partnership, and act as a monitor and motivator to oversee participation in the program by individuals in the firm.
client retention
in the firm with a strong marketing culture, getting the client is only half the battle. the other half is keeping the client. it’s done with more than just doing good work. in fact, most clients, surveys tell us, don’t really know how good or how bad your work is. why should they? it’s not the business they’re in. they have to trust the professional.
independent studies also show that a large percentage of professional firm clients are dissatisfied with the levels of service from their accountants and lawyers. clients are given no foundation for understanding what’s being done for them, nor are reasonable expectations defined. what basis do clients have, then, for being satisfied?
the reality is that this new world is competitive in ways that it’s never been before. ask your clients how many times they’ve been approached by your competitors, and pursued aggressively. and then ask yourself if you can continue to be sanguine about keeping your clients happy, on a day-by-day basis.
there are, of course, some things that are clearly necessary in client retention. getting the right client in the first place is important. doing good work, obviously. being responsive, obviously. being timely in delivering promised reports and material. being polite to clients.
but these are things that are inherent in the meaning of professional. it’s what the client is paying for. you get no credit for doing them, but you lose clients for not doing them.
sophisticated marketers, as well as the firm’s professionals, have a strong handle on who the client company is, what the company does, what its needs are and how to address those needs in marketing approaches. which means that if you don’t have that same knowledge, and the kind of relationship that means total involvement in the client’s concerns, then you’re in imminent danger of losing the client. staying in touch with clients is not – and cannot be – a casual matter. today’s business is too dynamic, and things change constantly. at the same time, your competitors aren’t resting from pursuing your clients, so you may not rest.
client retention, then, requires more than the obvious factors of doing good work and delivering it on time. and in fact, in a dynamic business world, it’s often more than a personal relationship. it’s at least …
- being immersed in a client’s business and industry. knowing enough about a client’s business to anticipate problems in your professional area, and seeking new ways in which other of your services can help the client is invaluable.
- visible quality control systems. you may have your internal quality control systems, but if the client doesn’t know that, then the client has no reason to believe they exist. more importantly, the quality control systems should relate to the client’s business, not yours. this is increasingly pertinent, following the accounting and corporate scandals of the first years of the last and current centuries, and in many respects, is mandated by such laws as sarbanes-oxley. transparency is important.
- frequent contact points, beyond the engagement. you do, of course, what you’ve been hired to do. but you help both the client and yourself when you send a brochure on a subject of mutual interest. or a copy of a clipping in which you’ve been quoted on a subject the client might care about. or a simple newsletter, either your own or one of the excellent packaged ones, covering information of interest or concern to the client. the social media – the blog, twitter, linkedin – are particularly useful for this. the client should know you exist between contacts, between matters, between consultations.
- maintaining personal relationships. not just drinking and dining to keep the client happy, but establishing and reinforcing a sense of mutual understanding and trust. the degree to which the client calls on you for business advice is as much a matter of personal trust as it is professional trust.
the client-driven rather than the practice-driven firm is the only safe way to compete in today’s market. the price of ignoring this concept? a major professional firm took a highly conservative position on a matter pertaining to a client’s matter. the problem was not the position, but that the position was taken for the firm’s protection, and not the client’s – and the client became aware of this. there went the client.
keeping in touch with your client is crucial because needs change. your services change. by constantly reviewing the client’s needs, you not only assure that you’re giving the client the best service, and that you’re maximizing the relationship, but you’re also telling the client that you’re concerned. and the best part is that you can identify new client concerns that require your services.
regular client surveys also help, particularly if they are professionally done. new york’s former mayor koch used to walk the streets of the city, asking people, “how’m i doing?” he didn’t always like what he heard, but he always knew. anybody who doesn’t take active steps to keep aware of client attitudes toward the firm is somebody who likes unpleasant surprises. thoughtful surveys are helpful. frequent personal conversations between the client and the managing partner are even better.
successful professionals are those who’ve learned the difference between client relations and client service. both are important, but one is not the substitute for the other. in client retention, you have to have both.
it’s the peculiar nature of professional services that quality plays little or no role in getting new business, except perhaps in terms of reputation. it plays a crucial role in client retention, on the other hand, if you define quality as giving the client what the client needs, wants and expects. most frequently, in order to know what the client needs, wants and expects, you have to be immersed in the relationship. and you have to ask. here, quality is not an abstraction or a hollow boast – it’s a reality.
those who are most successful at client retention are those who actively work at it. they have programs and checklists. even small firms that are aware of the need for it have programs that focus on paying attention. they listen. they contact. they understand the economics, and know what kind of return they’re getting on their investment in it.
and they know, at first hand, why it’s true that keeping a client is still cheaper than getting a new one.
living with the marketing culture
some quarter of a century since the bates decision breathed life into professional services marketing, the professions have gone from an arcane, firm-centered, elitist culture to the beginnings of an understanding that at the core of every successful practice is the client. we’ve gone from groping to sophistication in marketing, which was as new to the professions in those early days as were the first live pictures from mars.
we’ve learned a lot about marketing the modern professional firm. but we’ve learned nothing with greater certainty than that the firm with the best marketing culture is the firm most likely to thrive in the coming decades.
that’s what professional services marketing 3.0 is about.