professional services marketing 3.0

contents

1 – professional services marketing 3.0
how we got from marketing 2.0 to here

2 – change is a result – evolution is the process
the anatomy of getting to professional services marketing 3.0 – and beyond

3 — how marketing works
building a firm – for now and the future

4 — building a marketing culture
moving into professional services marketing 3.0

5 — the risk of not understanding the risk
how to understand, manage and avoid reckless risk

6 – anything you can do i can do better
are accountants or lawyers the better marketers? does one size fit all?

7 —  a fixed position in a moving world
positioning as a metaphor

8 — let’s lose the word image
it’s a hollow view

9 — marketing an accounting firm
the virginia accountant 1980

10 –the secret formula for professional services marketing
it all boils down to getting one client at a time

11– sing me a sonnet
or find some other way to inspire me

12 — i’ve got a little list
targeted  marketing  and a total context to make it work

13 — managing knowledge as a marketing and management tool
what do we know when we say know?

14 — new dimensions in internal communications
information management and the internal communications process

15 – dealing with clients who think they know marketing
but don’t and what they should know

16 — all together  now – it’s our client
the client service team as a growing phenomenon

17 — can david beat goliath again?
ten things small firms can do to compete

18 — don’t solve the problem – do a brochure
on being original in a brochure

19 — being social in the new world of social media
talking to prospects  when prospects can talk back

20 — i caught it — can i keep it?
keeping your client out of the competitive pool

21 — advertising as a marketing tool that sometimes works
and why it sometimes doesn’t

22 — ogletree deakins gets it right
doing the perfect ad

23 — there’s a leak in my  firm
never mind who — why?

24 — be nice to the journalists
or else you’ll turn into a pumpkin — or something

25 — spinning out of control
when bad things happen to good marketers

26 — same game, same name, different rules
any old pr person will do

27 — where went the 5 ws?
the press release in today’s world

28 — is more publicity better?
or is better publicity better?

29 — getting to the next stage
sometimes change is improvement – sometimes it isn’t. but it’s always inevitable

praise for professional services marketing 3.0

bruce marcus transcends our imagination by revealing the elements that will define the future of professional service firm marketing and then offers a navigational tool that illuminates the road ahead.  he does this after laying a foundation that explains where we are now and why.  this brilliant work will become the manual for individual professionals as well as firm leaders and marketing professionals.

gerry riskin, b. com, llb, p. admin,
former managing partner
and cofounder of the global consultancy edge international.

bruce marcus has been a distant mentor since i began following his writings in 1990. inprofessional services marketing 3.0, bruce takes us on a remarkable journey from marketing 1.0 to 3.0, dissecting all the concomitant changes taking place in the marketplace. like a master cartographer, he maps out the forces of marketing 3.0 that will change the professions—most importantly, from being practice-centric to becoming client-centric. because the purpose of any enterprise is to create a customer, marketing and innovation are the only functions that matter, as they create results, whereas all the rest are merely costs. read this brilliant work to learn how to perform both of these functions more effectively in an environment dominated by creative change.

ron baker,
founder, verasage institute,
author of implementing value pricing:
a radical business model for professional firms

bruce has always been on the nose of the ship – peering into the future and guiding firms’ growth strategies. he does it again, with profound insights in professional services marketing 3.0. this book is a gem!

gale crosley,
cpa, crosley+company

legal marketing opens the doors through which lawyers walk to develop business. over a 60-year career in marketing, nobody has opened more of those doors, and successfully led more lawyers through, than bruce marcus. now, at a critical inflection point in the profession’s history, bruce looks back to show us where we’ve been and looks forward to show us where we’re going — the doors yet to be opened. i strongly recommend you follow him through.

jordan furlong,
law21 and partner,
edge international

throughout his extraordinary career, bruce marcus has been teaching us to grasp the fundamental unchanging truths of professional marketing even as we respond to the inevitable changes and challenges that expanding marketplaces dictate. professional services marketing 3.0is a wise study of where we are now, how we got here, and where we need to go next. here, simply, is the voice of a master.

richard s. levick, esq.,
president & ceo,
levick strategies

in professional services marketing 3.0, bruce marcus has repeated and updated many of his musings from over the years.  his use of historical references demonstrates both consistency and evolution—some things have changed; some things have not.

history is important for professional services marketers.  it helps explain why some of our recalcitrant attorneys or accountants behave the way they do, and why it can be so hard to get things done.

but bruce also provides hope for change.  in his view, the new world of professional services marketing—3.0—is one where marketing is integrated into the practice, and where practitioners work in partnership with professional marketers.  in his book, bruce presents examples of forward-thinking firms, and insights into where the future might lead.

with professional services marketing 3.0, bruce reminds us that he “got it” long before “it” even got here.

sally j. schmidt,
president,
schmidt marketing, inc.

who better to hold the lamp high while we struggle toward a more rational and humane future for the professions? i am reminded again of bruce marcus’ unflagging intelligence and his extraordinary clarity and perspective on the subject of marketing knowledge services – or, to be more precise, managing the business of knowledge services. i’m grateful to find yet another of bruce’s books in my hands, giving fine shape to the future in a way that makes it seem possible.

merrilyn astin tarlton,
attorney at work

professional services marketing 3.0 is a key guide for anyone working in the professions. it is more than part “the essential marcus” -an anthology of the author’s best articles spanning 5-plus decades and part a chronicle of the development of marketing in the professions: charmingly mixed with autobiographical elements, marcus challenges conventional wisdom and looks at what’s yet to come, and yet to be done. in a time of increased competition, lawyers, accountants and their marketers have to work closer together than ever, and use smarter, rather than merely more marketing. marcus’ book should appeal to newcomers to accounting and law firm marketing, those needing a refresher course on best practice as well as to seasoned marketers interested in questioning the viability and effectiveness of their marketing.

dr. silvia hodges,
fordham law school

if you’re breathing, you’re marketing.  not everyone realizes this truth, but great rainmakers and those who are looking to thrive in the new normal certainly do.  you can choose to ignore this truth and suffer the inevitable consequences, or you can study the wisdom shared by bruce marcus in professional services marketing 3.0, implement what you learn and be among those who thrive in this ever changing world.  you can hang on and pray or choose to steer the ship intelligently.  those who read bruce’s latest book will be in the latter group.

patrick lamb,
founding member,
valorem law group

bruce marcus has the uncanny ability to take a hot-button topic and soothingly—but incisively—cut to the heart of the matter: everything you think you know about marketing has changed. in a fast-paced, wonderfully written look at marketing today and in the future, marcus shows the reader how enormously this field has changed in a few short decades—and how it is changing now. law firm marketing professionals and attorneys alike should use this book as their bible.

wendy ampolsk stavinoha,
senior legal and marketing editor

bruce marcus has written the alpha and omega of guides to marketing professional services.  his book is like a gps for navigating all the rapidly expanding possibilities for marketing to and reaching potential clients.  drawing on decades of experience, bruce has created a thorough and practical guide that every law firm should read and use immediately.

pamela woldow,
general counsel & partner,
edge international, llc

this is so much more than just a marketing book for professionals. instead, bruce marcus has crafted a manifesto for the coming revolution that will forever change how professionals serve their clients. with his decades of real-world experience and wisdom, bruce marcus is the perfect guide for navigating this change. if you’re a professional — even one who hates the idea of marketing — and you want to better reach and serve clients, you must read professional services marketing 3.0.

jay shepherd,
ceo of prefix, llc and author of
theclientrevolution.com

bruce marcus has been pushing back the frontiers of legal marketing since its very start, and now he is at it again.  his new book not only provides a picture of where legal marketing is now, it also explains where it is going next. don’t miss this definitive guide to where legal marketing is going, from a thought leader who’s been charting its course since the very beginning.

jim hassett,
founder, legalbizdev

bruce marcus has once again knocked it out of the park!  professional services marketing 3.0 will be the bible for business developers and marketing savvy lawyers and accountant and their support teams.  bruce marcus teaches people to be innovative thinkers and how to successfully implement cutting edge innovations for success in business, which ultimately results in revenue generation and total client satisfaction.

iris jones,
lawyer, business development coach and trainer,
ceo, alchemy business strategies, llc.

lawyers and accountants, from students and novices to the most experienced professionals, can benefit from bruce marcus, a marketing guru who, for decades, has helped lawyers, accountants and other professionals to communicate more effectively. in fact, his new book is so delightfully written that anyone in banking and related fields, as well as people in advertising, public relations, sales and other areas of marketing, can enjoy and benefit by reading it.

richard weiner,
author of 23 books
about public relations and media

“professional services marketing 3.0”?

this from someone who has written, spoken, railed against jargon and gimmicks?

well, yes, because in this rapidly changing economic environment, intensely competitive landscape, and highly charged computer age, it’s the best way to define significant evolution from one distinct period to the next. as you’ll see, that’s exactly what’s happened and is happening.

– from the preface of
“professional services marketing 3.0?

about bruce w. marcus

bruce w. marcus pioneered the modern practices of professional services marketing and remains a legend in the industry and professional services marketing 3.0, the ultimate authority.

in 1951, with a degree in economics and philosophy, he joined the then-big eight accounting firm peat marwick mitchell to establish the firm’s library. there, he developed an article writing and seminar program that successfully promoted the firm’s reputation.

the association for accounting marketing named the lifetime achievement award after him.

professional services marketing 3.0, completed shortly before his passing, was his final book and remains the leading source on the topic. in his long and storied career, marcus served as a public relations and marketing executive or consultant to most of the international accounting firms, and many large and small law firms. his book competing for clients was one of the first to delineate the new practices of professional services marketing, followed by more than a dozen books on professional services marketing, real estate marketing, investor relations, and international accounting standards. his first newsletter, the marcus report, was followed by the award-winning marcusletter.com — one of the longest-running letters on marketing for lawyers and accountants. he was on the editorial boards of several leading professional services publications, a contributor to many publications, and was a keynote speaker at major conferences. he taught one of the first courses in professional services marketing at the fordham university graduate school of business and lectures frequently at the fordham university law school.

marcus died shortly before christmas 2014 in new haven at age 89.