{"id":29786,"date":"2013-08-09t09:50:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-09t13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=29786"},"modified":"2024-09-01t14:49:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01t18:49:00","slug":"getting-to-the-next-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2013\/08\/09\/getting-to-the-next-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"getting to the next stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

sometimes change is improvement \u2013 sometimes it isn\u2019t. but it\u2019s always inevitable.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

by bruce w. marcus
\n<\/i>professional services marketing 3.0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

the movement to replace hourly billing with value billing is accelerating. firm mergers, consolidations, new boutique firms that bear little resemblance to the historical professional firms, new technology that makes obsolete technology that was itself only months old. it seems that observations (i don\u2019t make predictions) that i made decades ago about the need to go outside the firm for new sources of capital to finance growth have turned out to be accurate. new accountant-and-marketer partnerships are springing up. professional services marketing 3.0 is in full swing.<\/p>\n

but there\u2019s an apparent paradox here. sometimes \u00a0i talk about change and sometimes i write about marketing practices that haven\u2019t changed in the decades since bates <\/i>turned the professional world upside down.<\/p>\n

well, not so paradoxical. in the world of carpentry, they build furniture and houses using the same tools that have been standard for centuries, even though those tools have been streamlined and redesigned and improved. still the same tools. so it is with marketing.<\/p>\n

the tools of marketing, with the exception of new media and new methods of communications, are still the same tools we have used since at least the turn of the 21st century. we just use them better. and we have several new media, which seem to be new tools, but aren\u2019t really. they\u2019re just different versions of the earliest means of communicating. we\u2019ve gone from shouting out of caves, to carving messages in stone, to the printing press, radio, then television, and now the internet and social media.<\/p>\n

yes, there are subtle differences. the news story is written differently today than it was 50 years or so ago. i\u2019ve never fully subscribed to \u201cthe medium is the message,\u201d but i\u2019ve written for years that the way the same message is delivered differs from one medium to the next. for the well trained and experienced marketer, that\u2019s no big deal.<\/p>\n

some interesting points. change is inevitable. an old vaudeville line from the early part of the 20th\u00a0century (but still valid) comes to mind. change your act or go back to the woods.<\/i> when the world in which you function changes \u2013 especially if there\u2019s a valid reason for the changes (like response to a changing economic environment) \u2013 you\u2019d better change too. in professional services, tradition is good when you stick to the basic principles of your practice. but in a competitive environment, in which you compete by improving the way in which you function to better serve clients, you can still streamline and accommodate without destroying professionalism and integrity.<\/p>\n

there\u2019s a good example of that in the automobile industry. first came the invention of the power-driven vehicle, which threatened to replace the horse. then came the mass-produced car. in black. then came the car in any color, plus innovations, like the electric starter, then came the flashy vehicle that automakers saw \u2014 and sold \u2013 as a sex symbol. all transportation, all a difference in the same thing, all evolution, the result of which was \u2026change.<\/i><\/p>\n

another interesting point. in any process subject to evolutionary change, the future \u2013 always hard to predict \u2013 becomes even more so. why? because the stages in every evolutionary process are affected by random events that are unpredictable. an example is facebook. it could not have been invented had not the internet been invented. who could have foreseen that this campus-based program would have evolved as an international medium that\u2019s become integral to the business world? who could have predicted linkedin, or even twitter? who could have predicted that the internet itself could have so changed communication to the point of diminishing newspapers so close to obsolescence?<\/p>\n

i have always preached that the starting point of any writing should always begin with the question, \u201cwhat do i want readers to know, think or feel after reading what i write?\u201d<\/i> i\u2019ll make it easy for you.<\/p>\n

the world in which accountants function has changed, and done so as a result of bates v. state bar of arizona<\/i>, which bred a new world of competition in the professions.<\/p>\n

in order to compete in this new world,\u00a0accountants had to learn a new art form, called marketing<\/i>.<\/p>\n

this started an evolutionary process that is resulting in new forms of practicing accounting \u2013 new business models, new approaches to productivity to better serve clients, a new path that is resulting in change to a heretofore impenetrable professionalism.<\/p>\n

where once the professionals thought that marketing was ancillary to a practice \u2013 that marketers were from a different world \u2013 the new professional realizes that marketing is as integral to a practice as, say, cash management.<\/p>\n

and now, professionals are learning how to participate more actively and effectively in the marketing process.<\/p>\n

that\u2019s professional services marketing 3.0.<\/p>\n

will there be 4.0? probably. but\u00a0that\u2019s up to the world to come. what to do then?<\/p>\n

keep your eyes open. watch it happen. even help it happen. but recognize that ultimately, change will happen, whether you like it or not. whether you help it or not, it will happen.<\/p>\n