Optimal promotion of your expert professional services takes more than a strong foundation of technical skills and a good dose of energy or bravado.
Getting your messages right, and delivering them effectively, depends on insight.
There are many sources of valuable insight, including market intelligence, competitor analysis, and client research.
This last item - client research - is the most valuable tool to gain insights which inform management and development of your strategy, business development, service delivery, and evaluation.
Whether professionals like it or not, most clients are increasingly discriminating and demanding.
Powerful insights can be gained through a range of client research techniques:
- written surveys at end of file, mid-way on large projects, or examining specific service elements
- on-line surveys
- focus groups
- in-depth, one-on-one interviews, conducted by your internal marketers or external consultants.
You can super-charge your business development by accessing key insights which your clients are keen to offer. The right research mix, intelligently implemented, and with careful analysis will give you precious insights into:
- current needs and expectations of clients
- how you measure up now
- what your competitors are promising and delivering
- your true market positioning
- how well your client relationship management practices are working
- options you have to price and re-price your services
- whether the value added services you so generously offer are actually making a difference, or not
- new and emerging client wants and needs
- possible winning market niches
- how to position yourself and your firm as the right choice for the consumers you want to attract and keep.
You may have thought of client surveys before, but got "cold feet". Maybe your partners dismissed the idea with comments like:
- "we already know what our clients think"
- "if there was a problem, my clients would tell me"
- "we wouldn't want to bother clients - they might be annoyed"
- "it isn't broken - so let's not fix it"
- "wouldn't a survey indicate that we think there's a problem ?"
- "we might find out some things we don't want to know".
Rather than a reason not to conduct research, each of these is a reason to get out there and get some clear, unedited ideas, information, and opinions from clients who will mostly be happy to contribute, and quite possibly be flattered to be asked.
By gaining insights through surveys, you'll send powerful messages that:
- you want to know
- you care what your clients think
- you're always looking to improve.
Best of all, you'll find that the insights you develop become a wonderful tool for positive practice development.
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