100 days left: how to make 2016 your best year ever
Did you know there are only 100 days left in the year? But you need not panic – if you are truly organized, you still have time to make 2016 the most successful year ever for your professional services firm. Many of you probably put together an aspirational list of hopes, dreams and targets for your […]
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How easy is it to do business with your professional services firm?
How is easy it for prospective clients to become clients of your professional services firm? Are you or your team inadvertently putting up barriers that are turning off prospective clients? Firms often work long and hard on the marketing and positioning side of business development so the prospective lead or referred client is primed and […]
Continue Reading5 steps to a successful marketing strategy
The most profitable professional services firms understand that a successful marketing strategy is part of everything they do; it’s a coordinated process, not just a series of campaigns. Just like politicians who stay on message, the most successful firms have focus: from cultivating referral relationships to tweeting, each activity is aligned to the overall goals […]
Continue ReadingSelling professional services? Not my job!
When selling professional services, you can’t simply leave it all to the marketing manager. For any marketing program to work properly, it needs to be supported by an appropriate business development, practical marketing, or sales program (call it what you will). Converting a prospective client into a new client, and potential work into actual business, […]
Continue ReadingPerceived advantage in professional services
Maybe you’re one of those fortunate professionals who has such a stand out service to offer that it’s clearly technically superior, demonstrably better, and so reported by objective analysts and high-profile “industry authorities”. You and your firm have no trouble attracting, winning, growing and retaining right-fit clients. More likely, the professional services you offer – […]
Continue ReadingRevenue and marketing audit to set your firm up for success
Phew! It’s over. Another financial year is complete. Was it as successful as you had hoped? What are your plans for the next 12 months? If you don’t have answers to these questions, now is the perfect time to do your revenue and marketing audit, and get focused for the year ahead. Set your firm […]
Continue ReadingPricing lessons from a Big Six pricing specialist
With the ever-increasing debate around hourly billing and alternatives, and savvier and more demanding clients, professional services firms – and in particular, law firms – need to get smarter about how to manage pricing if they are to remain profitable. It seems inevitable in some areas of law (insurance, property) that it’s simply a race […]
Continue ReadingBetter business development conversations
Hard sells simply don’t work in professional services; most of us don’t like being “sold” to. As we’ve discussed before, building brand and marketing activities are only the backdrop to real business development conversations and interactions. Unfortunately, when it comes to winning work from prospective clients, many professionals open business development conversations using material unlikely to […]
Continue ReadingHow to get more work from existing clients
When trying to develop new business in professional services, always go to your existing clients first. Why? Because they already have a relationship with you and they believe in your service. Many firms mistakenly overlook existing clients when they try to source new work. The return on investment from targeting your existing clients who know […]
Continue ReadingGenerate new business with positive WOM
Having advocates for your firm, services, and people is extremely powerful. Positive Word-of-Mouth (WOM) is a highly effective and low cost way to generate new business for your professional services firm. Our Winning Work in a Digital World research results indicated that word-of-mouth or personal relationships were the second-highest source of new business enquiries for […]
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Feature article
Responding effectively to (unspoken) questions in tenders, bids and proposals
Over the years we’ve read hundreds of requests for tenders and proposals seeking services from professional services firms. Often RFT/Ps can seem cobbled together bastardised versions of older requests that have been edited by committee and end up asking silly, repetitive or irrelevant questions. Most of the time nothing sinister is going on, it is […]
