Best practice referrals for professional services firms
Over the years JMA’s research has shown the most successful and profitable professional services firms benefit hugely from referrals (both from individuals external to their firm, and from internal referrals or cross-selling that occurs in-firm). In our latest study 70% of respondents rated their referral relationships or networks as “highly effective” and the number one […]
Continue ReadingAvoiding buyer’s remorse
Do your clients ever suffer from buyer’s remorse? For many expert professional services – especially legal and accounting – purchase is not optional: it’s mandatory, driven by compliance requirements, or as an essential component of project delivery. Worse still, a fair slice of consumption is a true ‘grudge spend’, mandated by lenders, regulators, and opponents. […]
Continue ReadingCo-opetition: if you can’t beat them, should you join them?
Co-opetition or ‘competitive collaborations’ are alliances formed between direct and sometimes indirect competitors. The term co-opetition is used by management academics and economists to describe the phenomenon of ‘competing without having to kill the opposition and co-operating without having to ignore self-interest’. You can think of co-opetition as a sort of ‘if you can’t beat […]
Continue ReadingBreaking up with a client
Breaking up is hard to do. Especially when you’re considering a break up with a client in the professional services context. Many professionals spend so much time winning or delivering client work that they don’t take time to think about the quality of their service relationships. The arrangement may work for the client, but does […]
Continue ReadingLeveraging a tender, bid or proposal win – get (more than) your fair share
Because so many corporate and government clients appoint multiple firms to provide their professional services, winning a place on a formal panel is only a preliminary to getting the client work you really want. And when multi-provider appointments are informal, it’s even more important to drive workflow in your direction. Steps to getting more than […]
Continue ReadingYour favourite blog posts of 2016
It’s a wrap for the JMA BD insights and tips blog for 2016, but before we slide into holiday mode, we wanted to take a look back at our readers’ favourite posts of 2016. These are the top five – have you read them yet? #1 Pricing lessons from a Big Six pricing specialist Our […]
Continue ReadingWhat to do when clients want a price negotiation
Having a price negotiation with a client is not always easy, but it’s an important skill and one that you’ll need to employ more and more. Clients bargaining with their professional services firm is not unusual. It’s perfectly reasonable for clients to care about their money, and it’s smart for you to show that you […]
Continue ReadingWhy you need a good LinkedIn profile, and where to start
Have you ever used Google to find out more about someone you met at a networking event or conference? Chances are that their LinkedIn profile showed up somewhere near the top of search results, and probably higher than their firm website bio. If someone Googled you, what would they find? LinkedIn is the most popular […]
Continue ReadingHow 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 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, […]
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Feature article
Tender readability – tips to improve your tender presentation and some tender presentation no-nos
Tender readability remains a problem for some in the 21st century. I still see submission documents that cling to a handful of really old hat tender presentation and formatting techniques. I suspect this is because some of these ‘rules’ are viewed as being more appropriate to a ‘formal’ style of document such as a tender. […]
