Professional services leaders face all types of challenges on their way to growing revenue. Marketing, business development, strategy development, you name it. There’s no cookie-cutter growth strategy. One size certainly does not fit all.
But on the road to strategy development and revenue growth, there are areas that all B2B professional services firms should focus on. In Wellesley Hills Group’s recently published Five Drivers of Revenue Growth for Professional Services white paper, we’ve outlined the five major areas that affect a firm’s ability to grow.
Because there’s no everyone-should-do-this strategy, executives must first look at the core of their firm’s activities to know what’s working and what’s not for them, and develop a strategy that will work given their own desires and circumstances.
Cookie, Oh cookie,
How you taunt me,
With your fiendish taste,
Your devilish charms - Anonymous
I can eat a whole pan of fresh cookies if I have enough milk to smooth their passage, and if the wife isn’t home to witness the carnage. I’m not proud. Not ashamed either. Just another helpless victim of the all-mighty mixture of chocolate chunks, butter, vanilla extract, egg, flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Apparently, a couple of billion dollar corporations have tapped into the power of the cookie as well, and they’re using it to create competitive differentiation in their markets. The New York Times has published a nice piece about how DoubleTree Hotels and Midwest Airlines have baked cookies into the fiber of their business strategies, and how the strategies are paying off.
I can imagine a competitive differentiation strategy brainstorm at a professional services firm; the “let’s align around the cookie!” plan might not end up with the most votes. Yet it’s working for DoubleTree and Midwest. Here’s why it does, and how you can cook something up that might work for you.
“They told me I had to become a thought leader or I’d never achieve great success as a professional.” This is what a leader at a professional services firm told me recently that a marketing consultant told him.
He didn’t say this to me matter-of-factly either. He said it with a mix of fear, skepticism, sadness, and hope.
Fear. Because he can’t write and doesn’t have much “new” to say, and neither do the rest of the folks on his leadership team.
Skepticism. Because he didn’t think it was true that thought leadership was now a requirement, but he was starting to hear it so much he thought maybe the tide had turned and it now was.
Sadness. Because he liked his job selling, delivering, and managing and didn’t want to become, as he put it, a “professor type”.
Hope. Because he was hoping I’d say what he wanted me to say: that it was not true.
Giving Away Products and Services to Create Loyalty
A reporter for a major business publication asked me whether businesses that lower prices and give away free services for buyers that are struggling to “give them a break” is a good strategy for keeping them loyal when the economy turns and their financial fortunes improve. Here’s what I told him…
A little while ago I was visiting Will and Holly, friends of mine who have a four-year-old son, Chaka. Chaka just got a new pair of performance-enhancing sneakers (Wildcats anyone?) that, in his mind, has him challenging Lebron for the MVP.
No question Chaka got game, but even with the bionic footwear his dunking ability still doesn’t extend much past Oreos and milk. Can’t tell him this, though.
A few weeks ago someone said to me, “In this economy, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get ahead. It’s been nearly impossible to get new clients to sign on, and I think it will be for some time to come. My team feels flat. It’s been a huge challenge to keep them motivated. And I understand why…it’s just so hard out there.”
We talked about it. The conversation went like this:
Mike: That sounds pretty difficult, but not an uncommon story these days.
(To protect anonymity, let’s call the other person David Lee Roth.)
DLR: My team seems like they’re running at 50% energy because no matter what they do, there’s just not the return on the other end for their efforts like there used to be. Click to Read More
Imagine yourself on your best day. It seems like you’re productive before you wake up, because something happened while you were asleep to charge your batteries, clear your thoughts, and give you inspiration while you snoozed.
You wake up and nothing can stop you. The path is clear and the ideas are flowing. You settle in to work earlier than usual and start plugging away. And it all starts clicking. You accomplish one goal.
Ask a professional service provider about the difference she makes for her clients and you might just hear something like this, “I help my clients first see, and then achieve, better futures.”
If a professional says this, they’re right that the concept of creating a vision of a new future is powerful. So powerful that we have included the concept as a core part of the RAIN Selling methodology. In RAIN Selling, the “N” stands for New Reality. It’s all of our jobs—in business development as well as in our daily work with clients—to help clients conceptualize situations, problems, and possible solutions.
In my recent podcast discussion with Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin, we talk about the power of helping people use pictures to solve problems and sell ideas. As you listen to the podcast, you should look at these graphics. They’re helpful in following along with what Dan and I are talking about, and will help you build your be-amazing-at-the-whiteboard skills.
When I lived in Brussels I was fortunate to get to know Walt Hopkins, consultant and Arithmodigmophile. Since 01/01/01, Walt has written an almost annual missive on Arithmodigmophilia, a word he coined to describe his love for numbers and patterns. I received his 09/09/09 message today. Compelling and thought provoking as usual.
Q: Do you have any recommendations for marketing services to service companies? I am often in a position of trying to address the client’s needs but not getting to meet the ultimate client—I feel at the mercy of a client with whom I don’t have contact.
A: This has nothing to do with marketing services to service companies. You could be marketing products to product companies. You could be marketing antimatter at a Star Trek convention. Whatever you’re selling, you have to get to the ultimate client, that special person we usually call the decision maker.
Decision makers are in the position of decision making because they are leaders in an organization. They’re trying to solve problems and they’re trying to build a better future. They have many different priorities and are trying to focus on the greatest impact, and the greatest return challenges to tackle. So they’re not avoiding you! You’re just not getting through to them. Or when a support staff gets your message to them, they say “You handle it. Doesn’t seem like it’s something I need to put on my radar screen.”
My advice in this case:
1. Keep trying to get on their radar screens. Email them. Call them. Send them letters.
2. Appeal to their need and the impact your service will have. They’re looking to spend their time on conversations and avenues that will make a difference. If it’s important enough, they’ll pay attention. If it’s not important enough, perhaps you should sell something else.
3. Perhaps it’s important enough, but your message or communication vehicles don’t convey how important it is. I’d suggest you get professional help getting the message across.
4. Don’t settle for being sent down the food chain. Don’t let yourself be relegated to levels below those that can influence, or directly purchase, your services.
5. Build your brand in the market. Sure, this is a long-term, heavy-investment, high-energy, high-commitment activity. But those that do it succeed, and those that don’t always fight the “best kept secret” battle in the marketplace. That’s usually no fun.
Cookie, Oh cookie,
A few weeks ago someone said to me, “In this economy, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get ahead. It’s been nearly impossible to get new clients to sign on, and I think it will be for some time to come. My team feels flat. It’s been a huge challenge to keep them motivated. And I understand why…it’s just so hard out there.”
When I lived in Brussels I was fortunate to get to know Walt Hopkins, consultant and Arithmodigmophile. Since 01/01/01, Walt has written an almost annual missive on Arithmodigmophilia, a word he coined to describe his love for numbers and patterns. I received his 
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