Professional Services Leadership, Marketing & Rainmaking
From the category archives:
We’re always trying to get in front of the decision maker, many of whom are C-level executives. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been told that C-level executives don’t search online, don’t spend time in social media, and don’t do their own product, service, or company research on the web. Perhaps they’ll make a cursory glance at your website to see if you exist, but beyond that, some underling is doing the research for them. If they’re doing research at all. Right?
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A lot of what we talk about here on the Services Marketing Blog focuses on marketing. (How’s that for a revelation.)
Marketing, however, isn’t worth much if you can’t convert great strategy, brand, positioning, and messaging into opportunities. And it isn’t worth much if you can’t convert those opportunities into new business.
For a few years now, professional services firms have felt the crunch of the economy and held on tight. You’ve heard the horror stories and experienced the pain. Time to move on.
If you want to stop playing defense and start playing offense, if you think it’s time to take advantage of the opportunities to grow your firm and succeed, the first thing you need to do is set your mind to it.
Batten down the hatches. Stick to your knitting. Trim the fat; trim some more. With no end in sight for the recession, you must embrace new ways of leading if you want to compete in a downturn…
STOP! You and your team have heard the mind-numbing drumbeat of endless how-tos “in a downturn” for the past 24 months. And it has wrought the following:
Now that the end of the Great Recession is here, services firms must renew hustle, passion, intensity, and competitiveness. It’s time to roll out words we haven’t used for a while: innovation, opportunity, and progress.
As always, it’s up to leaders to make sure they happen. This four-step process will help them stop leading in a downturn, and start leading in an upturn.
“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.
He was…
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.
And another.
And another…
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.
If you’re going to cover a Barry Manilow classic you had better tread carefully. Barry may not have that much street cred with the kids anymore (if he ever did), but when he sings a song it’s smooth like buttah. When someone else sings his songs, it’s usually smooth like haggis.
The Man in the Chair ad is one such classic. First debuted in 1958, this McGraw Hill advertisement delivers a timeless message with clarity, grace, and impact. If you’re going to mess with it, you had better do it right, lest the world go all Simon Cowell on you.
I think the Business Marketing Association hit the nail on the head with their modernized rendition of the Man in the Chair at their 2009 conference. Nice job, BMA. Now, how about a little Mandy?
I’m in conversation with the marketing department chair of a prestigious graduate business school about teaching an MBA course on professional services marketing. Last week he asked me to develop a syllabus. Coming up with the topics: no problem. Coming up with possible cases: no problem. Developing a reading list: no problem. None of it is a problem…there’s more excellent content out there than we’ll ever have time to cover.
I’d like to solicit your help. If you were back in business school, what cases or topics would you want to cover? I’m looking for those articles, cases, books, blogs, and any kind of content that has helped define how you think about and approach professional services marketing.
Here are some of my initial thoughts on cases and readings:
Reading:
Cases (most are Harvard Business Review):
Any favorites? Am I missing anything?
Tony Bettencourt, one of my closest friends, is the chef/owner of Sixty2 On Wharf, an award-winning, Italian-inspired restaurant in Salem, MA. I always enjoy hearing him talk about his visits to other Italian restaurants he respects because, while the chefs might all draw from the same list of fine ingredients from this one particular part of the world, each outcome bears the unique stamp and flavor of the chef that created it.
I’m thinking about this as I write a recommendation for Winning the Professional Services Sale by Michael McLaughlin. My area of focus is selling and marketing professional services, so, when I opened the book, I felt like Tony must feel when he walks into another Italian restaurant. This is my area. My tastes are discerning. I can be picky and I’m easily turned off by sloppiness, lack of talent, and underwhelming execution. On the other hand, I’m open minded (at least that’s what I tell myself), and I’m always waiting to be pleasantly surprised.
Definitely in the second camp with Winning the Professional Services Sale. Michael McLaughlin has done a fabulous job. Full disclosure: Michael writes for my publication, RainToday.com, and we’ve known each other professionally for a number of years. You can bet, however, that if he wrote a bad book I wouldn’t be talking about it here on my blog.
Here are five things I like about Winning the Professional Services Sale:
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