Two New Ideas for a Tough Economy

When we deliver our executive breakfast seminars, we ask registrants beforehand what they’re hoping to learn at the program. This week we’re delivering Strategic Growth for Professional Services in Newton, MA. One attendee wrote to us before the program asking:

I’d like information on creative ways to stand out in marketing a professional services firm, especially considering the economy.  We’re a small business and budget-friendly ways to stand out from competitors, etc. are always good to hear about.

In terms of business development, I think it’s the same idea – what are people doing, what are some new ideas, etc.  I feel like traditional means of business development have gotten a little stale, especially given the economic conditions… and the so-called “new” media such as LinkedIn and similar technologies aren’t necessarily working out to be business development tools.

First, a few thoughts:

• In difficult economies, companies that don’t offer the strongest value propositions (rightly) suffer the most. Regardless of what you do in your marketing, you should ask: Is my company as strong as it could be?

Tough times and tough economies can be the impetus for improving your company. Make sure the core of your company is as good as it can be before you turn to marketing, lead generation, and business development for improvement.

• While some tactics work better than others, I’m not sure they’re particularly “new” or “creative.” If you want new, you’re talking social media and other technologies, and this individual already noted that she’s tried these and they’re not panning out the way she might have hoped.

(Regardless, I know quite a number of folks using LinkedIn and other technologies quite successfully in their business development efforts.)

• Many tactics might seem stale now because the buying environment has cooled off. That doesn’t mean you should turn to “new” tactics. Last I checked, skywriting isn’t working particularly well, and, despite Carnac’s best efforts, telepathy as a means of communication hasn’t caught on yet.

While there’s always something new to you that you might try, and you should always be testing and improving, the dynamics of how clients buy still look a lot like they did six months ago.

What’s a professional service marketer to do then? Try these to 2 (not-so-) “new” ideas:

1. Highly targeted direct marketing. This includes telephone business development, email (personal…with your fingers not your bulk email system), and direct mail. Why these? Picking up the telephone is fairly inexpensive and you can do it right now. Is it easy? No. Am I suggesting anyone can do it? No. But it does fit the criteria (inexpensive if you make the calls yourself, and immediate).

Direct outreach may not be new, but it is still effective even in a down economy. In our newest edition of How Clients Buy: The 2009 Benchmark Study on Marketing and Selling Professional Services from the Client Perspective  (data was collected in October as the economic downturn was already deep and in full swing) 42% of buyers indicated they accept cold calls from service providers. 4 out of 10 buyers will talk to you if you catch them and handle the call right.

Take care to not simply make calls, but to do a good job at it. In How Clients Buy we also asked respondents to indicate the importance of eight major factors that affect whether or not they will accept the cold call and it confirmed to us that it’s within your power to stack the deck in your favor during the call to get the most out of it.

For some cold call basics, read Cold Calling Works, You Just Do It Wrong and other articles here on RainToday.

Also, in our lead generation work with clients, letters, emails, and other types of direct mail have had a very strong positive effect recently when they’re accompanied by telephone calls.

2. Idea Number Two for a Tough Economy: Increase thought leadership activities. If potential prospects were to start searching for service providers in your area – searching on the web, attending conferences, reading industry publications and websites, etc. – Would they find you? Would they be impressed if they did?

In How Clients Buy, buyers indicate varying degrees of likelihood that they’ll find and engage service firms through various thought leadership activities. Among the top 5 methods buyers use to find service providers are seminars and conference speeches.

To varying degrees outlined in the report, buyers find service providers through business books, white papers, articles and mentions in industry websites and a number of other thought leadership methods.

Can you get speeches overnight? Not usually. But you can start writing and publishing, and start looking and applying for speeches. You never know when you might start landing them. It’s also within everyone’s power to run their own seminars, though they are not usually a budget-light proposition.

Of course, if you’re going to ramp up your thought leadership activities, you’ve got to have something to say, and it’s got to be worthwhile. In my experience a lot of thought leadership doesn’t deserve the label. Come to think of it, good idea for next blog post: what makes great thought leadership great.

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