Marketing
How To Get More Business: 25 Tips On Marketing The Small Professional Services Firm
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Feb 5, 2004, 19:14

How To Get More Business:

25 Tips On Marketing The Small Professional Services Firm

By  John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Gone are the days when professionals simply practiced their trade. Today, they face increased competition, shrinking demand for services and increasing supply of professional talent, availability of service substitutes, and marketing of professional services. Marketing can no longer be ignored if small practices are to survive in the future.

Obstacles to Marketing

            Based upon our observations drawn from working with client firms over the past twenty years we have concluded that marketing is poorly understood and ineffectively implemented in many small professional service firms. In addition, the following obstacles are at play:

§         Time

There is no time for marketing or any firm developmental activities. Production is king and non-billable activities such as marketing are discouraged.

§         Uneasiness With Marketing

Professionals are uncomfortable with marketing. This is primarily due to lack of understanding, training, and experience with the process.

§         Lack of Marketing Understanding

Many professionals  confuse marketing with advertising. Marketing is not advertising. Marketing activities can exist without any promotional components such as television advertisements, radio spots, tombstone magazine advertisements, or direct mail. Marketing is the broader process concerned with the development and delivery of professional services and is part of the firm's long range planning process. It provides answers to the questions what are we selling and to whom are we selling. It involves maintaining relationships with existing clients as well as creating new relationships with prospective clients. In fact, a major objective of many successful marketing plans is obtain additional business from existing clients.

§         Focus and Accountability Problems

Frequently professional service firms experiment with marketing and engage in isolated promotional activities not integrated with the firm’s business plan with the expectation of immediate results after the one-shot activity. The firm engages in fits-and-start activities that are completely unfocused, unrelated to an overall plan, unmeasured, inconsistent and often inappropriate. 

§         Cultural Issues

The typical culture of many firms discourages investment in long-term developmental activities. The focus is on billable hours and production. Everything else is of secondary concern. The consensus governance model typical in professional firms hinders change and timely decision-making at the firm level. In addition, effective marketing in professional firms requires marketing at the firm, practice group, and individual professional levels. This requires effective training, mentoring, follow-up, and accountability at each of these levels.

§         Reward and Compensation Systems

Most reward and compensation systems focus on short-term production and discourage participation in longer term (non-billable) firm investment activities or projects.

Food For Thought

Marketing is not just about getting new clients. We have seen marketing plans that include the following objectives.

§         No-growth. The firm has a stable and profitable client base and the firm cannot service additional clients with adding more professionals and staff. The firm implements a policy of not accepting any new clients. The firm still actively markets the practice to existing client base in an effort to enhance relationships with existing clients. Seminars are conducted, quarterly newsletters and monthly client alerts, annual client surveys, and annual firm sponsored social functions.

§         Diversification.  The firm has plenty of business now but is concerned about its dependency upon one client that represents 40% of total firm revenue. The firm initiates a plan designed to diversify client mix. Marketing activities include seminars for prospective (target clients), by-lined articles in targeted trade publications, newsletters mailed to referral sources and prospective clients, speaking at industry trade associations.

§         Growth. The firm needs more work. The firm represents institutional clients and believes that it can obtain more work from existing clients. A marketing plan is developed to identify unmet client needs and opportunities as well as cross-selling opportunities. A client survey is conducted. A new opportunity is identified resulting in an ancillary business group being created within the firm to service these needs. Present client concerns about quality of service are identified and actions are taken to resolve client concerns. Client site visits are conducted. An internal cross-marketing program is adopted to help facilitate cross-referrals of work within the firm.

The above examples do not include any activities that are not consistent with professionalism. No advertising…no TV….no radio….no billboards. The majority of the activities listed involved maintenance activities designed to create or enhance existing client relationships.

Effectiveness of Marketing Tools in Order of Effectiveness

Numerous studies have be conducted concerning the effectiveness of various marketing tools. Other than commodity-type consumer orientated practices, here are a few of the most successful tools:

§         Personal networking and relationship building by individuals

§         Solicit and respond to client feedback (Client Surveys)

§         Seminars

§         Marketing through client trade associations

§         Newsletters and solid marketing collateral materials

§         Speeches and by-lined articles.

Tips for Implementing Marketing in Your Firm

TIP #1:    Without an effective marketing infrastructure – marketing at the firm, practice group or individual level is virtually impossible. A few essentials:

§         A business and marketing plan for the firm, practice groups, and individual professionals.

§         Someone assigned to coordinate the marketing activities of the firm. In a large firm a marketing director and a team of marketing professionals are typically employed. In small firms appoint a focal person such as the administrator or office manager, or a responsible professional or secretary.

§         A firm identity plan that is used consistently in all external communication collateral marketing materials such as letterhead, business cards, web sites, powerpoint presentations, brochures, newsletters, press releases, media kits, seminar handouts, etc. This plan should be developed to differentiate and reflect the image of the firm.

§         Quality collateral marketing materials.

§         A content-driven web site. The web site should be database driven to facilitate easy updating.

§         A contact database of clients, referral sources, target and prospective clients, media sources, etc.

§         Content such as articles, case studies, recent verdicts, that demonstrate the unique capabilities of the firm.

TIP #2:    Don’t copycat. Brand yourself. Look for ways to differentiate yourself and your firm from your competitors. Become the only professional  that can do what you do. Make a decision - what do you want to be known and remembered for? Unique services, unique client groups, different service delivery strategy, personal style. Create a five-year plan for goal accomplishment.

TIP #3:    Launch a program to obtain client feedback on client needs, opportunities, and quality of law firm services. A follow-up/problem resolution system must be part of the program.

TIP #4:    Create the culture and environment.  Marketing and client service needs to be incorporated into the culture of the firm. All professionals and staff should have a role in marketing. Senior partners must walk the talk and consistently, build and reinforce the marketing goals of the firm. Marketing goals and action plans should be formulated and team members held accountable. Over time a marketing mindset will emerge.

TIP #5:    Provide marketing training/coaching for professionals and staff.

TIP #6:    Improve time management skills of everyone in the firm.

TIP #7:    Establish daily marketing goals and measure your personal marketing results on a daily basis. Analyze successes and failures.

TIP #8:    Get out of the office. Visit a client’s place of business once a month.

TIP #9:    Write an article every other month.

TIP #10:  Take a client to lunch once a week.

TIP #11:   Improve your communication skills with both clients and office teammates.

TIP #12:   Prepare and submit press releases monthly to clients, prospective clients, media and the general business community.

TIP #13:   Learn how to become “solutions orientated” and become a consultant to your clients as opposed to simply their trainer or provider. Think out-of-the-box and outside of typical frameworks in which you are comfortable.

TIP #14:   Explore the feasibility of ancillary businesses.

TIP #15:   Get your newsletter on track and on a consistent basis (at least quarterly).Send via e-mail.

TIP #16:   Join a client’s trade association and make contributions in the form of articles, speeches, conference attendance, etc. Learn the client’s business from top to bottom.

TIP #17:   Establish a marketing library to include general materials on marketing as well as specific publications related to your clients business.

TIP #18:   Institute quarterly client service/marketing brainstorming sessions. Break the rules. Encourage all members in the firm to think out-of-the-box and innovate. Look for new ways to solve client problems. Look for new solutions. No topic should be initially be considered out-of-bounds.

TIP #19:   Consider using a client advisory council. Once a year hold a client advisory council forum in which the firm solicits feedback from clients.

TIP #20:   Join a client’s trade association and make contributions in the form of articles, speeches, conference attendance, etc. Learn the client’s business from top to bottom.

TIP #21:   Create a new client niche and market your unique experiences intensely. Strive to develop a national reputation in the niche.

TIP #22:   Focus your marketing on no more than 2-3 key specialize practice areas in which you can differentiate yourself.

TIP #23:   Develop and practice the following leadership behaviors:

§         Formulate and articulate a shared vision for the firm.

§         Lead the fight for constructive organizational change.

§         Empower and develop other professionals and support personnel and enable them to accept responsibility and make decisions..

§         Develop and foster an effective management team.

§         Develop problem solving and multiple options thinking skills..

§         Take intelligent risks.

§         Make tough decisions.

§         Establish both firm goals and performance goals for all professionals and support personnel.

§         Seek input from others.

§         Coach and develop others.

§         Confront and deal directly

§         Hold everyone in the firm accountable for actions and performance.

TIP #24:   Conduct an annual firm retreat. Include both professionals and staff. The first few items on the agenda should include a review of:

§         Things that the firm did well and      could have done better

§         Things done poorly

§         Things the firm should of done but did not do.

TIP #25:   Do it now. Marketing and other developmental projects affect the future of your practice and are just as important as short term production and billable hours. David Maister says it best. “Your billable time is your current income….your non-billable time is your future.”