Professional Services firms differ from product companies in many ways. However, the biggest differentiator is that professional services firms sell expertise, and product companies sell things.
For a professional services firm to be a great marketing company, they must embrace the three building blocks of great marketing firms. These three building blocks, of any marketing, whether you are selling products and/or services are;
- Generating Results
- Creating Value
- Building Relationships
In order to generate results, you must solve your clients and prospects issues. And by solving their issues, you can then help them realize the value you have delivered to them by solving their issues. This then helps you build the necessary client relationships that can lead to you becoming a Strategic Business Advisor to that client.
In order to bring value to your client base, you of course need to define who your ideal client is. By defining who your ideal client is, you create focus for everyone in your firm, and don’t waste time chasing prospects that will only drain your resources. And a professional services firm is defined by its resources.
You can then develop your Unique Value Proposition. What differentiates your firm and your people from your competitors? When done well, this will help you not only close more business, and focus your resources, but also help your firm develop long lasting business relationships with your clients. And of course, long lasting client relationships are the life blood of any great professional services firm.
Some of the cultural habits of great marketing companies are discussed. The best question to answer to see if your firm is positioned to be great at marketing is; “Where is the marketing executive in relation to other executives in your firm?” Does he or she rank above the CFO and HR executive? Also, are marketing, sales, and customer service three separate departments, or all they all under one executive? These answers will give you a good idea about where marketing sits in your firm.
You then need to understand what the inhibitors and activators are for becoming a great marketing professional services firm. There are both internal and external inhibitors. These include the role the executive team in your firm plays in marketing, how your relationship managers approach their client companies, and what is happening in the outside world that affects the buying habits of your clients, especially in today’s economic crises.
We then look at today’s reality in the business world. Not only as it applies to your firm, but how this economic crisis, that won’t seem to go away, affects how you do business. You really only have to look within your own firm and realize that the way you buy products and services has changed since 2007. We discuss the many ideas and changes that you need to overcome, in order to meet today’s economic reality head-on.
In order to sell to anyone, whether it is pencils or professional services, you need to know what influences people to buy. You need to understand what makes them want to buy, and how to affect that buying decision in your favour.
The paper then discusses who the real influencers and buyers are in any organization, and how you reach these people, and talk to each one of them. These buying influencers and decision makers include the Economic Buyer, the User Buyer, the Gatekeepers, and the Coach. You need to know what influences their buying decisions.
We then look at, what I consider one of the most important factors in how you sell, why business to business people buy anything, especially professional services. There are five major reasons business people buy.
These reasons are;
- Improved Performance
- Increased Opportunities
- Competitive Advantage
- Risk Mitigation
- Personal Wins
The paper delves into how your firm’s services can affect all of these factors, and how you can build your value proposition based on one or more of these factors. The paper also preaches the importance of Personal Wins, and why that is so important to understand. Even in a B2B sale, and especially in a professional services’ sale, people buy for emotional reasons. You need to tap into those emotions to tip the scales in your favour.
It then presents a plan developed for getting to the real heart of problems. I call it The GAIM Plan. GAIM is an acronym for Goals, Afflictions, Impact and Meaning. These are all very important steps when trying to understand your prospects and clients needs and issues. The GAIM Plan is important to know, so that you understand how to unveil those emotional reasons people buy.
Finally, you get the complete process to follow for marketing professional services, to both your prospects and your clients. Although many of the steps are similar, there are some basic differences for each group.
This paper is a comprehensive look at what makes a professional services firm great at marketing. It is not necessarily a simple process, but it can be applied easily to any of your firm’s clients and prospects.
If you see the value in this report, and you’re interested in getting a copy of the report, please follow this link. http://www.b2bbusinesscoach.com/White%20Paper_sales_page1.html
Kind Regards,
Ian
A. Ian Dainty
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