The days
of ‘interruption marketing’ are over. Clients have switched off. Shouting louder
just irritates them. Nowadays, people trust referrals, recommendations and the
word-of-mouth more than any paid-for sales campaign. In fact, most people
believe that businesses lie in the adverts! Reputation management is where the
action is!
There is a group of professional
service firms (PSFs) that grow nine times faster than the average. They are 50%
more profitable than the average. So, what’s going on?
Doing the research, it was easy
to see that high-performing service firms are the ones that have clients that
believe in them. The ‘positioning’ (and ‘targeting’) talks to clients in a way
that the client can relate to and understand. The firm understands the client
needs, hurts and wants and has a solution. That is the Grow Your Service Firm ‘ology’.
High performers have always had a
particular profile, a reputation; they have always been identified as being
different from the average.
So, how
do they drive their growth?
High performers could just spend
more on marketing and sales. But they don’t do that; they just become
qualitatively better at the marketing and sales.
Frederiksen and Taylor point out
that the high performers do not spend proportionately the most on marketing and
sales because they are already very good at it. They are simply more effective
so don’t need to compete by spending the most. Obvious really.
The high performers actually
spend (slightly) less than average firms on their sales and marketing activities.
Their marketing spend isn’t quantitatively higher; it is qualitatively better.
They spend less and get better results.
Every firm says pretty much the
same boring thing, selling similar services to similar people using similar
straplines and similar people with similar qualifications to sell similar
services at similar prices etc, etc. Clients have switched off.
The high performers, meanwhile,
focus on client needs and priorities. They are not preoccupied with their own
capabilities and expertise. They are not mesmerised by the reflection of
themselves like some Greek myth. They focus their limited budgets on specific
target customer groups and use a clear and easy to understand message. Simple
really.
So, who is in this group of
professional service firms that grow nine times faster than the average and are
50% more profitable than the average? How can you join them? What do you need
to do?
The starting point I am afraid
comes straight out of day one of your Marketing 101 class. You have to create
and communicate a clear positioning that demonstrates how you can help your
target clients… unequivocally. And deliver on it. A totally compelling
proposition is seductive. That is where your reputation comes from.
As a starting point, ask yourself
if you consistently communicate:
· - Your
overt business benefit
· - The real
reason you can deliver
· - The
dramatic difference between you and your competitors
I meet very few service firms who
have actually done this properly. As a result, they deliver average results and
have a mediocre reputation. Those that do deliver on these three points have a
stunning reputation both within the industry and, more importantly, with their
clients.
Your choice.
