(Photo by David Ritter)

On the RainMaker Blog we often share tips, tactics, and strategies to help you bring in new clients, grow your business, and succeed with marketing and sales.
But just as important as what you should do to grow your business is what you should not do.

Here are six all-too-common sales mistakes professionals make when selling their services:

1. Not building rapport: Trust is the foundation of all sales. If someone doesn’t trust you, they won’t buy from you. And trust building starts early on with rapport. The lifelong lesson your mother taught you when you were young rings true: you have only one chance to make a good first impression.

Within the first few seconds of meeting you, a buyer’s opinion will form—is this person real, are they credible, do I trust them in my gut? All of these questions flood the buyer’s mind the first time you open your mouth. Either they feel like they’ve made a positive connection with you or not.

In your selling efforts, don’t jump in and ask tough questions or probe too deeply into the company’s financials or other sensitive data. Take the first few minutes to make a connection with the prospect and show that you are interested in them as a person.

2. Uncovering only surface-level needs: Often what clients initially state as their need is not the true need. Beneath the surface is a slew of other needs waiting to be uncovered. For example your client might say:

• “I need a website.” What they are really saying and what you can get them thinking is: “I need a way to take online orders to increase our distribution and grow revenue.” Or, “I need to generate more leads, and I see opportunities to capture leads on our website.”
• “I need my technology supported.” What they are really saying is: “I need my networks up and running 24/7 so people can work all day and not lose productive time.” Or, “I can’t afford to hire a full-time IT person, but we need regular preventative maintenance so that I can rest easy knowing our data is safe and secure.”

You must learn to ask questions and peel back the onion to get to the core of the need. What you want to get to is the “why.” Why do they have this need and why is this important to their business? Once you know the “why” behind the need, you can craft the best solution that covers the full range of needs and addresses the root of the problem.

3. Failing to demonstrate the value of your solution: You’re selling something intangible, and it is often difficult for your prospects to know exactly what they are buying. If you fail to communicate the value of your solution—the outcome the client will get as a result of working with you—the client will see only the cost and the risk associated with it. You need to help mitigate this perceived risk, and the best way to do that is by making the business case for engaging your services.

Demonstrate your value in terms of the revenue growth you’ll help them achieve, the cost savings, the increased productivity, etc. Spell out the value as clearly as possible and present the cost within the context of that value.

4. Talking too much: Whether it’s because you want to demonstrate your expertise, you are nervous, you want to fill the silence, or you like to hear yourself speak, the fact is most professionals talk too much in their sales conversations. When you talk too much, prospects feel like they aren’t being heard, and that often leads to a disconnect in the needs you uncover, your ability to truly understand those needs, and your ability to dig down and uncover the root of the need (see mistake #2).

A general rule of thumb is to talk only about 20% of the time. If you’ve attended to mistake #1, you’ve already built the necessary amount of rapport and the prospect feels comfortable talking with you. Now you need to ask thought-provoking, open-ended questions to get the prospect to open up and share what’s going on in their business. The more you can learn about them and their business the better you’ll be able to tailor your solution to exactly what they need.

5. All planning and no action: You may talk about doing business development and spend days planning for it—two days at a training program building your selling skills, hours building a list of folks in your network to contact, working with your marketing team to make sure your CRM system will support your efforts, writing your script and exactly what you want to say on the phone—but all of it leads to little action.

Half of sales success is actually showing up and doing it. You could have the best list and the best script in the world, but if you don’t pick up the phone and start dialing, none of that is going to matter. Stop planning and thinking about doing business development, and start doing it.

6. Failing to plan: On the flip side of mistake #5 is failing to plan at all. If you don’t have a plan and hold yourself accountable to that plan, it is likely that your business development efforts will get pushed to the back burner the second you kick off that next big client assignment.

Plan not only the time you’ll spend on sales (we call this your sacred selling time), but also each and every sales conversation. Know what you want to get out the conversation and go into the meeting with a next step in mind. Once you have a plan and you’re executing according to that plan (see mistake #5), you’ll find that your meetings and overall selling efforts will become much more productive.

Think about the last sales conversation you had. Did you make any of these mistakes? If so, what can you do during your next conversation to avoid making them again? Share with us how it goes!

(Photo by Brent Moore)

The competition among professional services firms is tough. There are some signs of economic improvement, but still more firms are vying for fewer buyer dollars. You have to do something to get their attention and get them to want your services.

For many firms, that something is free offerings and services—not just lower prices, but free. Now, it makes sense to offer some things for free, such as articles, video and audio recordings, and online assessments, because those things help you build up trust and demonstrate that you provide value. In fact, Andrew Sobel says in his article—Should You Offer Free Services?—that the higher your fees, the more free digital content you are likely to give away.

But if you think providing free samples or major pieces of work will help you beat the competition and win deals, think carefully before doing anything. It could work if it’s done strategically, as Sobel illustrates in his article, but it could easily backfire and portray you as weak and desperate.

“You can give away work from strength—if and only if it’s positioned properly and the circumstances are right—and you can do it from weakness, which may make you look desperate and even pathetic,” he says.

You might consider advertising as a way to get prospects to notice you, but this is another area in which you must tread carefully. Advertising for professional services is significantly different than product advertising. The goal ultimately is to help a firm build a reputation and name recognition that reinforces other marketing efforts to attract and sell clients. It is not to sell a specific service that day. You can’t sell a service unless there’s need.

Many firms struggle with advertising, but the law firm of Ogletree Deakins seems to have created “the perfect law firm ad campaign,” says Bruce W. Marcus in his article, Ogletree Deakins Gets it Right: The Perfect Law Firm Ad.

“Ogletree’s committed program seems to recognize that the purpose of law firm advertising, as opposed to product advertising, is to build name recognition and reputation, which cannot be done effectively with infrequent ads,” Marcus writes. “The problem with most law and accounting firm advertising is that it tries to create clients with its ads, which it rarely does. Who hires a lawyer or accountant from an ad?”

If you’re considering an advertising campaign, check out Marcus’s article for more information about what Ogletree Deakins did and to see an example of a firm that handled its campaign badly.

How else can you get prospects to notice you and build relationships with prospective buyers? Through social media networks, says Todd Schnick. You may not believe it, but your buyers do use social media networks, and you’re foolish to not try to connect with them there, he says in his article, B2B Businesses and Social Media—No More Excuses.

“Mail me one penny for every time you’ve heard this line: ‘The kind of people I sell to aren’t on social media,’ ” Schnick says. “I hear this all the time. And while I want to get angry at these souls for feeling this way, I don’t. Because I know that they just don’t see it, just don’t believe it. Or, in many instances, they aren’t willing to do the work necessary.”

That’s the secret—it takes work and time. Social media is not a quick-sale platform. Follow the guidelines Schnick outlines in his article, and you’ll build a structure that will allow you to demonstrate your value and will eventually lead to new business.

If it’s your firm’s sales skills that are standing in the way of success, a training program might be needed. But how do you choose a provider that’s right for you? Now the tables are turned and you’re the buyer. Fortunately, there are some resources to help you decide, including the Sales Training Vendor Guide from ES Research Group. In this week’s RainToday podcast—Which Sales Training Program Is Right for You?—ES Research CEO Dave Stein discusses some of the findings in the report, including the top companies in the different categories, the state of online training, and the effectiveness of sales assessment tools.

My question to you now: What are you doing to stand out among the competition and make the sale?

How do you stand out from the sea of competition? (Photo by flickkerphotos)

Let’s face it; the business climate has changed forever. With the recession, job losses, and conservative spending at companies of all sizes, professional services firms are facing new challenges as they try to grow.

The sales cycle is getting longer. We are hearing many more buyers saying things like, “We really want to move ahead with this project; we just need another month of positive cash flow.” And, “We just need this one client to extend their contract us for us to extend our contract with you.”

The already slow, complex sales cycle is getting longer. If you do not have a process for staying in touch with and moving prospects along the cycle, more and more of them will fall through the cracks.

Competition is increasing. With very low barriers to entry (all a service provider needs is a computer and a LinkedIn account to start their business and begin outreach) paired with an influx of service providers laid off from consulting, law, and accounting firms, more professionals than ever are starting their own practices. And some of these professionals are becoming well-known experts in their respective fields.

In addition, they have many tools at their disposal to help them become thought leaders, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Within a month of hanging a shingle, an individual can build up a strong following through these media and carve out a niche for himself. That means, however, that there is more competition out there, and they’re going after your clients. If you aren’t building strong relationships with your clients and prospects, you can be sure your competition is.

Services are becoming commodities. The increased competition and buying power of the clients leads many buyers to view professional services as commodities. With accountants, lawyers, and consultants sprouting up on every street corner, buyers are willing to shop around based on price. If one won’t do it for the price the buyer wants, he certainly can find another who will.

As a professional services provider you need to find a way to differentiate yourself and demonstrate your value. You need to prove to buyers through your thought leadership activities, conversations, and interactions that you are the expert they want and need. If you aren’t able to show how you are different from Joe down the street, then you likely are a commodity.

How are you dealing with these challenges? Share with us in the comments below.

What growing up at a motel taught me about running a service business. (Photo by Will V.)

The 4th of July has always signaled the beginning of summer to me. Fireworks, parades, barbecues, picnics, and baseball games—what better ways to celebrate the kickoff of the short-lived, New England heat?

The holiday also brings back memories of my childhood. I grew up in a small tourist town in southern Maine where my parents owned and managed a motel. Growing up living at a motel made for a pretty interesting childhood where I got to meet new people every day and make friends all over the world.

It wasn’t all fun and games. Growing up in a family business also meant that I had to work every summer. I’d do everything from housekeeping to running the front office to painting to cleaning the pool. But I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. In fact, I learned a number of lessons that have stuck with me throughout my life.

Here are five of those lessons that have really become guiding principles for me in running a service business.

1. Always put the people first. Staff, clients, prospects—if you put the people first, everything else will fall in line.

My parents always put an emphasis on personal relationships. They built strong relationships with guests where they’d stay in touch throughout the year, sending Christmas cards, letters, and emails to guests just to see how they were doing and fill them in on what was going on in our lives. Every Friday night my parents would take one of the repeat guests out to dinner, and they would host small cocktail parties. These relationships kept folks coming back year after year.

They also built strong bonds with the staff. They genuinely cared about (and sometimes for) the employees, and in turn, the employees would regularly go above and beyond the call of duty.

Professional services marketing, selling, and management are all about relationships. If you put people first and allow this philosophy to drive the rest of your decisions, everything else will fall in line. Go above and beyond for your staff, and you will have a group of people working with you who go above and beyond for you, one another, and your clients.

2. The price of entry gets you only so far. The cleanliness of the rooms at the motel, having amenities guests want, and our location got us only so far. In the hospitality business, such things are the price of entry. If you don’t have them, you won’t survive for very long. But having them only gets you to the starting gate.

Your clients expect excellent service and technical competence. What can you do above and beyond “doing good work” that will help you compete?

3. Ask for referrals. More than 65% of the reservations at the motel came from customers who came back year after year. And the number one source of new customers was through referrals. As my parents built a relationship with each guest, they got know their extended families and friends, and they were not shy about asking for a referral.

It’s as easy as saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if you all vacationed together next year?” Or, “Why doesn’t your cousin Joe who is staying down the road, stay here? It would be much more convenient for you all, and it would be wonderful to have him.”

It’s nice when clients make referrals on their own, but as a rule you can’t expect them to connect the dots between the people they know who might need your services and you. Ask questions, and ask for referrals.

4. Everyone needs to pitch in. On any given day you would find my mother making beds to help out the housekeeping team, painting a wall in a room, or fielding calls during the busy hours in the office. As the owner/manager, she set an example for me and the rest of the staff that everyone needs to pitch in and help out to get things done.

Helping your teammates goes a long way, no matter what your job description is. It may involve staying late or working on the weekends to get a project done, or proofreading that big proposal, or helping a colleague with a mundane task. As a leader at a professional services organization (or aspiring leader), you set the example that all others will follow. Provide support and help out any way possible.

5. Be genuine. None of this works if you are not genuine. People can tell when you care, are serious about building relationships, and give your all to be the best you can be.

These lessons are among the many I’ve learned from my parents. I hope that in sharing them, they will help you grow as an individual and a business leader as much as they have helped me.

A fire sale for your services should not be an option (Photo by timparkinson)

In my Twitter activities I came across an excellent post on Tom Searcy’s Hunting Big Sales blog, Price is No Object.

In this post Tom writes, “A lot of the time, however, price is not the only issue and it’s merely being used as a smoke screen.”

I couldn’t agree more. Price often is not the heart of the issue but an indicator that something else is going on. Clients will use the price objection because it’s a convenient excuse. Tom provides four excellent thoughts to help you get control of the price discussion. Check them out here.

I’d add a few more to his:

1. Don’t respond right away. Instead, get the prospect to talk more about the objection. Ask, “And what else is of concern?” This does a couple of things: first, it allows you to get all the objections out at once. By doing this you get a more complete picture of what’s really going on and can respond accordingly. And second, it gives you some time to think about how you want to respond.

It’s our tendency to jump in right away, respond to the objection, and move on. But you need to take your time and get the prospect to talk more about it so you can get to the heart of the issue.

2. Don’t introduce price too early in the conversation. Price objections often come when you give the price too soon. Before you can talk about price in the sales process, you have to get the prospect to see the value and get them to articulate the value of the solution. When you share the price too early in the conversation you lose control. You move into the negotiation phase where all conversations going forward are going to focus around price instead of value and outcomes.

3. Focus on selling the value. When you get a price objection, you haven’t done a good enough job of selling the value. Go back to the prospect’s needs and goals. Get them to articulate what the solution is worth to them. When you get the prospect to see the value of the solution and you put it in financial terms, you get much less resistance on the price.

The next time you get a price objection, keep these tips in mind and let us know how it goes in the comments of this post. We’d love to hear your stories and how you’re dealing with the dreaded price objection.

Is your referral engine running smoothly? (Photo by clix)

Business and client relationships can be difficult to develop and nurture, but they’re important to building a sustaining business that grows year after year. What often happens is the initial contact with someone starts out strong and then it tapers off. There isn’t an immediate need or opportunity and so the potential client or business partner gets put to the back burner where it’s forgotten.

The key to preventing that from happening is to think on behalf of the other person, says Nancy Fox in her article, The Stuff Real Business Relationships Are Made Of. You might not have a direct or immediate offering, but you can do things that keep the relationship active and take it to the next level, she says. With business relationships, you can ask the person to write for your blog or newsletter, ask them to speak at an event you’re organizing, or offer to give recommendations.

With client relationships, whether it’s a prospect you’re wooing or a current client, periodically reach out to them to let them know you’re thinking about them and their issues. Send them articles, refer them to research reports, tell them about case studies, and keep them up to date on what you and your firm are doing.

Social media has become a useful tool for nurturing and maintaining relationships. You can use it to share articles and ideas and to provide recommendations, such as on LinkedIn. More than that, however, the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. say social media increasingly drives more visitors to their websites and blogs, generates leads, and helps with sales, according to research on social media use conducted by the Center for Marketing Research, UMass Dartmouth.

In addition, social media has made it easier for people to make referrals. With the click of a mouse, people in and out of your network can tell hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people about an article you wrote, a webinar you presented, or a service you provided—and provided exceptionally well.

Referrals, especially for professional services firms, are the best way to generate new business, says John Jantsch, author of The Referral Engine in his podcast interview, The Best Way to Generate Referrals and Get More Leads. That’s because referrals help establish trust. When a client says your services helped him and that working with you was a pleasure, the trust is there and can shorten the sales cycle.

If you’re doing all that you can to develop relationships and get referrals, you might still hit roadblocks and wonder if you’re doing the right things to find clients. If you find you are continually struggling, you might want to take a look at your marketing model, says Julia D. Stege in her article, What You Seek is Seeking You: Authentic Marketing is Key. You might discover that the traditional marketing model creates only stress and no new clients. What you may need instead is an authentic marketing plan that enables them to attract the perfect clients, she says.

Bruce Marcus also suggests looking at your marketing tactics, for tactics that work well in one scenario may be disastrous for another. That’s especially the case if you apply product marketing tactics to professional services, he writes in his article, How to Succeed with Professional Services Marketing. Service marketing has different objectives than product marketing, and firms must heed these if they want their campaigns to succeed.

Your Turn: What have been your experiences with marketing professional services or developing relationships with clients and business partners? What have you done that worked well? What tactics failed?

I am on the tail end of an 8-month remodel of the fixer-upper lake house my husband and I bought last year. The house was originally a cottage built in 1935, so to say we’ve run into our fair share of issues during the remodel process is an understatement.

With most of the heavy lifting behind us—demolition complete, new walls up, electrical and plumbing replaced—we thought we were in the clear and that it would be smooth sailing until move-in day. After all, the only thing left is the finish work; most problems are found during demo.

Boy were we wrong.

Another problem reared its head when we had our granite counters and sink installed last week.

Months ago we bought a beautiful farm sink. It was the very first item we bought for the house, and it was the one “splurge” in the kitchen. What makes a farm sink unique is that the front apron shows, rather than being hidden behind  a fake cabinet drawer.

In preparation for the install of the farm sink, we sent the counter top providers, our designer, and our contractor pictures of exactly how we wanted it to look. Ultimately the counter top providers were responsible for installing the sink. My husband and I are paranoid people and communicated with them very clearly—or so we thought.

Before: How the sink was originally installed

We arrived home late the night of the installation only to find that they did not install the sink the way we wanted. Instead, they installed it like a regular under mount sink (which means the entire sink is hidden in the cabinet and the granite is all around it). We wouldn’t have bought an expensive sink and gone to all this trouble if it were just going to look like a regular under mount sink.

Needless to say my husband and I were furious. We sent an email to our contractor, the designer, and the granite company. They were all present for the installation, they all had pictures of how we wanted it to look, and they all let it get installed as an under mount sink. This is when the finger-pointing started.

The granite provider blamed the error on the designer and contractor.

Our designer said, “It looks good this way.” While that may be true, it’s not what we wanted.

Our contractor was the only one who said, “You’re not happy; I will fix this.” And he did.

After: How the sink looks after our contractor fixed it

Lessons Learned

We can all learn lessons from the mistakes of others. Here are a few things our service providers could have done better in this situation and how they relate to your own client management:

1. Listen, really listen. No one listened to us. On the client side, we felt we communicated very clearly what we wanted, yet what we got was something else entirely.

You may be listening to your clients, but are you really hearing what they are saying? Be sure you actually listen and clearly understand your clients’ needs and desires.

2. Don’t assume. The service provider made certain assumptions that simply weren’t accurate. Had he asked us or put a few quality control measures in place (such as having us sign off on a template), all issues could have been avoided.

When dealing with your clients, don’t assume anything. And if you do make an assumption, let the client know the assumption you are making so they can confirm or deny. Even if in 99 out of 100 cases the assumption you make is correct, it’s always better to confirm and avoid the 1% of time you make the wrong one.

3. Set clear expectations with the client. At no point did anyone say, “We can’t make it look like this,” or “It’s not going to look like this.” Instead we had one vision of the outcome, and the service provider had a completely different vision. Had this been communicated early on, we could have completely avoided the issue.

4. Take responsibility and fix the problem. The only person who took responsibility and was committed to helping fix the issue was our contractor. Our contractor did the right thing by not playing the blame game and instead used his problem-solving skills to come up with a solution.

If a service snafu does arise, don’t point fingers. Address the problem and explain how you’re going to fix the problem. Great service recovery can actually strengthen the relationship.

Based on this experience, will I recommend or work with these granite providers again? Absolutely not.

Will I work with the designer again? Probably, but I will be a bit more cautious and less trusting.

Will I recommend and work with this contractor again? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I’ve already recommended him to several friends, letting them know that “he takes pride in his work and makes sure things are done—and done the way you want them.”

Now, think about how you provide services to your clients. Are you the granite provider, the designer, or the contractor? What does that mean for the repeat business and referrals you could be getting?

I was in a meeting last week, and we started talking about the evolution of professional services firms and the roles individuals play when it comes to their business development responsibilities. As many of you may have surmised and probably experienced, economic realities and changes within firms have altered who must be involved.

Professional Services Business Development Then

When a professional services firm started 25 years ago the original founders and partners were responsible for bringing in all the new business. After all, they were the only ones in the firm, so their success as a firm and as individuals counted on it. This founding group of individuals had the desire and commitment to succeed in selling.

When it came time to hire new people, all they needed were doers. They needed accountants, consultants, and lawyers who were good at the technical delivery of the trade. The individual’s ability to sell didn’t matter because the founders and partners were responsible for bringing in the new business. This built the firm dynamic where a few senior rainmakers bring in the business to feed the rest of the firm.

Professional Services Business Development Now

Flash forward to 25 years later…

The founders and partners are retiring. The staff they’ve hired over the years are very good at delivering the services; however, they don’t have the skills to sell. And they don’t necessarily have the desire or the commitment to try to sell as the early founders did. After all, if they don’t want to sell they can just go work for one of the big consulting, law, or accounting firms and have a decent career delivering the services they love to deliver and never have to worry about bringing in new clients.

There’s been a paradigm shift, and professional services firms are running into problems because they don’t have the people who can sell or who have the desire to learn to sell.

This leads to the big questions: Where will the next generation of rainmakers come from? What’s a firm to do?

What has been your experience in developing new rainmakers in your firm?

Think you need new clients in order to generate new revenue streams? Think again. More often than not, existing clients are the best source of new revenue, writes Randy Shattuck in his article, Do You Really Need New Clients? New clients have greater risk, may not remain good clients over time, and can be costly to acquire, he says. In addition, “it’s easier to sell something new to an existing client than it is to sell an existing service to a new client.”

To do that, of course, requires planning and close work with clients to create new services that will appeal to them. Following the strategy outlined in Shattuck’s article not only can generate new revenue streams but can revitalize client relationships.

What if you truly do need new clients? How can you get them? RainToday’s How Clients Buy Benchmark Report shows that corporate websites play a significant role in lead generation. As this week’s chart shows, 83% of the buyers surveyed say a service provider’s website holds at least “some influence” over their decision to engage in initial discussions.

That means you must think of your website as the hub for your marketing and thought leadership activities. No matter what lead generation tactics you employ, the first stop a prospect is going to make is your website.

You can also improve your chances of acquiring new clients by getting on a prospect’s buying decision team. Sound like an impossible task? Not if you help facilitate the process, writes Sharon Drew Morgen in her article, How to Get on the Buying Decision Team. Drawing on a past experience, Morgen describes how she acquired a new client by helping them decide what type of service they really want and navigating them through their internal decision issues. Doing so creates trust and ensures you’re on hand when the prospect is ready to buy.

But if you want a prospect to accept your proposal, you must prove that you are innovative and a thought leader in your industry, says Michael W. McLaughlin in his article, The Information Advantage: How Firms Can Avoid the Road to Obsolescence. In this electronic age, your prospects and clients already know the basics. Providing them with more of the same only means you will get lost in the noise. Get them to take notice of you by offering innovative ideas and advice.

Suppose, however, you propose your innovative solution and the prospect says they aren’t interested? Is it the end of discussion? No, says John Doerr in his podcast interview, Client Objections: No Doesn’t Have to Mean No. When a prospect or client objects to something—whether it’s a proposed service or the cost of your service—it’s an opportunity to ask questions and find out what the true issue is. You can then explain and perhaps offer a new solution—and get them to say yes, he says.

Don't let clients wave goodbye to you

You sign on a new client, and after a while you think the client would benefit from a new service you’re offering. But the client will have nothing to do with it. In fact, the client won’t take or return your calls. What’s going on?

Chances are, you didn’t nurture the relationship and give the client a reason to trust you, says Colleen Francis, President of Engage Selling Solutions. In this week’s podcast interview, Why Clients Leave and What You Can Do About It, Francis advises how to avoid that problem, explaining the most common reason why clients leave and the two essential pieces of a client retention strategy.

If you develop client relationships and build trust, you can also prevent clients from leaving should the giants in your industry decide to move in on your turf. You can also fight back with creative marketing strategies, says Bruce Marcus in his article, What to Do When You’re Surrounded by Giants Who Want Your Clients.

The large firm may have a large marketing team, but smaller practitioners can use the same strategies—write articles, writer for a blog, give speeches, and use social media. Marcus outlines a 12-step plan that small firms can use to fight the giants.

Many businesses already recognize the significance of doing such content marketing, increasing spending in that area by 11%, according to a recent survey by Junta42. But small businesses are really taking the ball and running with it, spending almost twice as much on content marketing than large firms.

Content marketing sounds like a great idea, you might think, but where will you find the time? After all, you need to call on prospects and clients, network, study research, and help leadership secure new business. Anne Scarlett suggests in her article, No Time for Content Development? Here’s a Solution, that you delegate the writing.  Don’t give it up completely, but oversee the process so that the firm’s message remains clear and its expertise is evident. Follow her four-step process for the best way to beef up your content marketing without running yourself into the ground.

You can do all the content marketing in the world, but if your firm follows old practices it won’t be able to compete, says Suzanne Lowe in her article, Legacy Business Practices Hurt Service Firms. It’s essential that firms break down marketing and business development silos, she says. They must put in place three structural frameworks so that they may compete effectively, grow market share, and better serve clients.