Are you doing all you can to grow your firm? (Photo by WTL photos)
Without a good marketing program, finding leads and making sales is just about impossible. Who is going to buy from you if you don’t understand your target’s needs, establish yourself as a thought leader, and build trust around what you do?
In How to Create a Killer Service Marketing Program, Jeanne Urich and Dan Hofferberth explain how good service marketing programs tap into prospects’ compelling reasons to buy and position your firm as the best-known and most-valued in your market. In order to create such a program, you must determine who your target buyers are, the problems you solve for them, business issues that trigger a need for your services, and what makes you different. Then you can focus on selling efforts and bring the program to life.
As your program comes to life and leads start coming in, pause before passing those leads over to sales. Is what you consider a lead really a lead? In You Think You Have a Lead? Look Again, Eric Rudolf looks at the mistakes marketing people make when evaluating leads. Make sure marketing and sales have the same definition of what a lead is. Not only will you improve sales, but you will also improve the relationship between the two camps.
You might be tempted to offer your services for free to win clients. Think carefully before you do this, too, says Bruce Marcus in his article Do You Give Samples? Remember, you want only ideal clients—those whom you can best serve and will be long-time buyers. Giving free samples to just anyone will not give you that type of clientele. Target your marketing campaign and any free services toward your target client.
The most prescribed advice given to win clients is to ask questions. But Mike Schultz and John Doerr say there’s something else that’s more effective. In Sell More by Doing One Simple Thing (That Everyone Says Not to Do), Schultz and Doerr say to stay away from peppering prospects with too many questions. Just asking questions will not win clients. Instead you need to capture attention, develop interest, and inspire action. And you do that through advocacy—where you recommend, promote, and persuade.
For a firm to really grow, however, it should have a culture in which everyone in the firm contributes to its growth. Accounting firm Rea & Associates discovered this recently, writes Mary Flaherty in Accounting Firm Discovers the Power of Having a Growth Culture. The firm was growing, but it knew it was missing opportunities and leaving money on the table. To prevent that from happening, it created a strategy that got all of its partners, leaders, and professionals involved in growing business. As a result, Rea & Associates not only weathered the recession but was able to increase revenue.
A firm’s performance also depends on alignment within the organization, says Joe Calloway, co-author of the book Never By Chance: Aligning People and Strategy Through Intentional Leadership, in his podcast interview, Turn Your Firm into a High-Performance Machine. Start with your vision and then determine if your culture matches your vision, if your strategies advance your vision, and if your client experience advance those strategies. Only when all of those are working in concert will your firm achieve high performance levels, Calloway says.
