6 Keys to a Terrible Professional Services Marketing Strategy (Part 1)

Discover the first three keys to failing
by Mike Schultz, Publisher, RainToday.com

There must be a secret primer out there on how to build terrible marketing strategies for professional services firms. Over the past two decades I’ve come across so many marketing strategies that have failed for similar reasons that I figure everyone must be in the know and I have simply been left out of the loop.

After much research to find the source, the secret codex still eludes me. So, I am compelled to seize this moment for posterity and codify the process of building terrible marketing strategies. Here goes:

1. Build the Strategy from the Top Down

Q. In a ham and eggs breakfast, what’s the difference between the pig and the chicken?

A. The chicken was compliant, but the pig was committed.

Nothing turns off partners, division leaders, and other leadership types more than being handed a strategy and told to “make it happen.” Force feed the strategies from on high and you’re likely to get compliance and not commitment. Practice leaders may take the strategy and run with it, perhaps even put a bit of effort and sweat into it, yet they can and frequently do walk away at the first sign of trouble.

Without going through the process of crafting the strategies and tactics–brainstorming possibilities, performing “what if” analyses, researching best practices, and backtracking when suggested actions don’t seem like they’ll pan out–the team’s dedication to implementation will be weak.

Once the tactics feel burdensome to implement, or at the first sign senior management isn’t going to hold the team’s feet to the fire, implementation grinds to a standstill. Nothing makes a terrible strategy more terrible than one doomed to be ignored or, at best, tolerated by the team members responsible for making it a success.

2. Don’t Consult with Expert Tacticians

Equally as devastating as a top-down strategy is a strategy built without input from experts familiar with the underlying marketing and business development tactics. When you identify your specific tactics–even if the tactics are largely decent choices for a successful marketing strategy–without talking with people who have deep, relevant experience, the actual outcome will likely differ from the one you envision.

For example, you might conduct a seminar or webinar and want to fill the room with decision makers, but unfortunately you generate little or no attendance. Or, you manage to generate some attendance, but then you do a poor job of delivering content that will help you connect with potential clients. (Try a hard-sell approach; most decision makers really despise that.) Then you can ruin your follow-up by not doing it, doing it too late, or doing it poorly.

Maybe you set out to support lead generation and client communication with a website, but end up with a website that no one can find, no one can use, is hard on the eyes, provides no value, is not client focused, and generally reflects poorly on your company. You might then employ direct mail for lead generation and generate no response–with no idea why and no way to find out what didn’t work!

Leave out the tactical expertise and the terrible marketing outcomes you can achieve are endless.

3. Look Only at Your Own Industry and Competition

If you want your marketing strategy to never reach beyond average, make sure you look only at your industry and competition.

Let’s say your company is an accounting firm. Make sure you look only at what other accounting firms are doing for growth. Ignore law, management consulting, technology, and consumer products companies. This is a great way to miss out on all the newest marketing trends, technologies, and possibilities. Plus, if you look only at your own industry for inspiration, you’ll never be a leader. Being late to the game is a great component to a terrible marketing strategy.

Make sure that when you study the competition to see what they’re doing, you look only at your direct competitors. Following the accounting example, let’s say you’re in a 50-person accounting firm outside of New York City. Focus only on other mid-size accounting firms. Don’t even think about considering what KPMG or PWC are doing, and don’t worry much about what the 200-person firm might be up to. They’re too big for you to care about, and you don’t want to get too many inspirations from companies that have grown well or are larger than you.

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About the author: Mike Schultz is Publisher of RainToday.com, President of Wellesley Hills Group, and author of Professional Services Marketing. You can read more articles on marketing and selling professional services at RainToday.com.