Latest posts
Is marketing technology helping or hurting your firm’s growth?
Technology is dramatically shifting marketing, and most professional service firms are being left behind just as the broader market—both B2B and B2C—are applying decades-old professional services marketing tactics to their own. If your understanding of marketing...
The 3 Biggest Mistakes Marketing Leaders Make
“Send it to marketing and have them make it pretty” is a phrase you hear regularly in professional services firms. The “it” in the phrase could be a presentation, a proposal or any other brilliant marketing idea coming out of a practice. Most marketing organizations...
Marketing Lessons from a Sports Stadium Classroom
When I was a kid, my dad used to take me to St. Louis Cardinal baseball and football games and to see Blues hockey. I can vividly recall learning at a very early age when and how you pulled the goalie, sent the runner (that cost me a dollar on a sucker bet with my...
“Grow Everything” is not a Strategy
"I need your number by the end of the week!” is a phrase you've probably uttered or heard during your annual planning cycle. The “number” is the revenue bogey a partner or practice is “asked” to contribute to the overall growth of the firm and is expected to hit by...
Prudent Decision-Making for Leaders
St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “Prudence has two eyes, one that foresees what one has to do, the other that examines afterword what one has done.” Ignatius, was the founder of the Jesuits, an order of Catholic priests. He was born in 1491, of a family of minor nobility...
The Spring Doldrums of Professional Services Marketing
Most firm’s marketing plans are screeching to a halt about this time of year: The big tradeshow has sucked up more time and money than expected. The new product or service was launched and is now languishing. The big research study has not gotten a statistically valid...
Six Beliefs Of Hazardous Firm Cultures
Contributed by Ted Harro Some organizations should have a warning label: Caution, working here can be hazardous to your health. Complications could include high blood pressure, weight gain, insomnia, and bleeding ulcers. Behind every hazardous work culture there’s...
Four Keys To A Successful Breakthrough
“I’m worried about where you’re going here!” It had taken the CFO a day and a half to finally burst. He had been watching our planning session proceed, only commenting when his financial expertise seemed relevant. But after the CEO’s description of his expansive...
You Don’t Have a Marketing Problem
In 2002 Rajat Gupta, then managing director of McKinsey, pushed the firm’s head of marketing and public affairs, Javier Perez, out of the firm. The reason: multiple partners had shared their dissatisfaction with the firm to writer John Byrne in a wide-ranging feature...
Three Mindsets of Long-run Salespeople
One of my first assignments in my new job was to fly out to see one of our firm’s clients who was well-known for being a bit of a pickle. He was a middle manager at a very large telecommunications firm and was an old hand at dealing with… vendors. I was just the...
Professional Services, Fear and Answers to Life’s Big Questions – Top Books for 2013
It seems like everyone is an "author" nowadays. Books are popping up everywhere as part of the content marketing fad. Most are nothing more that veiled sales pitches and .pdfs of Power Point decks. Repackage an idea, pick a word or phrase and market the hell out of...
Shocking the Soul Out of Your Firm’s Culture
Professional services firm leaders often have ambitions to create “innovative” or “client-centric” cultures. Unfortunately, many act in ways that shock the soul out of their firms and prevent them from ever realizing their visions. In 1967, Martin Seligman, a...