Rising Star Coaching
It takes a strategic marketing leader to develop a strategic marketing leader.
Low expectations kill marketing potential and value, so very few professional services marketing teams are high performing.
Getting the right people on the bus is a core capability of an exceptional professional services firm.
My clients often have smart, motivated and gifted people in their nascent marketing teams. They are professionals who are quick learners, great project managers, and ambitious team members, but they are people who simply do not have the experience and skills to fill strategic marketing roles.
“To get others to come into our way of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.”
William Hazlitt
My Point of View
Marketing teams that perform moderately well are often liked, but they are rarely respected.
Leaders with high expectations create high performance. They demand that marketers think like business people—not communicators—that they take risks and that they never stop striving to be the best.
Respect is an outcome of high performance and it must be earned.
Prudent Pedal’s Value
You need a strategic marketing leader to develop a strategic marketing leader.
The messiness of professional services marketing can only be overcome through a strategic leadership mindset enabled by crystal clear expectations, daily feedback, and an atmosphere of trust. I have developed exceptional teams around the globe at the world’s top firms. I can do the same for you.
“I really appreciated how positive Jeff was with our team. I think encouragement and positivity keep people motivated during challenging times. I think others across the organization took note of Jeff’s approach and followed his lead.”
Scott SwansonStrategic Marketing Coach
As a strategic marketing coach, I assess performance gaps around strategic, high-performance capabilities and then develop personal action plans to close gaps. I guide a “rising star” as she fills a new leadership role, leads her team and executes growth plans. I ask questions, offer input, and help mentees develop growth plans during their hourly weekly coaching sessions.
There are two Marketing Schools of Thought in Professional Services.
The one your firm has chosen is delivering your current results. Do you know to which one your firm belongs?
What is Marketing?
My wife says that I tilt at windmills when I try to convince the professional services world that Marketing is strategic and more than making things pretty. Alliance partners and business leaders say they have the “strategic stuff” covered. My marketing peers wonder why I expend so much energy and political capital fighting an undefeatable foe. After all, it’s easier to just ride a horse in the direction it is going.
In the immortal words of John McClane inspired by his love of old-time westerns in the movie Die Hard, “Yipee ki yay,…!”
Here is a typical conversation I have with audiences after my presentations, with prospects, marketing peers, and alliance partners. There is a theme here.
read more
12 Steps to Transform Professional Services Marketing
Professional services marketing is like no other.
Professionals services firms market complex, intangible solutions to what are big, public, and potentially embarrassing problems. The solutions are bought by the most sophisticated c-level buyers at top companies around the globe. And, professionals must operate from Byzantine, matrixed systems in one of the most political and contentious ownerships structures, a partnership.
read more
Buyer Persona Shortcomings
Has your firm’s marketing team developed “personas” yet? If you haven’t, please don’t. If you have, please throw them out. I have always had a distaste for the “persona” craze that has gripped marketing during the “content marketing” fad. Sure, I get that writing a...
read more