Professional Services – move your prospect to an advocate

Professional Services marketing is mainly about building long term relationships. Strengthening those business relationships and moving a prospect to a client, a client to a supporter and then an advocate is one of the most cost effective ways to acquire new profitable business.

This is not to say that digital marketing is not important, a digital strategy should be integral to your overall strategic marketing plan however creating those long term relationships takes time; success is all about trust and confidence in your firm’s ability to consistently deliver a value added service. Finding out what that means for your target audience requires regular, two way communication between your client facing teams and client organisations using a multi channel approach and more importantly ensuring that the right people are allocated responsibility for managing those relationships.

Turning clients into advocates depends upon a number of factors:

• Technology and how you use it to maximise efficiencies in service delivery, communication and free up more time for face to face contact.

Your approach to research, gathering market intelligence about your client’s business, their sector, the issues they face and how you use that detail is fundamental to preparing your relationship partners for developing the client relationship and new business.

How you use metrics and analysis to educate Partners and fee earners on client engagement and preferences is vital to a targeted approach and fine tuning your value added proposition.

• People - how do you decide on the right individual for business development, client care, presentations and pitches? How do you communicate the brand values, how well are they understood and embraced?

It is important to introduce training programmes at all levels around client relationship management and key account management. HR, Marketing and IT should be working together as a team to ensure the values and vision are communicated in a cost effective manner using the right channels both internally and externally and that feedback and metrics are circulated and used for the benefit of the firm.

The recruitment process should focus not only on the technical skills but also the soft skills. Decisions and the selection of personnel for client facing roles is strategically significant for the firm and the life time value of clients. These are not roles to hand out to individuals just because they have been with the firm for a long time or head up a department. Client care is everyone’s responsibility. KAM, CRM, BD & networking should be allocated to those with the right skill set and ‘fit’ for your target audience.

Systems and Processes – are they in place, up to date, fit for purpose, effective, reviewed, is everyone trained and monitored on their use. Most important of all, are they client facing? If your processes don’t add value to the client experience then they are of no benefit to either party.

In summary, client relationship management is hard work and doesn’t happen overnight. It requires regular communication between the client team and the client. Regular review and monitoring of your client’s business performance and industry sector is important. Take time to consider your client’s personal goals and what you can do to add value. Think about how you can help them achieve their business goals.

If properly managed you should achieve greater client insight, more effective client interactions and ultimately clients who become advocates for your firm.

Like this? Then you will like our blog on Effective Communication

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