Last year I published a book that addressed the barriers to marketing and selling effectiveness in professional service firms. One of the biggest barriers was the lack of understanding about marketing and selling concepts, best practices, and individual terms.
People (marketers and client-facing practitioners alike) think they understand what the many terms mean. They find out later -- when something has gone wrong or expectations have not been met -- that they really didn't understand each other from the beginning.
A few weeks ago, I was reminded of this dilemma anew. I was a panelist for a couple of sessions at the Association for Accounting Marketing's 2010 annual Summit. Many attendees reported that their client-facing partners basically didn't understand what the marketers meant for terms like "branding," or "business development," or "direct mail" (and many other terms too). Even among the marketers themselves, we had to set out definitions during our discussions! This situation is no surprise; professional services marketing, selling and leadership is still "growing up."
For my book, I compiled the attached glossary of the most commonly-used terms by the many professional service marketers and sellers that I interviewed. This is the most across-the-board set of definitions I've seen in professional service marketing.
Download The Integration Imperative Glossary
Talk amongst yourselves!
I like these strategies towards the marketing and its concepts..anyway congrats to your further creations..keep sharing.
Posted by: Successful B2B Marketing | September 22, 2010 at 08:10 AM
Was just telling my boss about this idea today and wishing I had an example! Was at AAMDC and appreciate your willingness to share this, Suzanne.
Thank you!
Posted by: Jeanine Black | July 13, 2010 at 05:02 PM