Expertise Marketplace - Professional Service Firm Marketing Blog

Does open office space affect professional services integration?

Last fall, a client showed me her company’s new office space. Everywhere I looked, there were no walls, lots of windows, modular desks, cubbies for the storage of employees’ personal belongings (each morning they choose a new desk), standing computer stations, and flexible meeting spaces.

 

My client was enthusiastic about this new office arrangement, and called it a model for enhanced collaboration. I’ve heard the open-space approach is catching on with other companies.

I can see how open office space helps stimulate collegial conversations and new forms of worker relationship building. But, for professional service firms especially, is it enough to address a critical issue: the integration of marketing and selling?

For the most effective  integration of marketing and selling, professional firms should still consider the structural and cultural methods that I have talked about in my previous writing and speaking. For example, the shared development of marketing and selling goals, the co-leadership toward achieving optimal outcomes, the sharing of functional accountabilities, and performance measurement frameworks that are flexible enough to not kill a good idea too quickly.   

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for breaking down barriers in a professional services environment! I think the open space approach holds much promise. But by itself, it’s not enough to achieve true marketing and selling integration.

 

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Substantive discussions about the future of law firms

Here is a link to the conference papers presented at the just-concluded Georgetown University Law Center's conference, "Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business As Usual?" 

My thanks to Robert Sawhney for sending me a link to his comments about some of the conclusions cited at this meeting, which was sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession. 

I didn't attend the conference, but it looks like the discussions were substantive. Does anyone know of substantive conversations like this for other professional service sectors (e.g., accounting, architecture/engineerng/construction, executive search or any of the consulting sectors)?  

Consultants as "Judges"?

I'm always watching for shifts in the professional services marketplace. Could this be one of them? (Link only available to Wall Street Journal non-subscribers for 7 days!)

How are consulting firms using the web for thought leadership?

Most consulting firms develop proprietary methodologies that they use to bring added value to their clients. Some of these methodologies have become mainstream business techniques (Balanced Scorecard, Net Promoter Score, Lean Thinking and Business Process Engineering).  

How has the web changed the way thought leadership is created in the consulting arena? It's an intriguing question; so much so that I agreed to blog about a research project currently being undertaken by Bloom Group and BlissPR.

These firms are working to ID how consulting firms are using the web for thought leadership – both for R&D purposes and PR/promotion.  Their hypothesis is that the old rules are being rewired. 
 
To test the hypothesis, they’ve developed an online survey for Marketing Directors and Practice Leaders at US consulting firms. (Apologies, global consultancies! Let me know if you'd like this survey to be made global, and I'll pass along your thoughts...).

The confidential survey will address:

• How many consulting firms are using social media – and exactly what type of social media they are using (blogs, microsites, gated communities, social networking sites, Twitter, etc.)?
• Are firms using one-way or two-way channels to build awareness and leads?  Private or public communities?
• When it comes to building business leads, is social media less effective or more effective than traditional online and offline marketing programs?
• How are the best consulting firms using social media and other online technologies in their marketing programs?
• How are consulting firms using social media to improve the way they conduct thought leadership R&D?  Is this helping them to create better ideas?

Deadline is March 18, 2010.

Join our discussion on the future of legal marketing

I'm continuing to moderate a discussion on the future of legal marketing at the new Martindale-Hubbell Connected online community. I've just posted four parts of a discussion I started last week with my esteemed friend Bruce Marcus. Take a look below, then add your voice to the Martindale-Hubbell Connected discussion. 

(If you haven't registered for this closed community, just follow the instructions about how to join in. You can find the thread of this discussion under the "Legal Marketing Group". If you need help to sign up, contact mark@beese.org and he will help you.)

One of my favorite professional service industry observers is Bruce Marcus. He expresses strong opinions with a unique combination of humility and passion. Thank you, Bruce, for the opportunity to bring out some important points on the future of law firm marketing!

Here’s my response to some of Bruce’s recent points, in italics. Other opinions, folks?

… “the nature of professional services marketing precludes the likelihood that anyone will hire a lawyer or an accountant from any kind of promotion. The purpose of marketing is, among other things, to develop a situation that allows a sale to be made by a lawyer, or some other legal professional.” Yes, on a one-to-one basis, the lawyer does make the “sale”. But, I think, law firm and accounting buyers are increasingly influenced by promotion.

… “the clients will tell the lawyers what to change to meet client needs and to compete successfully … Witness the current activity in overcoming hourly billing, which is a growing client demand.” Law firms’ changing their hourly billing structures does appear to be underway -– finally. But I fear law firms are doing so less because their clients demanded it than because they are so addicted to playing copycat with their rivals! I think today’s law firms don’t listen enough to their clients (individually) or to the marketplace as a whole. The future of legal marketing should include a much more robust market research function.

… “law firms going public.” Let’s hear more about this notion. We’ve seen PSFs go public in other sectors (e.g., human resource consulting, executive search) when they have a repeatable service offering that can be sufficiently scaled, even outsourced. Gaining access to capital may be the reason why lawyers might want to have their firm go public, but what would be the marketplace's rationale for buying shares? What’s the scale on which a public law firm could grow?

… “Rare, then, is the lawyer who will learn to read -- much less believe -- in trends. Not just in the economy, but in the industries of which their clients are a part.” This is perhaps the biggest challenge to the future of law firm marketing! How can marketers get lawyers to believe in the marketplace? I contend it must be with facts and data. Folks, what kind of marketplace facts and data would lawyers believe?

I'm tracking others' insights - on Innovation

I've been watching how other bloggers address topics that I think are critical to the marketplace leadership of professional service firms.  Take a look at what I found recently, followed by my own remarks. 

High-fives to Michelle Golden, whose blog mostly focuses on law and accounting firm marketing, for providing a close look at how she advises clients on integrating service improvements (both to the offering itself and to its delivery) into a marketing plan.  Golden does a great job of illustrating the link between Marketing and a firm's Operations side, as well as the role of the individual fee-earning professional to ensure a focus on this critical area.  How many consultants put illustrations like this on their blogs?  (Only the ones who are actively generating their own innovations, that's who.)

Pay attention to anomalies and other nuggets from a conference

I went to a conference on Measuring Innovation Performance yesterday.  It was the first time in too long that I was an attendee, not a speaker, and so I enjoyed myself immensely. 

Some of the content related to classic business strategy, some to differentiation.  Some of the best nuggets related to professional service firms (PSF) included:

• When assessing the viability of any particular business strategy, make sure you understand the risks involved. There are three types of risk:  1) technical, 2) executional (can I do it?), and 3) market/competitive risk. Ask yourself the risk of pursuing the strategy and the risks of NOT pursuing the strategy.
• Quality is directly linked to innovation.
• Assess opportunities as well as risks. Most companies forget to do this. But when thinking about opportunities, remember there are COSTS to pursuing opportunities. (“This opportunity will cost us $x.  What other things could we be doing with this money that might be more important to us?”)
• Industry knowledge is a key differentiator.
• When thinking about differentiating with your people, hire TALENT over experience.
• Innovation ROI should be thought of more broadly than many firms do:  it’s more than CASH, but also indirect benefits.
• Pay attention to anomalies. (My favorite!)
• Most firms operate from a budget mentality. Too few operate from an investment mentality.

I found, once again, that most of the presenters and examples were product- and manufacturing-focused.  The professional service firms in attendance were left to extrapolate the models, concepts and frameworks.

 

Wouldn't it be great if content could be pertinent and readily available to the global, $3+ trillion professional services sector?  Or that thought leaders would GET it that we are unquestionably in a SERVICES economy?  Maybe I'll have to write another book, or develop an institute targeted especially to PSFs.

Could be fun.   

Lawyers ahead of management consultants

"We're in a relationship business," says Dennis Fleischmann, managing partner of law firm Bryan Cave's New York office as he discusses the firm's women-only networking events in Carol Hymowitz's "In the Lead" column in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required).  Hymowitz reports on how numerous other professional service firms and other corporate leaders are employing women-only business-development events, and recounts perceptions about their pros and cons. 

While I prefer mixed-gender business events, I can't help applauding the companies cited in the column (Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, Sara Lee, General Electric) for "getting it" that women are a critical part of the future of business.

Contrast this, however, with the gender tone-deafness that continues to be apparent in the management consulting industry.  In its upcoming Consulting Summit_2007 this May, conference presenters Kennedy Information, BNA and Consulting Magazine feature NOT ONE WOMAN on the speaking roster. 

I simply can't believe that there aren't any women whose leadership in management consulting firms isn't making at least some positive differences.  And I simply can't believe that these conference organizers haven't figured out that women (and men) want to hear from other women (as well as men)! 

Come on, management consultants, ENOUGH with the white men's club!       

Embrace the unexpected

Seth Godin's blog post on embracing the unexpected appeared while my husband John and I were on a one-week driving trip to visit the small towns where our ancestors used to live.  It was a very low key and absolutely delightful trip.  Talk about not the mainstream! 

For professional service marketers, I found his final three points to be especially helpful:

"1. Embrace expectations and build a product or service that fits what people are looking for. No change of behavior necessary. Be in the right place at the right time with the right thing priced appropriately and hope the competition doesn't show up.

2. Change the expectations. No one expected to be able to buy digital music for 99 cents a song and have it show up on their iPod. Now, that's the default expectation in some communities. Changing an expectation builds a huge barrier to those that might follow. Change is time consuming, expensive and rarely happens on schedule.

3. Defy the expectations. Do the unexpected. This is tempting but often leads to nothing but noise.

Before you start marketing something, it helps to be able to describe which combination of the three you're setting out to accomplish."

Breaking out of the moldly old days

So you think your professional service firm has trouble breaking out of the mold to achieve innovative new practices?  Take a look Bruce MacEwen's fantastic post "The Birth of Innovation Requires the Death of Perfection."