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PM Forum - Boston

"Client-Centric Marketing in Professional Services":
Creating campaigns that capture attention and close leads

On December 4, 2008, the New England Chapter of the PM Forum met at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston to learn more about a very intriguing topic - Client-Centric Marketing. The attendees left the program energized and ready to put their takeaways into practice.

The four panelists provided information on how to expand client portfolios, grow market share, and add value through the use of effective client-centric marketing campaigns.

Terrie Perella, National AERS Marketing Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP, moderated the panel and did a great job asking the panelists relevant questions and reinforcing the key takeaways from each speaker.

Rob Leavitt, President, Woodridge Marketing, spoke about how a three-stage approach (deepening client insight, delivering client value in every touch point, and mobilizing client collaboration) can be used to overcome the challenges that professional services firms face today, including the economic slowdown, the shift to digital and social media, and the need to help clients with complex problems.

Rob described the "Aha! Moment" he had on client-centric marketing. While running a Marketing Excellence Awards Program, he came across a company that "truly dedicated itself to deeply understanding everything about an individual client" and then provided value by finding ways to help the client, above and beyond the usual means. Leavitt said we should "treat the client like a market and get inside it and figure out what new offerings will make sense for them."

Eric Glazer, Vice President of Marketing, Cambridge Healthtech Associates, discussed the opportunities that social media presents, and how facilitating peer-to-peer collaboration can add value and increase client loyalty. He made the point that "bringing together a group of smart people with different backgrounds" will likely have a better result than what one person may come up with, and Eric recommended a book that explores this concept, "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki. Eric also provided an overview of the challenges of getting involved in social media and the "Groundswell" concept, based on the book of the same name by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Eric's key message was: "More and more folks are using social media to interact and collaborate with each other." Organizations should use social media to their advantage.

Maria Abernethy, National Marketing Director, Financial Advisory Services, Deloitte, spoke about the importance of client-centric marketing and gave several examples of what organizations can do to build relationships and market a target audience, such as "taking a broader initiative and funneling it to individual clients." Maria went over the key steps in a marketing campaign: understand your audience, develop your message, deliver the message, and make the message stick; and how they contribute to a client-centric marketing program. Maria said there should be a "laser focus in your program," and she used the Obama campaign as an example. The Obama campaign successfully "identified their audience's needs, tailored messages to address them, and stuck to their central themes." Maria reinforced that "clients have individual needs and wants," and we need to focus on them.

Barbara Krasner, former Director, Customer Advocacy Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent, explored "Reference Management" and discussed the importance of customer referrals as they relate to building a reputation and generating revenue. Barbara gave examples of various options for reference management, including video footage, and talked about the Seven Essentials of a Winning Customer Reference Program. Barbara said, "Clients want to talk to clients - enable that with a reference program." She reinforced that "success breeds success," and she encouraged people to think about how others might feel about working with them.

Key Points of the Program

According to Rob Leavitt, "client-centric marketing is a much-discussed but little enacted approach of putting client needs, relationships, and value at the center of all marketing initiatives. We need to really listen to clients and use that insight to help improve conversations, relationships, and programs."

Maria Abernethy says "client-centric marketing begins with the client. We have to ask first what they are thinking/feeling before we can respond appropriately."

Terrie Perella's takeaways are:
  • clients can be defined in many ways (sell to, sell with, collaboration partners, alliance vendors, etc.), and professional marketers should leverage many kinds of client relationships in their marketing efforts.
  • relationship building is key to client-centric marketing, whether on-line, one-to-one, or mass communication. People buy from people, so invest time in the relationship.
  • client-centric marketing should reinforce the conversations that are valuable to you and your clients.

written by
Ellen Keiley

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