Adding value -
Marketing through clients
Kim Tasso reports on the 2008 PM Forum conference held in
London in September.
The day started with professional
services marketing veteran
Hamish Munro (now plying his
profession amongst barristers)
wagging his finger at us as he ran through
new research (see details on page 25)
showing that the majority of managing partners
were disappointed with the results
produced by their marketing and business
development teams – they want their
marketers up and close and personal with
the clients. Who doesn't? Is it that the
managing partners think that we don't know
we should be there? Or is it that they too
are frustrated by the intransigence of their
fellow partners?
Then Professor Peter Hawkins ran through
some material imploring us to see leadership
as an attitude rather than a role –
"leadership begins when we stop blaming
others or making excuses". I'd seen the
'authority, presence and impact' model
before but it was a good reminder. His
comments about the value of training in
helping people increase that "natural
rapport" were useful too.Then the pace
changed somewhat as Georgina Noakes
took us on a personal journey encompassing
lots of 'C' words (confidence,
courage, care, ceaseless curiosity, etc) and
spanning Shakespeare to South Africa urging
us to know ourselves in order that we
might communicate better with our feeearners.
And into the first breakout sessions. I opted
for the down to earth, insightful pragmatism
of Cliff Ferguson (supported by the softly
spoken but equally pragmatic Tracy Holotuk
from Canada) in his 'Helping fee-earners
become rainmakers' session. He had wise
advice on helping fee-earners get to grips
with the long term nature of relationship
development – "Don't propose on the
second date" and the memorable "don't do
your best, do what you're best at" as well as
"Givers gain".The scenarios encouraged
some great group thinking.This session
alone would have satisfied most people –
let alone the remainder to the conference
sessions.
Yet delegates who had attended the
morning overview option 'Adding value to
new business' by Pete Belsey and June
Smallwood-Rose found it equally inspirational
as they tackled subjects such as the
sales process and pipeline, targeting, questioning
and the art of cross selling. I feel I
missed out there. It was good to see the
property industry represented – Nigel Pyke
of Cushman & Wakefield (who talked about
his time at Deloitte) helped run a break out
with advertising agency Bartle Bogle
Hegarty on raising your firm's profile. Other
sessions looked at pitching and client
research (with the property industry again
represented – this time by GVA Grimley).
During a lively lunch with those adorable
tiny bowls of thai vegetables and mushroom
risotto, I managed to speak to some of the
exhibitors. CDC Software was promoting its
Pivotal CRM system with a case study from
CMS Cameron McKenna.This looks like a
challenger to the leadership of InterAction
and SalesLogix. And Size 10 and a half Boots
was keen to share ideas on e-marketing and
other focused campaigns they have run for
professional firms.
Then the graveyard slot was lifted by
Richard Skelley of RBS describing the overall
branding (RBS, NatWest and Coutts),
marketing communications and contact
management of the company and how it
integrated at the Professional Practices
group level to support their two to three
year sales cycle. How we all wished we had
a sponsorship and entertaining budget that
allowed golf in the US, rugby in Europe and
Formula One across Asia and the rest of
the world!
And into the second breakout sessions.
Following my passion for all things sales
related, this time I selected 'Key account
management' led by Peter Kane (formerly of
Deloitte) and Tom Vaughan (Burges
Salmon). After a swift introduction (with the
great line "If you don't like kissing frogs make
sure you select a few of the right ones"), the
groups were put to work deciding which
clients – in a fictional case study – we were
to select for the key client programme and
then to consider how to tackle a selection
of particularly tricky client relationship
issues.
For me, as always, the most valuable part of
the conference was the final session where
an incredibly senior line up explained – from
the horse's mouth – what clients really want
from their professional advisers.
Nick Cooper (formerly a Herbert Smith
lawyer who is now in-house counsel for
Cable & Wireless) pleaded for lawyers to
get off the fence and provide definitive
answers. He was also absolutely certain that
marketers and business developers should
be out there creating impact and relationships
with clients "as they are much better
able to do this than the lawyers" – and
berated lawyers for lacking in emotional
intelligence and starting dialogues with
limited liability clauses. He was honest
enough to admit that whilst firm credibility
was one reason for selecting advisers, he
often chose on the basis of the personality
of the individual advisers. He talked about
partners who diffused difficult situations
about bills, were trained to plant doubts in
his mind about how his organisation was
tackling key issues and knitted the firm
together – I think he was describing a firm
that has finally got the "account management"
message.When asked what great
marketing ideas he could offer to firms he
suggested a half hour DVD allowing him to
see the personality and style of different
advisers. And he pleaded for true international
capabilities.
Sarah David (formerly at Slaughter and May
and now CEO of Whitehead Mann) said
she too wanted advisers who were
genuinely interested in her business and
knew what was on her mind. And those
who could articulate what differentiated
their firms from others. She also indicated
that smaller firms were much better in being
commercial and flexible about fee structures.
Mark Dawkins (Global managing partner of
Simmons & Simmons) wants communications
that catch his attention because they
demonstrate a real understanding of his
business. He suggested that lawyers needed
persuading, inspiring and coaching to bridge
the gap between clients and to really get
under their skin. And Alastair Stewart, MD
of etc. venues, said he wanted advisers who
remembered first and foremost that "This is
about money" and that he looked for
advisers with the quality (consistency of
training and approach amongst staff) of the
big firms but the creativity and intimacy of
the smaller firms. He had a sad story to tell
about a marketer who managed to secure a
meeting for one of her partners only to find
– when he met – that the partner really
wasn't interested and hadn't prepared for
the meeting. He gave the marketer another
chance.
And "Yes" – they all said that they would be
willing to engage in satisfaction reviews (one
indicated though that he found benchmarking
studies a bit tedious) – although
ultimately they all prefer a dialogue with
members of their advisory teams and found
that independents and marketing folk were
far more likely to obtain quality feedback.
They all encouraged marketers to develop
their product knowledge and comfort with
numbers so that they could more effectively
bridge the gap between the clients and the
fee-earners. And they supported feeearners
who developed sector specialisms
and communications skills, to differentiate
and focus their offers and to get much
closer to the clients.What a shame that
they were preaching to the converted as
the audience heard what they had been
telling their firms for so long!
Delegates I spoke to all found much value in
the day – whether it was "remind and reassure"
or "new insights on old problems". It
was also interesting to note that the
majority of the sessions at the conference
focused on selling and account management
– a real shift from previous conferences
where marketing was the main focus.
Clearly the conference organisers were
right to reflect the seismic transition that is
directing all marketers to morph into business
developers.
Actually, it occurred to me at the end of the
day that the recurring theme from all the
talks was the importance of relationships –
whether with our managing partners
(managing their expectations), with
ourselves (attitudes, self knowledge and self
confidence), with our fee-earners (ensuring
we were on their wave length and effectively
coaching them in marketing, selling
and relationship management) and with the
clients – who, as marketers, we really must
get much closer to.
Kim Tasso, independent strategic marketing
consultant and freelance journalist.
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