I write (and preach) frequently about the value of different kinds of plans that would benefit professional service firms. This post will focus on how all of those plans would ideally work together. You’ve probably heard of “top-down” planning, as well as “bottom-up” planning. Each is a valid approach but the best firm planning includes [...]
Strategic thought and logical action are within us; we just don’t always tap into them when the context is our business. If you have ever had to make a decision about your future, it’s likely you’ve considered it from three different perspectives: your goal, your ability to get there, and the impact of the goal [...]
The purpose of marketing is to fulfil the business objectives of an organization. It therefore follows that: Marketing expenses should result from marketing plans, which should be focussed on accomplishing the firm’s business objectives; and Before creating a marketing budget (and before that, a marketing plan), you need to know the firm’s business objectives. For many firms, [...]
Ideally, once a business professional joins a firm they would have a few years to get the ground under their feet, learn the profession from the basics up, and be gently introduced into the skills of business development. In reality, that seldom happens. Professionals are almost immediately expected to build and exhibit marketing skills and [...]
These days, most professionals can expect to change firms three or four times in their career. Firms seek out warm bodies to fill those vacancies, hoping for a better fit and a strong incoming book of businesses. It used to be that once landed, an incoming professional had some time to get settled and build [...]
Last week I described four typical leadership scenarios that work against strong marketing ideas: leading blindly, leading cautiously, leading exclusively, and leading self-centrically. This week I’ll talk about how these situations can easily be addressed. My belief is that over time and through trial and error, firm leadership learns that profitability is best achieved by [...]
Law firms work hard at doing the right thing. We can see aspirations for this in their mission and value statements. We sometimes read about their innovative programs in legal journals. They seem to be focussed on treating their lawyers, staff and clients well. Then why is it that so few law firms end up [...]
(While focussed on the legal industry, the information in this post is valid for most professional services industries). Most service professionals are at the top of the food chain in terms of intellect. Take lawyers, for example. To make it through law school, let alone make it through the lock step hierarchy of a law [...]
Professional services firms work hard at landing new clients and maintaining good relationships with existing ones; in part because client attrition is a reality of business. For some organizations, concern about the internal ramifications of client churn causes them to work hard at ignoring attrition. They know it happens but they try not to dwell [...]
The key to many successful businesses is that they manage their activities around specific goals determined through some kind of strategic planning process...except for law firms. For a variety of reasons, over the years law firms have been one of the last professions to adopt what many consider to be standard business processes, including marketing, [...]