Marketing professional services is a real and difficult challenge. The challenges of marketing professional services are different from those of marketing products. Two major reasons for the differences are that clients cannot see or touch professional services before they buy them and the professional services are often produced and consumed simultaneously. And another reason is that marketing professional services is split among marketing, sales, professional and management staff instead of a dedicated marketing and sales force.
How do you meet these challenges? What tactics really work in marketing professional services? To answer those questions, I researched what successful professional service firms do and also drew upon my personal experiences of more than two decades of marketing professional services for others and myself. Based upon my research and my own professional experience, I developed a Top Ten Tactics for marketing professional services.
My top ten tactics for marketing professional services are:
1. Develop a list of your 100 most desired clients.
2. Develop and implement a client relationship program.
3. Arrange business development meetings with existing, past and prospective clients on a regular basis.
4. Network, network and network!
5. Conduct focused seminars and workshops of interest to your target markets.
6. Arrange speaking engagements with your target market’s industry and professional organizations.
7. Write articles for professional and trade publications on current topics of interest to your target markets.
8. Publish and distribute a newsletter.
9. Generate positive publicity for your company.
10. Get involved in the communities where you work and live.
You may rank these tactics differently than me, but I hope you will compare a list of your current tactics with this list and look for potential areas to make real improvements in your professional services marketing efforts.
If you are interested in learning more about successfully marketing professional services and how a business coach can provide guidance in that area, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or email Glenn at jgecoach@aol.com.
