Professional Services Marketing: How the Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success

In the old days, professional service firms could survive without much marketing effort. Put together a team of good people, deliver strong service to clients, and you might get by just fine on repeat business and client referrals. For many, those days are gone. While repeat business and referrals are still necessary to grow, they're no longer enough to succeed. You need smart, effective marketing and a culture of business development success to bring in a steady stream of clients to grow your business.

Professional Services Marketing gives you the field-tested, research-based approaches and tactics your organization needs to succeed. It helps you sort the wheat from the chaff among the many and varied marketing strategies and tactics, allowing you to make the best possible decisions for you and your business while avoiding the common mistakes unique to professional services firms.

The book covers five key areas your firm can't grow without:

• Creating a customized marketing and growth strategy based on what will really work for your firm

• Establishing a brand and reputation that leads to market leadership, frustrated competitors, and happy clients (and more of them)

• Implementing a marketing communications program that will keep your firm front and center in decision-makers' minds

• Developing a lead generation strategy that brings in more new clients than you will know what to do with

• Winning new clients by developing rainmakers and a culture of business-development hustle, passion, intensity, and success

Professional Services Marketing includes case studies that illustrate the successes and failures of other firms, as well as firsthand stories from well-respected industry professionals. It helps you make the right decisions about what to do, what to spend, and how to place key people in the right roles to maximize their time and energy. Plus, it will help you avoid dreaded mistakes that lead to unproductive marketing efforts and keep you up to date on the latest thinking in the industry.

Centered around primary research on the way clients buy and reliable insight from successful firms, this is the perfect guide to growing your business for consultants, attorneys, technology professionals, accountants, engineers, and any other professional services provider.

Mike Schultz is Co-President of Wellesley Hills Group, where he works as a consultant and speaker in professional services marketing and business development. He publishes RainToday.com, the leading source for insight, advice, and tools for growing a professional services business, and the Services Insider Blog and podcast series.

John E. Doerr is Co-President of Wellesley Hills Group and has spent thirty years in professional services leadership. He consults, speaks, and writes on the strategy and tactics of marketing and business development for professional services. For more information or to contact the authors, please visit www.whillsgroup.com or www.raintoday.com.