We have all heard the saying, “When the only tool in your tool bag is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” What does that mean to marketing professionals in the professional services industry? We all have a tool kit and we are adding tools to it every day. Do we have the right tools for every client opportunity? Or does every client’s problem or opportunity look the same?
Social media alone has presented us with a myriad of new tools. We have Twitter, Linked In, blogs, YouTube, and Facebook to name a few. Each of these presents multiple tool options. However, sometimes it is the tools that slow us down. This is especially true of new tools.
Have you ever walked into the bay where the auto mechanic is working on your car? Did you notice the tool chest that stands six feet high and about three feet wide? You realize that all of those tools are needed for something. Yet, in your hands they wouldn’t necessarily serve the purpose they were intended for. However, for any problem, there is one tool that is more important than any other. Consider the engine analyzer that plugs into the car's computer system. It checks for codes. The codes tell the mechanic the source of the trouble. Then he is able to open his tool kit and begin the process of repair. Your marketing plan is like the engine analyzer. You diagnose the market and then reach for tools (tactics) to begin the process of securing new business.
If your marketing plan is the market analyzer and tactics connect you to clients, what tool secures the new business? A single tool that will analyze the situation and point you in the direction of the proper tool sequencing is an app that every marketing services professional is looking for. Have you seen one on your IPhone or Android? The core of the problem is the fact the clients are people not machines. Each has business, personal, and emotional needs in every sales situation. Our analysis is a combination of art and science. It requires the psychological, tactical and practical to be merged in order for a client strategy to become apparent. The human nature of clients compels us to use multiple tools and out seasoned intuition. In other words, marketing tools need to be combined with people skills.
Sometimes this necessitates the use of old school tools before we unleash the latest tools available from social media. A neurosurgeon needs a saw to open the skull before the patient can benefit from the high tech tools available in brain surgery. Therefore, don’t abandon the traditional tools that have helped you move clients to use your firm in the past. Networking, printed marketing materials, meetings, social outings, lunch, dinners, and media relations are just a few that come to mind. I don’t need to remind the choir of the power of personal relationships. For example, how many your 500 or so connections on LinkedIn have you taken to lunch or some other social event?
When professional service firms bash Twitter or LinkedIn because it isn’t working for them, I wonder how these tools fit into their total marketing strategy. Are they trying to stay ahead of the curve and use the social media du jour at the expense of all their other tools? When a carpenter only has a hammer, but his need is for a screwdriver, the hammer is not an effective tool. Although it can still produce limited results, the screw is usually bent in the process. Has your firm done the same thing with social media? Are you bending clients or your markets instead of building them up.
Solomon in the old testament claims, “there is nothing new under the sun.” It was a valid perception then and it is today in relation to marketing professional services. Although technology has advanced and the inventions of man would seem to discredit the claim, for the basics of life there is nothing new under the sun. People (clients) want to be recognized and buy from people they trust. Trust is the cement that binds together the multiple compartments of every relationship. Therefore, the social media and traditional marketing compartments will not effectively work together to bring you new business until you have the client’s trust that binds everything together. Consequently, sometimes the best tool in your marketing tool kit is a handshake, hug or compliment that brings you closer to your client. Floor seats at a Laker’s game next to Jack Nicolson wouldn’t be bad either.
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