Why Competitors Can Help You Build Business

What do you think of your competitors?  Do you view them as the bottom feeders who take clients and business away from you?  Are they worthy adversaries who bring value to the clients they serve?  In the professional services industry, the general picture of competitors looks like a battlefield with winners and losers.  We are either the victors or the defeated.  This picture is one reason business developers in professional services firms read The Art of War.

Therefore, why have I implied in the title that competitors can help us build business?   First, we have to step back from competitor as enemy attitude.  Any strategic sales process will include an analysis of competitors. The analysis usually tends to focus on positioning.  How are your competitors positioned with the client you are pursuing?  Do you know their strengths and weaknesses?  How do these compare with the strengths and weaknesses of your firm?  The analysis is one piece of the strategic sales process.  However, this is not the basis for how competitors can help you build business. It is more than positioning.

Since competitors offer similar services and seek the same clients, you can use them as a form of “inside the box” market research.  Smart business developers will use the homework done by their competitors to strengthen client relationships.  It is always harder to reinvent the wheel then it is to borrow the wheels from another car. Sometimes your competitors have pretty nice wheels.

If you are clear about your brand, your services and service delivery, you might want to consider competitors as partners in certain situations.  If you are already the biggest dog in the dog pound, you might not be worried about a larger entrant into your marketplace.  Size, strength and limited service offerings might be reasons to team with a competitor.  In addition, competitors might be different in specific markets and client groups.  When a project comes along which requires some services you don’t provide, but are provided by a competitor, it might be time to start a conversation.   Enjoying success in a new market where you have failed in the past is a good reason for talking with a competitor.  Of course, your firm must first get past the fear of helping a competitor gain ground with your existing clients or in established markets.  The partnership has to be a win-win for all parties, including your client.  After all, we have heard the story about the snake that asked the frog to help him cross the river.  Yes, some competitors will  bite you after you have helped them cross the river.  This part of the process is about being selective and having done your homework.

Vision is another reason for using competitors to strengthen client relationships and build business.  Are there any blind spots in your client strategy?  Everyone has blind spots.  However, your blind spots might not be the same as your competitors. Your competitors might have an understanding of your clients that you have not considered.  Maybe it has something to do with values or preferences that you have not considered.  Think of it as a zero-based review of their marketing and service offerings.  Careful research is required to know these things.  You can use your clients and your competitor’s clients to gather this information.  A client focus group administered by an independent marketing agency could also help.  Gather your top clients and prospects together to discuss their feelings, perceptions and experience using the professional services in your industry.  During the course of the discussions, specific competitors, their brands, services, marketing and delivery will be examined.   Finding out what your clients want in their professional service firm is priceless.  Bottom line: You need your competitors to expand your vision.

Finally, I am not suggesting you create a cozy relationship with your competitors.  What I am suggesting is that the more you know about your competitors, the better you will be able to serve your clients.  Sun Tsu knew this was the best strategy for winning a war.  Today, it is the best strategy for winning more business.

Are You that Good, or Just Lucky?

Sometimes the more successful we are as business developers and marketers, the more management considers alternative scenarios for our success. Has this ever happened to you?

A number of years ago the president of the firm I was working for asked a vice president," Is Tryst that good, or is he just lucky?" When the vice president confided in me, he said he told the president he didn’t know. Not a glowing endorsement of me, but an  answer to remain on good terms with the president.

The reason the president saw the need to ask the question was simple. I worked for an engineering firm responsible for marketing and business development, but was not an engineer. In a 10 office company, the office I worked in was the sales leader the six years I had been leading marketing and business development. In addition, the firm had a feasibility study group with a staff of about 20. After selling a hospital study, the firm didn’t have a project manager and asked me to fill in. At the end of the study I negotiated a $400,000 design project. When the president asked his question, I had served as project manager on seven studies that had generated over $3 million in design fees, in addition to the other business I had brought in, and the president had chosen to join us on our way to the eighth interview.

Was I that good, or just lucky? The president didn't understand the method to my "lucky" performance.

Is the rainmaker who constantly brings in new work simply lucky? What separates hard work from luck? Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”

Industry professionals, who are riding a streak of bad luck and not penetrating new accounts, winning new projects or being rejected, need to rethink their basic strategy.

This is a dilemma that has faced people for centuries. The Roman philosopher, Seneca, had this to say about it in 50 AD, “ Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Therefore the key to ending a bad luck streak or continuing a streak of good luck is preparation. How do you prepare? All of our firms might believe that winning is everything.  Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything. Preparing to win is."

Here are three keys every marketing services professional needs, if they want management to think they are lucky:

1.Networking—Every contact made at a networking event can be the source of future business. The key in both social media networking or face-to-face event networking is developing a relationship.

2.Stay in Touch with Clients—This sounds like a “no brainer”, but “out of sight, out of mind” is not the exception in professional services marketing. Because of their lifetime value, some clients are never out of our minds, but the rest only hear from us when we send out a newsletter or a press release on a new project. Contact those clients and find out how they are doing. Ask them what is going on with their company, their families and their hobbies. If you’re really lucky, your call will come at the exact time they are planning a new project. Otherwise, the call will simply help prepare you for the next project and keep you and your firm at the top of the client’s mind.

3.Training/Education—The only thing constant in life is change. If you don’t change, you can’t grow. Although we understand the reality of these statements, we sometimes feel all trained out. Some of us think there is nothing new under the sun. Our motto, “I have been there and done that.” Honestly answer these questions: Do you know everything about your clients and the industries they are in? Are you simply making contacts or actually developing clients and relationships with social media? Do you know how to measure the return of every marketing investment? How do you filter noise in your communications with clients? Have you developed the best business development strategy for every client? If none of these questions causes pause, you might not benefit from training. On the other hand, the training might connect you with industry professionals who could refer you to the next client.  If you are like most of us, you will now commit to additional training.

Finally, what was my response to the vice president who told me what the president had said? I simply said, “I would rather be lucky than last in company sales.” Sometimes it is good to have a little mystery surround your success. With apologies to Daniel Burnham, without preparation, we have no magic to stir men's blood.

A Social Media Guide to Developing Client Advocates

In my three most recent seminars, attendees were repeatedly shown the hidden gold in marketing professional services. The gold we all need to mine is conversations. While it is imperative to have conversations with prospects in order to turn them into clients, it is even more important for clients to have conversations with prospects.


Most firms will respond to this challenge by stating, “I have been having conversations with my clients for over (fill in the blank) years.” When I challenged a client about his business development process, he told me, “I have been knocking on doors for years.” I responded by telling him that the addresses and doors have changed in the past 10 years and he needed another approach. The same can be said about client conversations.

Are you familiar with outbound and inbound marketing and do you know the differences between the two? Outbound marketing is traditional marketing such as advertising, newsletters, direct mail, and cold calling. Think of it this way: Outbound marketing is you talking at your prospects and clients. The problem with that approach today is the filtering that goes on keeping customers from your message. How many ways are there for people to turn your message off? I use a megaphone in my seminars to illustrate this point. Traditional marketing still works, but it is more difficult.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is your clients or audience talking with you. Actually, it is your clients and prospects talking with each other and inviting you into the conversation. Can you see the difference? Social media is the channel that makes this happen. Where is your firm at on the social media spectrum today? Many firms are investing in social media, but most are still searching how to turn the investment into leads. And, beyond generating leads, how do they can use social media to turn clients into advocates.

Many, like mineral prospectors of old, turn away from their search because they believe the investment is more than they can afford. Some simply get tired of coming up empty. Gold prospectors learned how to use the mountain to their advantage and that is the key for prospectors mining for social media gold.

The secret is content creation. Clients and prospects won’t come to you unless you have something that interests them. Content includes blogs, white papers, industry presentations, video, and photos.

The value of the content in the eyes of our clients and prospects is what turns leads into clients.

Although you create the content, only your clients and prospects can put a value on it. They will only put a value on it, if they see it. They can only see it, if you publish it or send it. This is what confuses many firms because it sounds a lot like traditional marketing. Think of traditional marketing as crashing a party and social media as being invited. While you can enjoy yourself whether you crash a party or are invited, the guests are more comfortable with you when you have been invited.

The management at most firms does not have a problem with content but with the cost of developing enough content to make a difference. There are some old school techniques that will ease the burden. When public relations was king of the hill in disseminating information on a firm, we used to figure out ways that the same article or content could be re-worked to fit different markets. We looked at ways for how our message worked in different magazines and made appropriate modifications. This way we could place the content of the article in multiple media and significantly increase its exposure.

Is there any reason you can’t do this with a blog? For example, a podcast can be a series of blogposts. A project video, with simple editing, can fit multiple markets.

To blog or not to blog? I recently consulted with a multiple office engineering firm that did not have blogs published on their website and the website itself was not ranked very high. They changed their attitude toward blogging when they learned that companies that blog generate 55% more visitor traffic to their websites.

Blogging allows you to talk about topics that are more appealing to clients/prospects and allows you to make adjustments that build relationships. You can use long tailed keywords, you can attract more inbound links and you can use the comments section to generate conversations. Your blog helps you become more interesting on social media as well. Take the content that you create on your blog and you share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other networks. You must also include a RTA or respond to action at the end of your blog. Give readers a reason to visit your site or ReTweet your message.

Once you have this worked out, how do you really engage clients/prospects and turn them into advocates, or fanatics as Apple customers are called (see previous blog about Apple)? You need to listen and monitor what is going on because there is already an on-going conversation about your industry.

You can begin to understand the pain points of clients, what they are interested in, what the next big thing is in their industry. In other words, you can use social media to develop real time market research.

You can also search to find out the news coverage of your competitors. Would this be useful?

Have you heard of  a tool like Twilert. Social Mention is another free tool that is very helpful. You receive mentions for your brand or certain search terms on Twitter, blogs, even in the news. It also does some light sentiment analysis.



Social Media Engagement Requires Different Tactics



Every firm should consider the following when you are engaging your prospects:

• Respond within 24 hours or less

• Provide complete answers to questions

• Take complaints seriously and respond



If you see somebody who is mentioning your brand in TweetDeck or whatever tool you end up choosing, be responsive.



Be gracious. Thank people who shared your content. Use @ replies. Use ReTweets. Be helpful. It can seem time consuming, but again, the people who ask the questions and seem like they’re nagging you are also the ones who will take the time to be your advocate. So it is actually worth the time invested to engage these people in conversation. Also, be consistent. If you commit to this and if you start, you really need to continue. You can’t just do this consistently for a month and then drop off the face of the earth. If you are going to start in social media, you should jump in with both feet and commit to it.



Social media at its core is about creating friendships. You wouldn’t leave a friend high and dry, so don’t do that to the connections you make in social media. This is a real way to begin building trust and loyalty which is the first step in creating client advocates. Remember to stay in touch with Business Development Professionals when it comes to training your staff in the areas of marketing and business development (www.businessdevelopmentpros.org).

How to Keep Going in a Tough Economy

Anyone who has played a sport has heard their coach say, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The athlete’s reaction to this simple statement says a lot about their character. If you never were an athlete, you might have heard Billy Ocean sing about this. Yet, how does this apply to marketing professional services? Are we tough? Do we need to get going?


The coach was talking about mental toughness as opposed to anything physical. Attitude has a lot to do with our success as marketing services professionals. For many professionals, it is time to invest in an attitude adjustment as a first step.

In times of trouble, management turns to marketing. What happens when we project a “glass is half full” mindset? What happens when our sense of pride responds with, “it’s not marketing’s fault. Things are tough out there. Competition is fierce." While management doesn’t look to marketing to be cheerleaders, sometimes we need to cheer. We also need to be on the same page with management when defining the “it.”

“When other companies simply battened down the hatches, seeing only risk during the recession, the more successful competitors found opportunity and pressed their advantage… "  (Source The McKinsey study; an independent report, that studied nearly 1,000 companies over an 18-year period (1982–99) including the US recession of 1990 to 1991,which showed that companies who increased their marketing expenditures in a recession were the only ones whose profits rose substantially when the economy recovered.) Sounds a lot like the tough kept going.

When management calls you in to say that marketing resources need to be reduced once again, you need to be prepared to tell management what marketing can do to make sure that business grows in the coming year. Are you prepared for this? Management needs marketing to offer tough love with an attitude that this (recession) too will pass. As your competitors are cutting their losses through marketing resource reductions, your battle plan needs to make better use of the marketing resources at your disposal. If management isn’t challenged, your budgets will face the consequences.

What is different with the marketing of professional services firms today? Since the last significant industry recession occurred in the 1980’s, many marketing professionals today weren’t exposed to its realities. Living through an experience is very different than reading about it in a white paper. Therefore, on one level we have less experienced individuals at many firms. However, this does not even take into account the firms that have replaced marketing professionals with other professionals as part of cost-cutting measures. I know several engineering firms that have asked principals or senior project managers to split their billable hours with corporate marketing tasks. 

After all, how hard is it to show your clients and prospects that your firm is able to withstand the hard times? Numerous studies over the years have shown that, on average, it costs five times more for a professional services firm to find a new client than to keep an old one. Focus on the significance of that statement; it is one of the most powerful concepts in the world of marketing professional services.

Yet, can replacements accomplish the same results as marketing professionals? Or, can professionals with less than 7 years of industry experience bring context to marketing needs?

How effective were the replacements when the NFL had its last lockout? Professional services firms that have chosen this path face two obstacles: expertise and focus. Some have discovered the inherent problems with this approach and are now looking to hire experienced marketing professionals. Because of the dismal results of the past three years, many are even elevating the role to chief marketing officer status. This is a good sign in the industry. However, CMO needs to be more than a title.

A seasoned professional with vision for client service and an action plan for acquiring and retaining clients when the economy is recovering is the investment many firms are looking to make. These are the people who keep going when things are tough. The talent that knows when to cheer and how to leverage resources. Professionals who have expertise in both marketing and business development. Are you in this position today? If not, do you have the roadmap to arrive? The Chinese proverb tells us that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” For marketing services professionals, the first step begins with attitude. The journey should include equipping, training and mentoring to fill in any gaps along the way. Attitude, character and passion for learning are the leverage points that elevate someone with less industry tenure above those with more. Great ideas and creative solutions don’t hurt either.  Aristotle put it this way nearly 2400 years ago, ""We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."

How to Measure Social Media and Discover New Clients

Who believes that management is skeptical about social media? Perhaps it is because they haven’t seen new clients or projects as a result of their efforts. It might have more to do with a lack of measurement tools. We should begin at the beginning.  How are industry marketing services professionals measuring the results of their social media endeavors? 


The smart money in social media is now on discovery and analysis rather than monitoring and analytics.

Why is this important for professional services firms? The industry is searching for actionable information in their social media activities. How many managers believe that marketing people are playing when they monitor social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook? Yet, other networking activities are all about business. The promise of social media must start to bring networking results. But, like other marketing channels, it is simply another door clients can come through. Social media discovery helps you understand the most valuable characteristics of your clients. This understanding enables you to be relevant in your communications.  It sounds so easy. Maybe that is the problem with management, we sold it as an easy marketing operation.

Simply joining a social media site is not enough. It is like joining an allied industry (client-oriented) organization and never going to any meetings. The process is simple. You need followers. Followers are interested in content. You deliver compelling content on the social media sites and people will follow. Followers, followers everywhere, but not a client among them is management's concern. Therefore, social media is not about shouting at your clients, but becoming a magnet to draw them in.

Management needs to understand that social media is all about conversations and somehow becoming part of the conversation. Yet, what we need to measure is the context of the conversation. At a cocktail reception, do you just barge into a conversation between one of your clients and a prospect?  Probably not and social media requires a smilar etiquette. When management can see the relationship between the audience and the author (their thought leaders), the power of social media will be revealed. Unfortunately, most companies are currently promoting solutions that measure static counts of words, phrases and other text attributes, at the exclusion of context and theme. This is a huge issue, because when you separate words from context, you lose relevance and accuracy. Management is not only frustrated but they can claim that social media is a waste of time and money. It is your responsibility to change their minds.

Top of Mind Must Come of Age in Marketing Professional Services

Marketing is ultimately intended to connect our firm’s value proposition with clients. Most firms with a marketing plan do a good job of making the connection. With the advent of social media where clients can talk directly with us and other clients, professional services marketers are sorting through how this impacts their marketing strategies.

Noise is the enemy of our marketing endeavors. Clients bombarded with thousands of independent messages each day is a prime example of noise. Our messages can get caught in the middle. The interaction of social media might not all be beneficial. Social media is becoming the primary communications tool that represents a fundamental shift in how we communicate.

Marketers and management should be asking what is in it for our clients. This is the context where “top of mind” should be our focus as marketing services professionals. You have heard the comment, “He is in your head” or “she is in your head.” The comment is related to something someone said or did that impacts the person’s thought process. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes it is not.

Marketing services professionals need to make this a good thought for their clients and prospects.

When your client needs the services you deliver, your name must be on the top of his mind. How is this done? Innovation is the first word that comes to mind. However, innovation to improve performance, production, or profits is not the hook that will get you to the top of the client’s mind. It is deeper than how innovation has improved your firm. It must be innovation that impacts the client’s vision, need or dreams. It has to be innovation that can’t be lost in the noise of all the other communications bombarding the client everyday.

The key words in your value proposition can get you to the top of the list for a Google search. This will cause management to jump for joy and cause a tingle to run up the leg of your webmaster. There is a chasm between SEO and being on the top of the client’s mind. It is definitely a good idea for the client to have your firm and its value proposition on the top of his or her mind. However, the image in the client’s mind is a person.

Who in your firm is that person? It could be the charismatic president, but the president’s reach is too limited to be on top of every client and prospect’s mind. It could be vice presidents, principals, office managers, business developers or project managers. It has to be one of them. How do they get there? Stories!

Debriefings are a good place to begin the process for moving your firm to the top of a client’s mind. I remember a debriefing when the client told me who had been selected for the project. My response was, “That is good for the competitor, but it might not be good for you.” The client said it was good for them and went on to tell me where we came up short. It was subjective and based on a weighted formula voted on by the selection committee. However, I had a relationship with the key decision maker and knew he would listen to what I said next. I then mentioned the two things that we had presented that the competitor couldn’t. But I didn’t simply recall the facts of our presentation, I told him a story. The project didn’t go well for the client and when the next project came up, we were invited to submit a proposal without any competition. We had a place in the top of his mind.

Telling stories is more than listening to clients. Social media is about listening to your clients, conversing with them, and encouraging them to become advocates for your brand. That's a good thing for marketing. However story telling does much more.

The fact is, our brains are wired for stories. Keith Oatley is a professor of applied cognitive psychology and a novelist. He describes stories as “simulations that run on minds”. He says that just as pilots-in-training spend time on flight simulators; stories may act as flight simulators for real life.

If top of mind is coming of age in professional services marketing, then story telling has to become the new art form of marketing. Granted, it is not really new because there is nothing new in marketing. Story telling is the new brand generator that keeps your firm on top of mind. When you have this position, the competition doesn’t have a chance.

The Chicken or Egg Theory of Marketing Professional Services Success

How you market and sell professional services differs substantially from how you market products. We all know this. Generating leads, closing new business, and turning existing clients into advocates completes the circle for most firms.


The question really becomes, “what are you actually selling?” Is it your services or something else? Although your services are “profit centers” they shouldn’t be at the center of what you are selling in today’s economic environment unless you want to be viewed as a commodity.

If you are still selling your services, you need a different outlook, different tactics, and different execution in order to expand your business.

How can I tell that most industry firms are selling services? I simply have to look at their websites. Are services the most prominent piece of information? Take a look at the HOK website and see what they are selling (http://www.hok.com/).

It mentions services, but it has a focus on markets and thought leaders. HOK is actually more of an advisor.


A marketing strategy to attack core markets begins with clients in the market. As an advisor you help the client by knowing what their needs are in the market, their competition and how they measure success. You can’t attack a market without understanding these things. You expand your exposure in the market when your client talks with his peers about your value.

Your value might include the services you provide, but more often than not, your value is measured by your relationship with the client. Can you see the difference? Your services become the icing on the cake when you are not seen as a commodity by your clients.

There has been a lot of talk in the professional services industry about cross-selling of services. Your firm includes a shopping list of services that are never sold entirely to one client. Often, a client might receive a single service. The trend for increasing profits was to sell other services to existing clients. This is not a bad strategy, but it misses the point about losing the “commodity” image. Separately, all of the services are commodities. The advisor brings them together to form a solution.

Yes, you should deliver more than one service to a client. The delivery of the services should be part of the on-going conversation with the client about his business model, growth plans and industry trends. This is the role of the advisor with a market focus.


Now we return to the beginning. The chicken or egg theory to selling professional services. Consider the chicken your role as an advisor and the eggs your specific services. The real change for many professional services firms today is finally seeing themselves as the chicken instead of the eggs. If you need to begin the transition, start with baby steps. Review your website. Help your good professional staff understand markets instead of services. Offer tools for growth and expand the conversations you are having with existing clients. Do these things and you will be amazed at how your firm becomes market focused and expands business with client advocates.