Before you retool your marketing message to align with today’s economic realities, resist the urge, at least initially, to study what all the others are doing. Doing so will just cloud your judgment and sap the power of your perspective. Instead, begin with your clients: what, specifically, is truly challenging them right now and will challenge them in the future?
For one consultant who undertook this exercise, the answer was surprising. He figured out that while his clients knew exactly what they wanted to achieve, they were uncertain how to get it done. That simple insight led the consultant to recast his marketing message to address how his firm’s experience in complex project management helps his clients prioritize initiatives and execute projects for a successful outcome. Some consultants shy away from talking about the “how” of client engagements, but for this consultant, it led to more work.
Next, with your clients’ current challenges in mind, make an objective assessment of all your marketing communications. Assume you are a client and read through every page on your website; grab a stack of recent proposals and read those, too. As you look through these communications, ask yourself two questions: Are you addressing your clients’ current (and future) concerns, or is your focus generic? If your business were facing the kind of challenges your client has right now, would you hire your own firm to help? If they are honest, for many consultants, the answer is a resounding “maybe.”
Of course, the key to this evaluation is objectivity. After all, you wouldn’t publish marketing material if you didn’t think clients would respond. So ask others to have a look, too. You can ask clients and colleagues to help, but choose your reviewers carefully. You want honest opinions, not gratuitous comments.
Finally, you might create a clearer path of communication to clients if you try lesser-used channels. When everyone is delivering mini-reports as PDFs, consider a podcast or a webcast, for example. If clients seem adverse to email, try a blog. You get the idea. Sometimes the message can break through if you change the medium.
Avoid the Herd Mentality
What’s most important is that you break away from the cattle-call mentality. A crowd may be lining up to woo clients. But if all they hear is a cacophony of mooing, how does that help anyone?
That doesn’t mean you should try to create artificial differences between your practice and others. Your best choice is to ignore what you see in other firms’ marketing and find your own path. With so many firms stampeding in the same direction, surely you can find another way to communicate your value to the market besides mooing on cue.
Michael W. McLaughlin is a principal with MindShare Consulting LLC, a firm that creates innovative sales and marketing strategies for professional services companies. He’s the author of Winning the Professional Services Sale (July 2009) and the co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants. His newsletters, Management Consulting News and The Guerrilla Consultant, reach a global audience. Before founding MindShare Consulting, he was a partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he served clients and mentored consultants for more than two decades.
