Barbara Walters Price

Is Your Professional Services Firm a Scalable Business?

A recent Q&A from Inc.com highlights a constant struggle for many professional service firms and the partners in them. How to grow the firm without the partners killing themselves? And, consequently, can that growth happen without increased reliance on the partners?

In this Q&A, an architect asks John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, if his architectural firm can become scalable - defined in the article as:

"...something that can run without you personally doing all the work."

I'm not sure I agree with all the advice offered in the article but the conundrum of making a business where you sell hours (and hours are finite) and expertise (gained via years of training and experience) to those who you have often developed a strong personal relationship with (rather than widgets) scalable is a tough one for many professional service firms.

Growth, and therefore the ability of the partners to eventually cash out, often comes either organically (which is a tough slog for many) or through acquisition (of other firms or other senior professionals).

Is your professional service firm scalable?

 

What Top Rainmakers Do That You Probably Don't—An Interview with John Doerr

For those interested in becoming rainmakers (or helping others become rainmakers), this short podcast (16 minutes) is worth your time.  Much of John's message boils down to intentionality.

The podcast is a companion piece for the new book, Rainmaking Conversations (Mike Schultz and John Doerr).

"Someone just posted a very derogatory comment about your company on FaceBook. Short of just laughing it off, there is a way to deal with these embarrassments"

Marketing professionals as well as firm leaders should read this article: How to Fix Your Social Media Past from Inc.com.  

It not only discusses how to monitor social networks for mentions and images of you personally, but how to deal with employees who have "a social media past" and how to handle disparaging remarks about your firm. It's a good reminder for all of us. 

Graphic: todayinart.com

Capturing Screen Shots Made Easy

This post from Fill the Funnel made me think about how important, and easy, it is to capture screenshots on your computer. Yet, if you don't use these tools or even know they exist, you can find yourself in a frustrating situation especially if you need a screenshot of an entire webpage, rather than just what is visible on the monitor (the Print Screen button will give you what is visible on the monitor).

What is a Screenshot?

Per Wikipedia: "A screenshot (or screen shot), screen capture (or screencap), screen dump, screengrab (or screen grab), or print screen is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor..... Usually this is a digital image taken by the host operating system or software running on the computer....

Screenshots can be used to demonstrate a program, a particular problem a user might be having or generally when display output needs to be shown to others or archived."

When Might a Screenshot Be Useful?

We often use screenshots when preparing a speech. The screenshots (or image captures) are helpful for the powerpoint deck. They can also be helpful for proposals or RFP responses. Also, as information is increasingly digital, the ability to capture an image because you do not have access to a printed copy is important.

Browser Add Ons

Depending on what browser you use, there are free screenshot solutions. I use Google Chrome and was told about Awesome Screenshot. I downloaded it and it works great. Fill the Funnel discussed Google Screen Capture and likes it.

Other browsers have free screenshot add ons as well. Search for the terms "website screenshot [fill in your browser name] add on" and you should get a good list.

(If you're on a Mac, this link should provide guidance.)

Powerful Screenshot Tool - Snagit 

Snagit is a screenshot program that works with Windows and Mac OSX. It offers the ability to save screenshots as multiple image files. You can also add annotations. It contains numerous other powerful editing, sharing, and tagging tools. It's a great tool and worth the investment (of $49.95 as of this posting). I have no relationship with Snagit. I'm just a happy user.

Marketing Info You May Have Missed

• 144 Tips on Trust: The Great # Countdown - Trust Matters (Good reminders)
• 4 Reasons for Marketers to Love Pivot Tables [Excel Tricks] - Hubspot (Pivot tables are tremendous tools. If you don't know how to use them, you should)
• Professional Services vs. Scalable Business - Inc. (An constant challenge for professional services firms)
• Amazon to Bring Ebook Lending to Local Libraries - Mashable (Sweet)
• Current Attitudes of Sales Pros Towards Social Media - Fill the Funnel (Does this surprise you?)
• Contest Asks: What's the Worst Powerpoint Slide Ever Made? - Mashable (Fun & smart contest sponsored by InFocus, the folks that make the projectors that display those terrible PP slides)
• Turning the Habit of Self-Criticism Upside Down - Seth Godin (Seth always has interesting insights)
• What We Can Learn from Amazon's Cloud Collapse - Mashable (Has your firm joined the cloud? The downside)
• Reconnect with Your Clients, with a Little Bit O'Help from Google - Social CPAs (Google Alerts)
• Don't Do What You Love - HBR (Interesting)
• Sen. Franken Quizzes Steve Jobs on iPhone Tracking - Mashable (Give it to 'em, Sen. Franken)

Bonus to pay special attention to:

• 11 Excellent iPad Apps for Meetings & Presentations - Mashable (I'm seeing more and more iPads in meetings - good info here)
• New Google Analytics Has Rolled Out to All Users - Mashable (Great summary)

"When company leaders develop a new strategy, they usually start by looking for places to grow. This may feel like the right thing to do, but it can be a misleading and even dangerous way to begin a strategic exercise."

There is useful information here for firm leaders about having too many priorities. This post from the Harvard Business Review helps the reader reflect and consider growth strategies and how to begin the process of developing a strategy to achieve them.

Many professional service firms are in mature industries with many competitors. Consequently, growth is difficult. This article is worth a read by firm leadership. It is also instructive to marketers who are tasked with developing marketing strategies for growth.

Take a look. 

Graphic: www.psdgraphics.com

LinkedIn Company Pages - A Step-by-Step Guide

As I posted earlier, if your firm doesn't have a LinkedIn Company Page, it should.

Visit that post and this post from Content Marketing Institute - New LinkedIn Company Pages: A Step-by-Step Guide for Content Marketers - which provide further good information.

Hubspot's 10 Essential Twitter Stats

Interesting stats re Twitter from Hubspot.

According to this presentation, 67% of US Twitter users are more likely to buy brands they follow. I have found that tweeting as a brand, a professional service firm (rather than as an individual), is difficult because, let's face it, the tweets are often mostly promotional which makes them boring. I don't know many, say, accounting firms who are tweeting as the firm that have compelling content in their timelines. I follow several of them so I speak from that experience.

A key for professional service firms tweeting as brands is to have individual evangelists inside the firm tweeting interesting stuff and/or let the firm have a personality. Either way, it's a hurdle for many professional services firm.

10 Essential Twitter Stats

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing

25 Marketing Best Practices for Professional Services Firms - An Update

Oops ... okay, I admit it. I was tired last night when I uploaded the e-book 25 Marketing Best Practices for Professional Services Firms.  So tired that I uploaded the wrong file!  Yikes!!  My sincere apologies.

The correct file is uploaded and linked. In addition to the 25 marketing best practices, I've linked to several helpful books, as well as 80 marketing and business development blogs that I follow. 

Take a look. 

 

 

Rainmaking Conversations by Mike Schultz and John Doerr (and a Special Offer when You Buy Today)

Ever feel like your sales conversations don’t go as well as you would have liked? Perhaps there was something nagging at you that made you think, “I could be doing something better. Something to win more and bigger sales, but I’m not sure what.”

No matter what you’re selling, at some point you have conversations with buyers. Much selling success is determined here. Over the years I’ve seen too many sales people, leaders, and professionals struggle to create sales conversations, kick them off well, uncover needs, create enthusiasm with the prospect, and win business. Without realizing it they make the same mistakes over and over again that end up losing sales.

That’s why I’m so excited that my friends over at RAIN Group (publishers of RainToday) have just released a new book, Rainmaking Conversations, which teaches you everything you need to know about leading masterful sales conversations.