Barbara Walters Price

Don't miss this article: Is Your Firm Wasting Valuable Profits on Marketing?

Tracy Crevar Warren has written an article this is a must-read for marketing directors and professional service firm managers.  The provocative title, Is Your Firm Wasting Valuable Profits on Marketing?, leads you into a short but meaty piece.

A key excerpt:

“Marketing is a waste of resources if you are not going to do something with the leads you generate.” quipped Russ Molinar, director of Global Markets at Ernst & Young. “Winning new business requires firms to tie marketing to sales. Unfortunately many firms fail to connect the two and the result is less than desirable.”

The article references Suzanne Lowe's excellent book, The Integration Imperative — Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos in Professional Services Firms, in which Lowe strongly makes the case that for many professional service firms, marketing and sales function from separate silos.  (If you don't have a copy, get one today.) 

Are the marketing and sales functions of your firm cooperative?  The article helps the reader "connect the dots between marketing and sales."  Don't miss it.

Info You May Have Missed But Shouldn't Have

• 11 Things to Stop Doing to Get Results in 2010 (Larry Bodine's Blog)
• My Favorite Tools and Processes to Automate the Routine (Duct Tape Marketing)
• 4 Essential Traits for Social Media Success in Your Career (Mashable)
• Why Key Account Programs Don't Work (Ford Harding)
• "What's the ROI of Social Media?" is the Wrong Question (Michelle Golden)
• How To Use LinkedIn to Generate New Business: Poll Results (Ian Brodie)

Have No Doubt About It: You Must Learn To Sell

The title of this post is excerpted directly from Ford Harding's 2008 book, Rainmaking, 2nd Edition.

Let me continue excerpting:

"The sole practitioner who cannot sell will lose his independence and have to go back to work for someone else.  At most large firms, to make partner, you must be able to bring in business.  The underlying economics of the firm make it so.

Even if it is not stated, the professional within a firm who does not market and sell has a far higher probability of seeing his career plateau than one who brings in new business.  When times are tough, a firm will hang onto those who bring in business longer than those who provide technical support. ...

The professional career path is strewn with the bodies of those who meant to get around to marketing someday. ...

... professional firms do a poor job of training their employees to market and sell.  If you do not take responsibility for your own development, no one will." (pp. xiii - xv)  [emphasis mine]

One of your goals for 2010 should be to become a student of business development in order to become a rainmaker.  Start with Ford's book.

The Curse of "Later"

Ford Harding's blog is a must read for any serious professional who is currently a rainmaker or is on his or her way to becoming one. A recent post talked about missed opportunities when we wait or what he calls "slippage." 

I know that for me the word "later" is the bane of my existence. I can rationalize why I will do something "later" when I can easily do it right now. 

In the post, Ford relates "slippage" to missed opportunities to ask the client for help you in return for excellent work:

The client’s desire to help you in return for the excellent work you did ebbs as she gets absorbed by other urgent matters. The prospective client loses some of the enthusiasm generated at your meeting. The network contact also forgets the conversation you had as the days go by.

This is one of the reasons that rainmakers feel a sense of urgency about following up. No matter how busy they are, they find time to follow up on such opportunities, recognizing that all their hard work to produce them loses value as time slips by.

Do you have that sense of urgency?  Read the whole thing here and bookmark his blog. 

Make It Easy

During a recent speaking engagement to a group of business valuation professionals, I was asked about e-mail addresses on websites and the resulting spam if those addresses are hot linked. 

The questioner asked me if it was acceptable to "disguise" the addresses (i.e., priceb at mercercapital.com) on their website because that is what they had done.  The reason was because when they were hot linked from the website, firm employees got too much spam.

My answer to the question -- get a better spam filter.

My philosophy is make it easy for people to contact you.  That means hot link your professionals' e-mail addresses, put individual contact information on your professionals' CVs, and put your firm's phone number on your home page.  

Have an e-mail address and put your e-mail address on your business card. I saw my first business card in a long while that did not list an e-mail address.  I was frankly stunned.  An e-mail address is as important and vital as a phone number in today's world.  

Also, make sure that your website appears first on Google when a user googles your firm name.  I am irked when I google a firm and that firm's website does not appear on the first page of results.  It happens far too often.

Are you making it hard for people to contact you or are you making it easy?  Making it easy is easy to do so why aren't we all doing it?

PSF Salespeople :: How To Make It Work

Great post today from Ford Harding entitled "The Care & Feeding of Clueless Business Developers."  If your firm has dedicated salespeople, this is a great information.  While our firm doesn't operate under this model, it was still a worthwhile read.

How To: Newsletters (Part II)

From the comments of Debra Helwig of IGAF Worldwide, one of the smartest ladies I know, on my post on how to make newsletters a reality at your firm:

On the idea of generating newsletter articles, I encourage firms to think differently about WHO should be writing. In so many cases we think about articles solely as a spotlight for the partners - BUT, partners often are busy and don't want to write. What about the lower level professionals in the firm who are looking to get their names out there and differentiate themselves both within the firm and in the marketplace? They may need some coaching, but as content providers they may be more reliable. This "bottom up" mentality will eventually help the partners get committed as well, because as lower level professionals move up in the firm they'll take the writing habit with them.

Thanks Debra.  Great advice!

Sales Training not effective?

In Larry Bodine's PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING Blog, his post "Shock and Awe at LSSO," he comments on the "Defining Business Development" session, where Sue Stock Allison of the Brand Research Company and Katherine Daisley, Marketing Manager for ALM Research, presented the findings of the new "Law Firm Business Development Survey."

The survey of 157 law firm marketing directors and CMOs from November 2005 to January 2006 reported that sales training for the lawyers was the least effective factor contributing to the firm's revenue growth.

Larry rightly commented:

Without followup and without requiring the partners to compose personal sales plans, of course the training would be ineffective.

If you are considering sales training, as we are, take Larry's words to heart. 

And what's up with "cost-cutting" making the list of factors contributing to a firm's growth - from CMOs?  (If you get closer to your speakers, I bet you can hear me sighing!)

Rainmaking: Guy Kawasaki or Charles?

Guy Kawasaki has a  post titled "The Art of Rainmaking."  His basic premise is simple: "Sales fix everything."  In other words, if you have sales, you have cash flow and when the cash is flowing, lots of things can be fixed, ignored, or forgiven. 

Guy then goes on to a list of eight things to do to make it rain.  While there are good and valid points in the post, I do not totally agree with the premise.  Instead, I find that agree with one of Guy's commenters, a fellow named Charles.  So, see Charles' comments below then read Guy's post and decide for yourself:

Great Selling Tip

Great piece of selling advice via Keith's Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone blog:

"... shut up! Never sell beyond the close!"

Ask yourself: "once I've made the sale, do I keep on selling?"  If the answer is "yes," then stop. 

This is a powerful piece of advice from Keith via his old boss at Deloitte.  Remember it.

(The post it came from is an interesting read too.  It's nice to know that we're all insecure at times.)