Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are not just for big companies with large sales forces or customer service departments. A CRM system can be a great tool for helping retain your existing customers as well as acquiring new ones. Here are 6 ways professional...
When it comes to marketing professional services we hear a lot advice about “building relationships” and “building community”. We also hear this advice in the context of blending our online and offline communities to improve our business development efforts. This is...
Do you have a Google Profile page? If you are a provider of professional services, chances are, people will Google you by name when they are referred to you, hear you speak, or see an article about you in the paper. If you don't have a Google profile page yet, you...
Do you struggle when it comes to creating content? I’m sure you’ve heard people say that marketing professional services today is very much like being a publisher – that it’s all about creating and sharing meaningful content. Creating that content often proves to be a...
In marketing and sales, we hear a lot of talk about the importance of knowing our prospects “pain points” – the importance of identifying them, explaining how our services help relieve that pain, and describing what life will look like once that pain has been removed....
I’ve mentioned a couple of times on this blog that I am not a fan of professional service firms using canned messages in their marketing. They tend to be unremarkable, do little to foster relationship building, and in some cases, can even be damaging to a...
Stay-in-touch marketing is a vital component of a professional service firm’s marketing system. Therefore, I thought I would spend the next few posts talking about the different ways to stay in touch with our existing customers, referral partners, and prospects. The...
Over on the Hinge Marketing Blog, guest Author Ian Altman shares 3 Keys to Helping Non-Sales Staff Find Qualified New Business. Ian’s post provides some great advice on what non-sales people should do (and not do) to help identify and qualify new opportunities. Since...
Last October, J.D. Power and Associates released their 2010 U.S. Small Business Banking Satisfaction StudySM. While the study focused on banks, I feel the lessons from this study apply equally to accounting, law, and other professional service firms. The study found...
It’s getting to be that time of year when we start to think about budgets and plans for the coming year. Will you have a marketing budget in 2011? Here are a few of the common ways I see marketing budgets being set. No budget – this doesn’t mean they don’t spend money...