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Too Busy to Grow? An excerpt from 101 Marketing Strategies for Accounting, Law, Consulting, and Professional Services Firms September 2004 Is your firm running at capacity? Do you think that what you need is a few more associates with five to 10 years' experience, not more business? If this is you, you probably haven't done a good job of qualifying your clients. A key objective of good marketing is to attract better clients, not just more business.
More profit. Evaluate the relative profitability of each client. List your clients from largest discount to largest premium in size categories, and by season. Apply a cost factor to each client and then re-sort the clients based on total profit per client. Then select the least profitable five percent of your client base. You should dramatically increase pricing on these clients or outplace them to another service provider. The best method to increase your profits is to improve the value of your service and to price your service based on value. Professionals who focus on creating client value yield high profits for themselves. More fun. You have more fun when you work with clients you enjoy. It might be their personalities, the types of issues, or their industries. It might be novelty. Some clients just don't fit your personal style, or are all around difficult types. Consider dropping at least one undesirable client. Your professional life will be more fun. Aggressively pursue a new client who you think will be more fun. Now is a great time to upgrade your fun quotient. More leisure. For most people, their most productive work occurs after a period of rest, not after having worked ten 15-hour days straight. Exhausting yourself creates burnout, low creativity, and poor staff relations. Prepare your calendar with days of leisure included. Don't violate your planned "free" days. Your professional days will be more productive and satisfying. More skill and growth. I've met professionals in their 40s and 50s who are bored to tears with their work lives. The main reason seems to be because they have been doing the same thing for 25 years. In contrast, professionals who continue to build skills seem to enjoy their professions deep into their 50s, 60s and 70s. A successful firm is about more than gross billings. By selecting the right clients, you can have more profits and more fun. TROY WAUGH is a leading sales and marketing consultant to the accounting industry. He is the author of 101 Marketing Strategies for Accounting, Law, Consulting, and Professional Services Firms. (Wiley 2004). 2004 John Wiley & Sons. "101 Marketing Strategies for Accounting, Law, Consulting, and Professional Services Firms." Reprinted with permission. |
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Highly qualified clients usually have benefits for you in four areas: more profits, more fun, more leisure and more learning.
