What Clients Want (Part 1)

One of the books on my summer reading list finally came out a few weeks ago. The book, Client at the Core by August Aquila and Bruce Marcus, has been something I’ve been looking forward to reading for quite some time. Marcus publishes the Marcus Letter dedicated to professional services marketing, and I had read his book Competing for Clients a while back.

So, I finally received my copy of this book yesterday, and from what I’ve read so far, it is excellent – a must read for all accounting, law, and consulting firms who truly want to understand how to build a culture of marketing within their firms. I figured I’d blog commentary as I read because many of the points he makes are so fundamental to successful marketing.

Summed up nicely in the preface, the authors write

Peter Drucker put his finger on the awesome truth that the purpose of a company is to create a customer. Too many professionals still seem not to have learned that lesson, and think that the purpose of a professional firm is to practice the profession. But for whom? Would any accounting or law firm be able to bedazzle the world with brilliance if it had no clients, nor could get any?

And there lies the focus of all marketing initiatives – your client and his needs.

Occasionally, we’ll meet with a prospect who still believes they can control their client’s buying process by saying the right thing at the right time. Unfortunately, in today’s information age where there is always a faster, better, cheaper alternative just a click away in cyberspace, firms must go beyond the standard jargon “the mission of our firm is to provide superior client service.” A sales pitch doesn’t work. Today’s clients want dialog. They want you to understand their problems, educate them, and help them make the best decisions.

I can tell you lots of things about my firm, but that doesn’t mean you’ll believe me, particularly in the world post Enron and Arthur Andersen. We now have regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley in place that force CEOs to take responsibility for their financial statements. This new era requires proof that you’ll do what you say you will – talk is cheap. Show me.

As the authors clearly write:

For the professional, competition is now a fact of life. Clients understand that there are many qualified professionals in each discipline – that they have a choice. It falls to the lawyer and the accoutant to attempt to influence that choice – to demonstrate a firm’s capabilities as better than those of the competitors’. In other words, to market better.

But to market better doesn’t mean telling the client that “we’re the best,” “we do better audits,” or “we write better briefs” – statements like that are meaningless and clients are far more skeptical.

Sophisticated clients know the difference between marketing promises and professional services delivery. While clients have always enjoyed the fuzzy warmth of client relations, today’s client wants – needs – more service and solutions to go with that warmth.

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