Inside Out - The haze of commoditization

Inside Out - Breaking through the Haze of Commoditization

The business of professional services is to take away problems and or capture benefits.  At the center of professional services is that they work to prepare clients for the future, identify new opportunities, anticipating adversities controlling what can be controlled.

 

The main objective of any professional service marketing organization is to establish a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with their clients.  This is where experience based marketing and positioning comes into play.  The level of interactions through a number of different endpoints and platforms need to be consistent in order to break through the haze of commoditization.

 

Firms Need Differentiated Strategies for Their Brand to Stand Out - One of the biggest challenges for professional service firms is category parity. Surprisingly many firms lack differentiation not because of their brand necessarily, but because they all have virtually the same business and operating model, the same strategies, and the same mission. The root of the problem with professional services is not brand differentiation but business differentiation.

 

Success of professional services is based equally on the quality of the client relationship and on the quality of the solution to a performance, regulatory or legal issue. But most of all the challenge lies in the fact that advice is often intangible. While it may appear as self-serving, the role of marketing plays a significant role in the context of standing out. Professional services are intangible by the nature of services, so they must excel at branding, marketing and such other processes as business development and knowledge management.

 

Successfully branded organizations base their brand on a core positioning that is uniquely own-able and represents a distinct attribute or capability. This clear definition is supported and reinforced by everything the firm does – requiring all professionals and staff to live the brand every day. This internal dimension of branding is critical to product, services and professional services is becoming top of mind with many organizations.

 

Operationalizing the brand, may appear to be a lofty management consulting term, but think about the implications.  What does it mean to operationalize the brand, to live the brand? It involves the alignment of the brand and its values, long-term strategy, human resources, operations, internal communications, and more, to ensure the right behavior is in place. Obviously branding cannot solve every business performance issue and cannot be applied in all situations, but the transformation of the brand must start from Inside Out.

Everyone Wants to Rule the World

Everyone wants to rule their own world and have control. Everyone wants a happy ending, but guess what – life is not perfect.  The subtle art of influence is about kicking yourself into gear to inspire movement and motivation.  It cannot be about negative commentary to yourself, but about committing yourself to a broader plan of attack.  

Complaints and vetting are sometimes cathartic, but you need to move from “complaint to commitment”.  Commit to a plan and execute using other friends, advocates and stakeholders in the process. Sometimes we get so caught up in what everyone else is doing and telling us that we need to do that we stop listening to the signals that our bodies are sending us. If something feels wrong, it probably is.  

Sometimes the stress that we place on ourselves for results, in and of itself, enough to make us sick and unsuccessful in our endeavors. We get so obsessed with trying to ‘feel’ an effect from something that we can actually create that effect or symptom. I’m not joking. I’ve done it to myself and I see it over and over again in the misguided and futile attempts – this is small stuff and obsessing about it is sucking the life out of you. It’s NOT okay to spend your life caught up in the idea that life sucks because you are not making the right amount of money, have a specific title, weigh a certain amount or because you look a certain way. Until you start to truly value yourself – where you are and for who you are – you aren’t going to find happiness.

 

So the fine art of influence is about motivating yourself to live and be the best you that you can be – because that’s enough. What about working harder than anyone else? While it may not appear to many people that know me, my confidence is not based purely on my innate talents, it is based on fact that I try to work harder than anyone else.  A good friend and associate joked around with me that he would have to get up at 3:45AM to get a jump start on me – get ahead of my morning emails, rants, celebrations and personal expectations.  The reality is that is when everything kicks into gear for me.  Let me reiterate the concept “for me”.  This is about motivating yourself to suck the marrow out of life and living every day like it is your last or think of living one life in one day.  

 

It is true that that hard work doesn’t always equal success. Some people work very hard, but fail for a myriad of reasons. They tried and didn’t succeed.  The simple fact is that people tried...and there is a subtle difference in what I just referenced – “hard work doesn’t always guarantee success, but working harder than anyone else opens unique opportunities and insights if you are paying attention”.

Evolving Professional Services Marketing

Professional Services Marketing is in a phase of massive transformation led by empowered clients and knowledgeable markets.  To the extent that marketing knows the client, marketing should be in the forefront of driving the change.  While some may disagree, who else should be aligned to how the brand and organization touches markets, organizations and individuals?

Perhaps it’s not yet happening across peers and competitive organizations. Some organizations insist they’re different, but they’re deceiving themselves. They’re worried about the future and trying to avoid change. It is happening in the marketplace, so if it hasn’t touched you yet, it will. Thinking different about what you can do to break through or become more agile is simply about focus.

 

While it is critical to understand,  the what, why and how things are changing in the market, it is equally critical to understand what is not changing and the rationale supporting.

The four things marketing has always been responsible for haven’t changed:

• Knowing your clients, future targets and the capital markets you serve
• Define what to market and how to market it
• Creating and extending conversations to elevate the brand
• Owning the brand promise

 

The Brand - Great brands make measured choices in four areas:

• What is the brand’s enduring idea?
• What makes the brand different?
• How is the brand primarily experienced?
• Who does the brand serve?

 

Marketing requires imagination and community – I have defined the role of Marketing, as, “creating and extending relevant conversations and experiences that build a halo for the brand while deepening relationships and revenue growth”.  The biggest challenge for any organization is to consider the multitude of business priorities across all product or service lines – take into account that many have competing priorities, then simplify and improve your focus.  multitude of business priorities across all product or service lines – take into account that many have competing priorities, then simplify and improve your focus.  

 

Three questions for Marketing Professionals

• Does anyone know what your organizational brand actually stands for? 
• Do you know what you stand for? 
• Marketers should ask, who are we and what do we want to be?