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.

Don’t Overvalue Risk and Undervalue Opportunity

Don’t Overvalue Risk and Undervalue Opportunity.  The true reality – we’re obsessed with risk and overly careful with steps to control our outcomes.  Guess what we don’t always get it right, I know I don’t always get it right.  Nobody’s perfect and mistakes are an integral part of the learning process in doing just about anything worthwhile.  It’s more important that we learn how to grow from our missteps rather than trying pointlessly to avoid them. Mistakes will only continue to haunt us if we don’t make an effort to address them is a straight-forward and pragmatic way   

 

Own it - Everybody experiences setbacks in your personal and professional life.    Things can and often do go wrong due to circumstances that aren’t completely under your control.  That being said, deflecting blame isn’t a particularly effective way to grow as a person.  If you really want to bounce back stronger from a mistake, you need to employ a high sense of agency.  Avoid the easy way out and don’t let your circumstances define you.  Identify the variables that were under your control and make an effort to handle them better. 

 

Stop and Step Back - One of the worst things you can do is try to slip under the radar and fix the problem without anyone finding out.  A small problem can have a wider impact through side effects than you might think.  It is like a little white-lie, when you were a kid; you have seen these types of things mushroom quickly. Once a problem is out in the open, it’s much easier to deal with effectively.   Should, Would, Could are all variables – you must ask yourself what are those things I need to do to take massive action to apply learning from my setback.  Step back for each setback before you set back in your approaches – It sounds like a tongue twister, but take time to think about it.

 

Apologize to those Affected - Sometimes your mistakes can affect others much more adversely than they do you.  It’s important, under these circumstances, to make a real and lasting apology.  Most importantly, apologize for “making” the mistake and for any effects that it might have had on them.  Don’t play the victim and try to issue a statement that is protective of yourself or your position.    Think of your personal brand and your reputation in the context of the set back.

 

Don’t play the Victim - Again, we’re back to the idea that you need to adopt a sense of urgency.  When you think about the mistake, think about how you contributed to its creation and identify factors in your performance that you can do improve on for next time. 

 

You’re not the only one who can learn from your mistakes.  There’s potential for you to help many others who might find themselves in similar situations.  After all, one of the primary goals in dealing with setbacks or mistakes is ensuring that the same ones aren’t repeated unnecessarily.