Growing Your Client Base [antikvár]

Over the past ten years we at PACE have focused our energies on working with professional services firms with a view to assisting them in the areas of leadership, client relationship management and new business development. It has to be said that professional firms in general have made great strides in these areas within the last decade. The standards have improved immeasurably and there have been a number of reasons for this. Firstly clients have become more demanding of their advisors, not only in respect of the services that advisors provide but also in relation to the way they expect these firms to run themselves. This has caused professional firms to look more closely at their governance and leadership, at the way in which they manage client relationships and the way that they market and sell. Increased competition has further sharpened this focus. Secondly firms have been more open to employing people (particularly in the marketing function) who have come from other industries. These appointments have not been universally successful. Too often there has been a mismatch of expectation from both sides and the relationship has been both uncomfortable and short. However, some of the marketers brought into professional services firms have worked hard and have successfully made the transition. They have approached the professions with an open mind and not a desire to superimpose their earlier learning and experiences gained in another market sector. Having learned how the professional services marketplace works these people have then been able to take their expertise and apply it in way that is in concert with the way that professional firms operate. This has led to the existence of the third factor that has assisted firms in making the strides that they have. Today in the UK there is a hard core of very savvy marketing and business development professionals who really understand what needs to be done in order to grow the franchise of a professional firm. These people have helped their firms to become more commercially minded and more professional in their approach to the market. These people sometimes struggle to make the impact that they would ideally desire. Trying to work with a business full of engineers, lawyers, actuaries, property consultants or accountants is not easy particularly when these people's main agenda is usually the execution of fee-earning work.