Part 1 (1/2)

Professional services

How the best firines, and cultures of business development success

Mike Schultz & John Doerr

To my dad, Stan Schultz, the father every son wants

-MES

To the memory of my dad, Joseph Doerr His time was too short, but it sure was full

-JED

Acknowledgues at the Wel esley Hil s Group and RainTodayco while we took the time to write this book: Rachel Hayes, Bob Croston, Mark Fortune, Bob Van Eh, Patrick Cahil , Sandy O'Del , Erica Stritch, Mary Flaherty, Laurie Stafinski, Aaron Joslow, Kel y Kerr, Karina Duran, Terese Riordan, Jae-ann Rock, and Sue Brisson, al of ith hustle, passion, and intensity (HPI) Thanks as wel to our extended team orked with us on the research we've cited in the book and on the book itself: Mark Eisner, Andrea Rosal, and Scott Whipple We'd also like to thank Michael Sheehan, Michael May, Edave their tihts and experiences to the content of the book

To our valued clients, we thank you for the privilege of working with you and accepting us as members of your team To the contributors, members, and readers of RainTodaycom, we appreciate your support, content, questions, and interactions with us through the years

We'd like to thank leading bloggers, thinkers, and writers who, over the past several years, have influenced our thoughts about ers: We'd like to acknowledge the RainTodayco and sales advice to the professional services world, including: Contributing editors: Charles H Green, CJ Hayden, Jil Konrath, Bruce W Marcus, Michael W McLaughlin, Vickie K Sulivan, and Alan Weiss

Authors: Tiuiar, Jason Alba, Ardath Albee, Dave Alexander, Paige Arnof-Fenn, Ron Baker, Elise Bauer, Robbie Baxter, Iise Benun , Barbara Bix, Catherine Blake, Bob Bly , Larry Bodine , Annette Boyle, Laurie Brown, Scott Buresh, Mark Burton, Marcie Cal an, George Calys, Jim Camp, Joan Capelin, Brian Carrol , Ken Carson, Jielo Cel i, Lyn Chamberlin, Paul Cherry, Scottie Claiborne, Michel e Class, Cynthia Coldren, Paul Col ins, Karen Compton, Charlie Cook, Mike Cook, Kimberly Cooley, Stephanie Craft, Gale Crosley, Michael Cucka, Fiona Czerniawska, Virginia Daffron, Doug Davidoff, Mark Deh Duffy, Jil Eastton, Brad Farris, Neil Fauerbach, Keith Ferrazzi, Erin Ferree, Col een Francis, Robert Galford, A, Paul Gladen, Sal y Glick, Mitchel Gooze, Rebecca Gould, Pa, Cal Harrison, Todd Hendries, Elizabeth Henry, Greg Heydel, Casey Hibbard, Dr Reed K Holden, Sara Holtz, Bob Howard, Dianna Huff, dick Jacques, Jay Jaffe, Dave Jakielo, Linda Jenkins, Catherine Jewel , Ron Karr, Kimberly Kayler, Ashley Kizzire, Ed Kless, Jonathan Kranz, Sheryl Kravitz, Art Kuesel, Susan Wylie Lanfray, Terri Langhans, Brent Larlee, David A Lax, Marsha Leest, Mel Lester, Mark Levy, Don Linder, Jay Lipe, Ken Lizotte, Pam Lontos, Phil Lotane, Richard Lozano, Sharon Machrone, Eliot Madow, Barry Maher, David Maister, Kathy Maixner, Larry Mandelberg, Steve Markman, Bob Martel, Nancy Martinez, Harry Max, Matthew May, Paul McCord, Patrick McEvoy, Patrick McKenna, Maureen McNamara, Nilofer Merchant, Todd Miechiels, Robert Mil ard , Nicholas Mil er, Barry Moltz, Robert Moment, Gwen Moran, Tiffany Mura, Glenn Murray, Harriet Nezer, Ernest Nicastro, Lyne Noel a, Tim Noworyta, James Oberymayer, Julia O'Connor, Sandy O'Del , Erica Olsen, Lisa Ordel , Abhay Padgaonkar, Michel e Paler C Parker, Chris Perrino, Barnes Dennig, Promise Phelon, Tom Pick, dick Pirrozol o, Michael Platt, Ed Pol , Michael Port, Elge Premeau, Janet El en Raasch, Sridhar Ramanathan, Lydia Ramsey, Carey Ransom, Lauren Rikleen, Kel ey Robertson, Andrea Rosal, Alan Rosenspan, Dan Safford, Mark Satterfield, Anne Scarlett, James Schakenbach, Ilene Schwartz, David Meerman Scott, Jeff Scurry, Stephen Seckler, Randy Shattuck, Alan Sharpe, E Michael Shays, Idora Silver, Rick Sloboda, Ron S Stern, Ruth P Stevens, Jeff Thul , Nick Usborne, Mike Van Horn, Tom Varjan, Michel e Wacek, Steve Walmsley, Wendy Ward, Steve Waterhouse, Michael Webb, Wendy Weiss, Richard Weylman, Richard White, Ruth Winett, Eva Wisnik, Jeff Wolf, and Mark Zweig (NOTE: Authors with an asterisk after their naers) We are also grateful to Matt Holt, Executive Editor at John Wiley & Sons, who shared our vision for this book froo to Daniel Aet through the editing process, and to everyone else at Wiley who helped see this book to its final form

-Mike Schultz and John Doerr

The task of writing a book is oes on behind the scenes as you draw upon your fae, and often put up with you as you drive to the finish line To Chris Mirabile, h this journey cal ed life, thank you for always believing in me and my dreams To my sons, John Michael and Andrew, just because you are who you are To my mom, Gloria Doerr, who has always beenhard, even when you have done so for 82 years To s, Jean, Judi, Jennifer, Jodi, and Jirandchildren), thank you for defining fa wonderful people to bring into our family And, of course, to Mike, co-author and friend, who continues to energize me I couldn't have done my part without you al

-John Doerr

Thank you, John, my co-author, partner, and friend Dan Cohen, thank you for your teaching and support and for being the rity Steve Lisauskas and Dean Ierardi, for everything you both do and give Tony Bettencourt for cooking everything up Nancy Harris, for the love you give and happiness you spread Tome the front seat at least once or twice a year Toby, my constant companion

And to my wife and best friend, Erica Schultz

-Mike Schultz

Introduction

One of the great things about professional services , is that everyone has an opinion The conflicting advice covers just about every aspect of y to the most detailed of tactics Amid al the contradictory advice, al theone bad are the decisions you have to row your firh your decisions, you have tothe pitfal s that can trip you up) soout what's what is no easy task

As consultants to professional services firms and researchers in the field, we've spoken with literaly thousands of professional service firm leaders over the past few decades Different as their situations and fires are siue about e're going to do with ”

”So and business development, and soet on the sarow”

”It sees our ability toand then establishi+ng a brandwe've ever tried to do Even after al this tiree on what a brand is, never et a lot of advice about how to build aplan, but it doesn't seem to make sense for us We spend a lot of time on fruitless activities, and then don't knoe're ether ood job But we don't know if they are real y good, because, while ays start with a lot of energy, iet theet more at bats-more cracks at new deals-ould win theht buyers”

”Everyone talks a good ga to selfirms to help us, and it just never turns out as wel as we hoped it ht”

”I'd never say it publicly, but it's hard to differentiate So s we say, even if, in reality, we are quite different”

”When we're busy, we don't market, because we have no time Then we co to come from This revenue rol er coaster is not a fun ride”

”We're just too senerate leads or become wel -known in the market”

”Clients view our work as a commodity and pressure us on fees al the ti, webinars, seminars, podcasts, white papers, pri, sponsorshi+ps, direct un business developers, , public relations, articles, books, e-, telepathy, and so on And none of them worked”

However, we also hear stories of how fire and smal have do and branding efforts They have becons that fil ed the pipeline and yielded a flood of business, and built systems and processes to ensure that their success can build on itself

Success rarely coh The professional services fir typicaly have at least one thing in common: They've had failures, usual y so and sel ing machines that they are

Our ai: How the Best Firines, and Cultures of Business Development Success is to help you sort out what's what in both the strategy and the tactics ofso you can make the best decisions on what to do and to help you avoid some of the

Good h the trees One of our goals in writing this book is to help youstrategies and plans to crafting brand and eneration engine, to supporting the fire success and failure

If good ood leaders are the ones who stand up and shout, ”Wrong forest!” when they need to

Firht decisions about what to do, what to spend, and how to place key people in the right roles to harness their tiators soet the unproductive processes and unproductive internal conversations Perhaps most important of al , what firms (and the people inside the hal owed firm wal s) did last year to make them successful isn't necessarily what they need to do this year These are the chal enges of leadershi+p

It's our sincere hope that Professional Services Marketing wil lend insight that can help you rowth efforts

Before you get started on the journey, here are a few things to keep in -a key to revenue and profitability growth-is getting your service right The more value you deliver, the more satisfied your clients wil be The more satisfied they are, the more likely it is they wil stay loyal to your firm and refer other clients to you This has been wel established in research such as The Service Profit Chain 1 and How Clients Buy 2 It also ht, because the better your fir wilal the tiood we are right now-today-what should we do to ht book

Along with our client ith numerous professional services fir practitioners, this book draws on the prih our own fir arm, RainToday com Our research studies include How Clients Buy: The Bench from the Client Perspective (2009), Bench in Professional Services (2008), What's Working in Lead Generation (2007), The Business I a Book (2006), and several others For round on this research, visit raintodaycom