A client of mine recently described a scene at his office. I am going to illustrate it by putting it in the context of a play where the characters are as follows:

Imagine visiting a chiropodist because the arch of your foot is causing pain.  You begin to explain the problem to the chiropodist who seems to listen for a short while and then begins to take his shoes off.  "I had that sort of problem once," he says, "and then I got these shoes.  They're really great.  Here try them on.  You can keep them.  I've got a couple more pairs exactly the same at home."

It can take a while to win work and get that all important "yes" from clients.  Anything from a few weeks, a few months or even up to a year or more is entirely normal.  So how do you encourage prospective clients to buy from you?  What makes them take that final step and appoint you as their adviser?

Stairway to heaven - that must be the infamous song, my friend said, referring to the 1971 classic from Led Zeppelin.

No don't be silly I said teasing, it's all about relationships and how you build a successful relationship over time by investing in the other person.

I know my body language said it all when a potential supplier patently ignored me in a meeting where he was outlining his offering.  My boss laughed afterwards and said "I knew he was doomed from your expression!"

When you have been trying to develop, or ‘court', a new client for some time (building the relationship, getting to know the client, perhaps meeting a number of people, but not yet winning any work), how do you know when to start ‘selling'?  If you move too quickly the client could see you as pushy with only one thing on your mind, which could destroy all of the positive feelings you have built up so far.  If you move too slowly (or not at all) you may miss real opportunities, both for you and the client, and you could still be courting this client many years from now - to everyone's frustration.

It is that time of year again - Autumn - when we put our wellingtons on, rake up the leaves and maybe do some pruning to get rid of dead wood?

What is this all about?

If I had a pound for every time my daughter has asked me "why?" I'd be a millionaire.  

The client's perspective

I'm under pressure at the moment - pressure to reduce headcount, to provide ever more accurate and timely work for my internal clients and to cut the costs of our external advisers by 20%.

For the first time in a while, I came across a really pushy, door-to-door salesman.  It was an experience I'm not keen to repeat!  

This message is urgent:  the current climate means that you have less money to spend on marketing and business development.  You also need to lose two people from your headcount.  Your mission is simple:  you must ensure we do not lose any existing clients, you must make sure they keep buying our services and buy more of them.  You must generate new clients quickly to replace the significant losses in fee income in our sectors and service lines most affected by the recession.  This message will not self-destruct in minutes...

Is your firm a vulture or a wise owl?

We all know the desired image but sadly the need for many firms to replace lost fee-income by selling additional services is potentially damaging the relationships with their most important clients.

Is now a good or a bad time to be trying to win new clients?

Having just signed off the largest single piece of corporate entertainment we have ever done for this year's Olympic Games in London, it got me thinking about how fantastic life is at the moment...

It's strange how seemingly unrelated events can get you thinking. The two events below got me thinking about business performance in the current economic crisis particularly when it seems advice about what strategies and tactics to adopt in the ‘downturn' has turned into an industry in itself.

I don't know about you, but we have been receiving even more cold calls than usual recently! More and more people seem to be desperate for our business in these difficult times. We've also noticed that some of our existing suppliers, including professional advisers, are very (too!) keen to sell us something - anything!

There's something about the way some professionals work, and in particular how they manage their time, that makes it very difficult for them to invest the right amount of time, at the right time, in business development.

Over the last year we've discussed the six attributes of really great firms.  So far we've examined how they decide who (and where) they want to be and we've explored the nuances of their leadership and their people.  

Over the last couple of years, The PACE Partners have been studying what makes a really great professional services firm - one that experiences significant year on year profitable growth and builds an enviable reputation with its clients, employees and peers.  

New lead generation through client testimonials and referrals should be actively encouraged says Romey Ghadially. Here, he offers some practical advice and tactics, which can be used to secure them.

In the busy professional services arena, competition abounds and some say it is difficult to distinguish between firms.  And yet there are some firms who experience significant year on year profitable growth.  They build an enviable reputation with clients, employees and peers.  Increasingly we are asked what is the difference between a reasonably successful firm and a really great one?

A sound network of contacts is vital to the long-term success of any practice, but finding and keeping contacts is the tricky bit.

If a destination for your firm is client base expansion, how easy is it proving to get everyone on board?  Have you set off yet? Or are you all still waiting at the station, or even having difficulty getting everyone on the platform?

John Monks and Paul Telfer, of the PACE Partnership, discusses how to motivate clients to want to buy more of your services.

What do you need to do to stand out from the crowd and become a truly magnificent accountancy firm?  John Monks and David Tovey find out in the first of a two-part series.

When approaching a client meeting, beware the trap of going into the meeting unprepared. It sounds obvious, but we have seen many busy QS professionals fail to allocate enough time to prepare a good approach. The more time you can devote to preparation, the better the meeting experience will be for you and the client. So gather all your client information to plan:

In today’s competitive legal environment, ‘buying in’ talent and the client portfolio which goes with it can seem very attractive.  Law firms are sometimes dazzled by experienced professionals with guaranteed fees, a recognised ability to win work and build great client relationships.  These ‘rainmakers’ seem to be the answer to many a law firm’s growth plans.

What’s at the heart of a referral network?  Romey Ghadially, of The PACE Partnership, looks at the key activities needed to build such networks.

A new study from The PACE Partnership applies a scientific approach to winning new business and finds out that there is still more to be done

Q: A quantity surveyor asks: How can my firm expand its client bases over a 2-year period to achieve quite ambitious fee-income targets? And how can I decide which new clients will realistically help me to achieve this?

The power of internal communication and client management in business development

You may think your clients are faithful to your firm, but rivals are probably making advances on them.  John Monks tells how to put the ‘love’ back into your client relationships.

Consultancy business The PACE Partnership has launched a new software application aimed at winning and retaining clients.

How can your firm be sure to attract the right type of client?  Romey Ghadially believes being more selective about the kind of work that you are willing to offer is key. Then it is simply a matter of target practice to create that dream portfolio

In general, lawyers do not make natural salesmen, but some are better than others at using similar skills to grab clients’ attention.  Paul Denvir and Gary Williams show how to identify the ‘can dos’ from the ‘won’ts’.

We have worked with many accountants over the last fifteen years and, in the context of selling their services to new and existing clients, we find they come in four varieties:  

Are you missing a trick?  Failing to establish a cogent sales and marketing strategy is as limiting for the long-term strength of your practice as not having a business development plan, says Liz Loxton.

What will your ideal client base look like in two to three years time?  Invariably many firms say it will be different to their current one.

In November 2003, we conducted extensive research into how law firms go about winning new clients.  The study found that establishing and managing an effective business development process was often a challenge for many firms who felt their new client creation was not as effective as they hoped.  Whilst very good at building relationships with prospective clients once an opportunity arose, lawyers are finding it increasingly difficult to generate a flow of these opportunities.

The description of the state of the PR industry in The PACE Partnership and Willott Kingston Smith qualitative study of market trends across the marketing services industry, released this week, supports widespread anecdotal evidence from among agencies.

Atkins hopes training its middle managers in relationship skills will improve its ability to win new work.  Margo Cole reports.

John Monks from The PACE Partnership details the procurement process and the role that procurement professionals can play.

How do surveyors believe they compare with their professional rivals in winning and keeping new business?

Through feast and famine, you must ensure you keep focusing on clients, write Paul Denvir and Paul Telfer.

When the going gets tough – a strategy to win new clients by Dr Clifford J Ferguson, Partner at The PACE Partnership.

When asking professional services' marketers what their firm's ideal client base should look like in 2-3 years time, John Monks of The PACE Partnership has found that invariably they say it would be different to the current one and refer to a 'dream client portfolio' that brings:

In the second of this series on successful business development from the PACE Partnership, David Tovey focuses on how to find new clients. You can only get to know your customers if they let you; but they must trust you first, he argues.

You wouldn't put your best prize fighter in a pinafore and send him into the ring with the words 'Report back when you've won!' So why put your rainmakers in the same position?

The PACE Partnership Healthcheck, issued in 2002, is based on the opinions and perceptions of people in 76 professional firms over how they see their organisation. Firms in all sectors rated themselves lowest by a large margin on their ability to manage the sales process. PACE sees no reason why people would want to exaggerate their responses, and therefore accepts the survey findings at face value.

Getting and keeping clients requires targeting the right ones, weeding out the bad ones, and keeping it all moving forward. Helen Osborne reveals an expert's trade secrets.

Property advisers need to keep their wits about them in a downturn if they are to fend off competitors. Romey Ghadially and Gary Williams advise on how to keep clients happy and forestall competitive advances.

Greater choice in the modern marketplace means that clients are more likely to change their advisors than in the past.  Michelle Gahagan and John Monks explain how to keep hold of your key business partners.

Looking after and nurturing your clients can mean repeat business in an increasingly competitive marketplace, says Paul Matthews. Here he outlines some key ways to protect your clients from competitor advances.

Lending an ear to your clients’ concerns will ensure you present tailored solutions to their problems, writes Paul Denvir.

Law firms are finding that procurement specialists are increasingly taking an active role in a client’s appointment of legal advisers.  In this article we will explain why these new members of the decision-making process are not enemies of law firms.  In fact, there are ways to convert these individuals into powerful allies who can work within the client to help you win their business.

What have you and your clients gained from your expenditure on CRM? Paul Denvir looks at how a firm can get more from these programmes.

Accountancy firms spend thousands of hours every year preparing for and delivering pitches and proposals.  If these hours are to be well spent the firm will focus on excelling in four areas:

Gary Williams, of The PACE Partnership, discusses ways in which firms can concentrate on their existing clients.

Paul Matthews and Kevin Walker put forward strategies for keeping your best clients to yourself and maximising your relationship with them.

Are your client relationships strong?

No one wants to lose business.  So what do you do to prevent it?  We analyse research on client management and take a light-hearted look at the view of some agency types.

Just like a marriage, the quality of the relationship between a professional adviser and the client depends on both parties.

Cross-selling is not wrong in itself, says Paul Denvir. It is just the way that professional services firm go about it that can get them into trouble. The good news is that an ethical approach to cross-selling is also the most effective.

Many law firms tell us they wished their clients had a greater understanding of what they do, but they feel that promoting their additional skills and expertise could be viewed as "pushy" or overly "salesy". They worry about jeopardising great client relationships.

Many QS firms tell us that they wished their clients had a greater understanding of what they do. But they feel that promoting their additional skills and expertise could be viewed as ‘pushy' and jeopardise great relationships. Cross selling can indeed come across as such, but only when it is handled badly. But when done well, it can bring immense value to both client and firm.

Have you ever wondered why one of your clients didn’t consider your firm for a particular piece of work?  Do you sometimes feel that your client’s view of your firm and its expertise is limited?  Do you ever wish you could help a client more with their business plans and aspirations?

Offering a broader range of services to existing clients is not as easy as simply ‘cross-selling' expertise.  A different approach is required; writes Romey Ghadially and Gary Williams.

Firms that want to cross-sell services must focus on their clients’ plans, not their own.

Every managing partner of every professional services firm we know wants their people to do more cross-selling.  Few professional advisers, however, want to follow in the footsteps of bank managers who were once seen as trusted business advisers but are now regarded by many as peddlers of financial products.

Every managing partner of every accountancy firm we know wants his / her people to do more cross-selling. But few accountants want to follow in the footsteps of bank managers who were once seen as trusted business advisors, but are now regarded by many as peddlers of financial products.

Here’s the situation. Your firm has noticed the massive opportunities to cross-sell services to existing clients. Your research suggests that your clients are currently engaging other firms for services you believe your firm is better placed to provide. Your managing partner continually reminds you and your colleagues that generating work from existing clients should be easier than finding new ones and that the work is more profitable.

Clients may be mistrustful of their suppliers’ efforts to cross-sell services in the wake of the Enron scandal, but Paul Denvir of The PACE Partnership argues that ethical cross-selling will be welcomed and is the key to success for both clients and suppliers.

How do you make events contribute to the bottom line? QS firms invest significant sums of money, time and energy on their client events. With the summer corporate hospitality season around the corner, here are some ideas on how to make your event a truly great one, one that actively contributes to the bottom line.

To be successful, scrupulous planning is a key requirement of running any client event. Excellent preparation, fielding your own best people to play host, and post event follow-up are absolute essentials in making the most of such opportunities. In the second article on the subject Michelle Gahagan and Shelley Hill offer some advice.

Client events don't come cheap and running them only makes sense if you plan to make tangible returns from hosting them. In the first of two articles on the subject of client events, Michelle Gahagan and Shelley Hill suggest some tactics for ensuring that your clients attend and value your firm's event.

I talked recently to a director in our local Regional Development Agency who said that there were signs of increasing confidence in our region as well as pockets of renewed activity.  This is good news for businesses: though no-one can doubt that trading conditions are still tough, there does seem to be some light at the end the tunnel.

There are clear signs of a more positive economic environment ahead.  We all know of course that there is a time lag before things get better.  Your key clients will remain under pressure for some time to reduce expenditure and ensure they are getting the very best value from their lawyers.

Excelling in five key areas as a law firm will lead to success - as the success of the UK's top law firm proves.  John Monks explains the route to a rewarding and profitable client base.

As much as panel firms may have to work together, standing head and shoulders above the rest is the panel position of choice.  Gary Williams advises how to treat your key clients.

Added value isn’t about just doing a good job. Get it right and it can boost profitability levels and lead to a more loyal client base

Clients will be more willing to pay when they recognise the true value of your services. Knowing how to communicate that is the real trick

Your firm has secured its place on the panel and the selection process is history, so what action should you now be considering to ensure that your firm is always the client’s first port of call. Gary Williams offers some suggestions.

Adding value is all about delivering services over and above expectations, explain John Monks and Romey Ghadially.

Some Local Authority ICT units tell us they sometimes struggle with other departments pigeon-holing them for offering a particular service. This can cause them to work reactively and not always to the full extent of their ability. Given the chance, they believe they could contribute greater solutions and be more proactive in the support they give colleagues. The challenge though is how to change the way those departments see them.

When Steve Williams joined Sunderland City Council in 2003 as Corporate Head of ICT, he recognised that a change was needed, in particular in the way his department was viewed.

Understanding and meeting client expectations is something of a challenge – the ultimate prize being client loyalty, repeat instructions, client referrals and the establishment of barriers to rivals.

To avoid falling out, firms must understand their clients' expectations and adapt to satisfy them. But what do you do if the expectations are unreasonable? How can firms keep clients without hammering their profitability?

The secret to providing added value is to give clients what they want – not what they don’t writes Paul Denvir.

In today’s accountancy firms, technical capabilities alone rarely bring promotion.  Firms increasingly seek evidence of an individual’s commercial knowledge, client relationship building skills, new business development ability and leadership and management capability.  They seek a more rounded professional.

When businesses start to go hungry they are forced to go out to hunt — their most desired potential prey being the clients of their competitors. Those law firms that make every effort to deliver excellence in all that they do for key clients tend to defend their client relationships more successfully and keep voracious competitors at bay.

Is the number of complaints a firm receives from a particular client a good indicator of the strength of the relationship with them?

It was reported recently that a major law firm had been dropped by a FTSE 100 client primarily due to a lack of satisfaction with both relationship management and price. This is probably particularly galling to the firm concerned, as other press reports would suggest that this client will require extensive legal services over the next few months. Unfortunately for many firms this is not an isolated instance.

Keeping the customer satisfied is more than just a cliché to most surveyors, a recent study finds, but they must remember that competitors will seek to steal clients away with promises of better service. Kevin Walker reports.

Your clients are engaging rival firms for services you know your firm is better placed to provide.

Getting, retaining and maximising the profitability of key clients remains essential to the survival of any organisation.

In research carried out by The PACE Partners, leadership repeatedly crops up as a key driver in the success of outstanding firms. But what does good leadership look like in these professional services businesses?

Legal firms attract very bright people, who enter their chosen profession to put into practice their technical training.  Yet these firms are also businesses.  They buy and sell services, have clients and people to manage, money to collect and profits to make.  Sadly, it is often the case that neither the training of the professionals nor their early career really prepares them for future management, leadership and business responsibilities.

Good business leaders sometimes emerge naturally, but for more sure-fire results firms need to nurture potential talent, says David Tovey.

Leadership is not just the domain of senior partners, says David Tovey of The PACE Partnership

I often get asked how social media can make you and your firm money - or help you increase fee income. Social media can indeed help you to do this. But more importantly, it's the routine yet often overlooked parts of a marketer's everyday duties that can not only be carried out by using social media websites but can be done better, more cost effectively and more quickly by using them.

Some small businesses see marketing as a luxury - one that they'd love to do, but feel they can't afford.  The ‘marketing needs mountains of money' misconception often prevents many small accountancy firms growing their client portfolios.  

I am a prospective client of your firm and I thought I would get in touch. We are looking for a long-term business partner and yours looks like the type of firm we could get close to.

In helping many law firms win and retain business over the last 10 years, practice areas such as litigation have told us they are finding it increasingly difficult to predict where their next instructions are coming from.  Changes such as the Woolf reforms are affecting the size of their market and the potential it offers. Some lawyers even contend that the nature of their work means they can only react to their market. We disagree.

Michelle Gahagan, of The PACE Partnership, looks at the importance of contact marketing and the need for successful collaborations between fee-earners and marketing departments.

Research suggests client’s dislike and are resistant to unsolicited approaches, so we do not advocate cold calling. Besides, QS’s hate cold calling as it goes against their ethics and sense of professionalism!

The constant pursuit of new business is fine, but nurturing current clients is just as valuable, says Paul Matthews.

Last summer, the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s chief executive, Peter Fisk, outlined his vision for the future of marketing.  He said ‘Marketers must look at how they can create great marketing, which also delivers business performance by working through the detail of how what they do impacts on the business’.

Although law firms are spending a significant proportion of their budget on marketing and business development, they need to concentrate more on how to measure its effectiveness in order to reap the benefits, say Clifford Ferguson and Paul Matthews.

It seems that accountants and marketing managers are worlds apart when it comes to ensuring promotional spend makes a difference to accountancy firms’ bottom lines.  But it needn’t be like this, says Kevin Walker.

Winning new clients is the name of the marketing game - but be sure you really want the ones you pursue and be sure you are right for them.  Dr Clifford J Ferguson of The PACE Partnership describes how to make these strategic decisions.

We all know we have to stand out from the crowd if we want to thrive, but how can a company differentiate itself positively? Clifford Ferguson of The PACE Partnership advises getting back to basics and stressing the human side.

Getting Ahead of The Game

We very much hope you enjoyed our last article ‘The Secrets of Successful Pitch Coaching Part 1' in which we looked at how to coach a team to deliver high quality winning pitches that stand out from the competition.

Professional service firms are not usually full of natural presenters. How comfortable, confident and effective are your people in pitch situations? In our experience most firms have a few fee earners who do enjoy pitching, they also have a small percentage of individuals who should never be put in front of clients at any cost (you know who they are!). The rest of the firm is then made up of people who have never really been shown how to pitch successfully, and many of these would rather not be part of any pitch - if they could avoid it they would!

If you think business pitches are the preserve of marketing and sales you'd be wrong.  Pitches are now a central part of a fee-earner's role.

"How many times have I heard this!" said the managing partner of an accountancy firm I met with recently. On reflection I said to him "this is what is constantly being said to me when discussing business development with many accountancy firms, and not just yours, over the last 12 months!"

Many clients have become more fee sensitive in the last few weeks and months and are keen to find the most ‘competitive' offers available. So, do surveyors need to reduce their fees in a difficult economic client in order to win work?

Law firms should not be afraid to broach the subject of fee negotiations for fear of clients baulking at the mention of money. Paul Denvir and Paul Matthews offer advice on how to close a deal with confidence.

Responding to invitations to tender can be a costly business, irrespective of whether you can win, but especially if you lose.  So does it make sense to do it, ask Gary Williams and John Monks.

Question: Over the last few months, we have spent a considerable amount of time answering invitations to tender.  We haven't been very successful, so is there a better way for us to approach these opportunities in future?

John Monks & Romey Ghadially of The PACE Partnership look at what makes the difference between winning and losing.

There is more to winning a pitch than silky-smooth presentation skills.  The most successful firms are learning to focus their resources on the clients that matter most – and getting to know what makes those clients tick.  Paul Telfer reports

Over recent years, as the professional services market has become more competitive, many firms have seen involvement in new business pitches run into several thousands of pounds and sometimes for no return. This is both a huge waste of resources and demotivating to all involved.  Yet it is rare for a firm to decline an invitation to tender.

All too often the time-frame from an invitation to pitch arriving to the point when a submission needs to be sent is very short.  It rarely gives a good opportunity for a firm to really get to know the prospect client, let alone put together a really tailored solution.

What are they?
Bluebirds are those new business opportunities, which seem to fly in through the window.  Many professional services firms are tempted to pitch for every bluebird that comes their way, but this may not be a profitable use of their resources in the long-term.  In this, our third article in our ‘beauty parades’ series for psmg, we look at how firms can evaluate a bluebird to assess whether they should pitch for it. We will also look at how a firm can maximise its chances of converting that bluebird into real fee-income.

In this final article in our ‘Beauty Parades’ series, we focus on the pitch itself and give some tips on tactics that can be used to improve a professional services firm’s chances at winning.

Media agencies pitching for business - Media agencies are currently spreading themselves too thinly and pitching for every opportunity that comes their way.  Paul Denvir says that a few searching questions before pitching could be the difference between winning, losing - or not pitching at all.

Contracting out is no longer purely a public sector pursuit.  If shrewd, firms can profit greatly from tendering by private companies.

Four-fifths of interactive agencies would pitch for jobs they were unlikely to win, a new study reveals.

New research shows that engineers score better than most professions in tendering for new projects.  And they could increase the success with close study of the client.

THE PITCHING PROCESS - Even the biggest agencies are admitting to spreading themselves too thinly in the race to sign up more clients.  As Tony Lithgow discovers, being selective can be more advantageous.

Design groups are wasting resources on free pitches and believe they are pigeon-holed by clients, according to research conducted by The PACE Partnership and accountant Willott Kingston Smith.

Many firms in recent years have seen involvement in new business pitches run into several thousands of pounds, sometimes for no return.  This is both a huge waste of resources and de-motivating to all involved, writes John Monks.

In this next installment of their six part series revealing the secrets of great firms, PACE turn their attention to the make or break component of professional services, the people.

Many property firms headhunt outstanding QSs from rivals to bring that person's greatness into their own organisation.

Spring is in the air and the nights are finally getting lighter.  There's a chance to re-energise and, for many facing a new financial year, a chance to plan how best to grow in the uncertain and possibly rocky times ahead.  Just what that growth looks like will depend on the decisions made by a property firm about its greatest asset - its people.

You could lose valuable business if you don't have high-calibre staff to cope with the work, writes David Tovey and John Monks.

In the second part of their analysis, John Monks and David Tovey continue their exploration of hat makes a great firm truly great.

Cultivating leaders has not always been a priority for accountancy practices.  Paul Denvir suggests steps firms can take in selecting and developing staff and ensuring a more successful future.

Leadership is a key factor in any law firm, as successfully promoting the talents of individual lawyers is key if it is to fulfil its potential.  Kevin Walker looks at how leadership skills can be developed as lawyers progress through five key stages.

Please don't read any further.

I see you‘ve chosen to ignore me. That's because, in general, we don't like being told what to do. And as we gather knowledge and experience, promotions and responsibility, we like being told what to do even less.  

Coaching is being used more and more by law firms to equip their fee-earners with required skills, ways of working and behaviours.  Coaching gives an individual the opportunity to gain help and support that is 100% focused on overcoming particular challenges they face.  Given the time pressures lawyers face today, this is becoming very attractive and often requested.

The dust has settled on the New Year, a time when many of us indulge in a spot of navel gazing and take stock of our careers and life in general.

Throughout the UK, Law firms are spending thousands and thousands of pounds in developing the business development capabilities of their fee-earners.  

What QS firm doesn't want new business? It's a key desire of most and one that forces many to invest heavily in business development training for their people.  But once back in the office QSs sometimes struggle to apply their learning.  How can this be avoided and how can your firm ensure its investment in business development training does result in new business?

A straw poll of FTSE 100 FDs would find that most either have or are thinking about hiring a coach. Paul Denvir and David Tovey examine the benefits.

How can you really hit your fee income targets? Bringing in new business is a daunting prospect for lawyers of all levels.  David Tovey offers his advice on how to get the most out of business development training.

How often have you come away very enthusiastic from a training or development programme only to revert to old ways and habits back in the office?

Leading and managing in an actuarial firm has a number of unique features.  These are organisations that tend to attract very bright people, who enter the profession to put into practice their technical training. Yet, actuarial firms are also businesses.  They buy and sell services, have clients and people to manage, money to collect and profit to make.