Ben Paul
July 6, 2021
BD, Sales and Marketing insights round-ups
The June BD Round-Up includes a raft of articles covering a wide range of different topics, at this half-way point in the year. The reason we’ve included a wide range of articles in the June BD round-up is because at this point in the year, it is now a crucial time for you to invest time and effort in your BD & Marketing activities if you want them to have a positive impact in 2021.
I’ve deliberately included some articles around building a sales culture, and also on raising prices. With inflation rising and costs going up, it is likely that to even maintain your current profit levels, you will need to consider raising your prices. For many in professional services this can be tricky, as without a clear strategy it is hard to charge more for the same service from your existing clients.
As always, we also focus on some articles that give very practical advice, and within the June BD Round-Up we have ones that provide simple tips to use on LinkedIn, as well as tips to boost the SEO effectiveness of your professional services website, and how to promote your upcoming webinars.
So, now the introductions have been completed, let’s get onto the main course. Welcome to the June BD Round-Up!
How To Easily & Effectively Develop a Sales Culture by Meridith Elliott Powell
This focuses on how to build a sales culture within a financial institution, but it applies to all professional services firms. Starting with why you need a sales culture, this article is brilliant as it then goes on to provide the 7 simple steps to follow to create one.
From my point of view, within any professional services firm, the large majority of Partners/Directors have to be on board with any desire to change the firm’s sales culture. They must hold each other to account. It has to be driven by the business owners.
Winning more proposals by finding the meaning and purpose in them by Carl Dickson, Founder of CapturePlanning.com
Taking the excellent Simon Sinek’s idea of ‘what’s your why’ and applying it to proposal responses, is an excellent concept. In this article, Carl Dickson takes you through how you uncover your purpose, and then how you apply and weave it into your bid responses.
If You’re Going to Raise Prices, Tell Customers Why by Utpal M. Dholakia, George R. Brown Professor of Marketing at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business
No client looks forward to hearing that the cost of the services they have received has gone up. However, the firm’s that don’t raise their prices, struggle to grow effectively. In short, they are leaving money on the table and their business will most likely be shrinking, year on year. The two key parts of this article for those in professional services are: 1, Explain the reason for the price rise clearly and; 2, link the rise in price to a client-centric value.
3 Ways to Grow Your Network Using LinkedIn By Frances Moffett, WinningTheBusiness.com
LinkedIn, is, without doubt, the number one online networking platform for B2B professionals. These three simple tips to start getting more from the platform can be seen as either a useful reminder or three simple steps you should action without delay.
The Big 4 Face One Big Client Driven Hurdle — and It May Have Just Been Solved by The Mad Clientist, BTI Consulting Group
This is a really interesting article for accountants and lawyers. Globally, the Big Four accountancy firms have been building a legal services capability, and the latest survey results of clients has found that more clients than ever are now open to hiring the Big 4 to assist with their legal requirements.
Wake up your law firm’s webinar registrations! by Helen Cox, Helen Cox Marketing
The effects of COVID were certainly felt in the events business, and we certainly all saw a rise in the number of webinars hitting the market. This article gives some excellent tips on how to ensure that you get the registrations you require.
Small Law Firm SEO Tactics by Annette Choti, Law Quill
While this is aimed at law firms, it is an essential read for all those mid-tier or small professional services practices that want to understand a bit about SEO; what works, and conversely what has a negative impact on your SEO rankings. It provides some easy to understand information that will help you make improvements to your current website.
And now for something a little different for the June BD Round-Up
Establish a standardized legal directory submission form petition by William McLaughlin, The BD Roundtable
Okay, so this isn’t an article, and it doesn’t provide any advice. But for anyone within a law firm who has any involvement in completing directory submissions, head across to the link above and sign the excellent BD Roundtable’s petition today. If they manage to get what they are asking for, it will save BD & Marketing teams and fee-earners a great amount of time in doing their submissions, every year.
The June BD-Round up Conclusion
So that was the June BD round-up, we started with sales culture, winning bids and how to discuss price rises, before moving on to LinkedIn and online marketing advice. There’s a great deal of actionable advice that will help you grow the revenue of your professional services firm.
That’s it for the June BD round-up. As always, we’ll be back next month with another round-up of the best BD, sales and marketing advice for B2B and professional services practitioners, from across the world.
