| You can feel the energy in the air as the participants listen intently to the session leader. Upon conclusion, the participants leave the room enthusiastic about the prospects developed during the day' s session. And then reality comes into play. A few weeks go by and the enthusiasm wanes; there is little follow-up and what was intended as a successful new business programme slips into a mysterious black hole. No enthusiasm, no follow-up; no new business.
There is hope. Building enthusiasm is important; sustaining that enthusiasm and managing the effort are crucial to marketing success. lndustry-specific marketing - fee earners form one or more practice specialities jointly focusing on a specific industry - can be a very productive method for identifying new business opportunities.
This approach can be easily administered through the use of a spreadsheet - Lotus Notes or another information base - which contains key categories of information. The vertical column contains the names of the largest (top 25 or 50) companies within a segment of the specific industry and the top companies or organizations within each industry segment are identified.
Moving from left to right, each page of the spreadsheet contains nine categories of information :
- Client (yes or no);
- If a client, identification of the service firm's principal contact (client partner);
- Sales;
- Number of employees;
- Professional advisers servicing this company.
- Service needs;
- Notes;
- Target activity.
- Results.
That' s it. You do not need additional categories of information to implement and manage an industry-specific programme. |
Prior to the first meeting, the firm's marketing staff enters onto the spreadsheet as much information as possible, such as whether or not the company is a client, number of employees, etc. The more information completed in advance of the initial meeting, the more productive the first meeting will be.
Keeping in mind that the four categories at the far right of the spreadsheet are crucial to the success of this effort (Needs; Notes; Activity, Results), the team meets for the first time to accomplish the following:
- Review each company or organization in each industry segment to identify those companies to target for a marketing effort;
- Identify team members who are to communicate with the firm's primary partner for every targeted company for the purpose of determining the partner's understanding of the service needs of the company. This becomes
- a target activity for those team members, which is entered into the spreadsheet.
The team member informs the spreadsheet administrator of the result of the target activity based on communication the team member had with the primary partner.
The team member should discretely probe the partner's understanding of that client (or of the targeted non-client) by asking questions such as: "What is your understanding of the company's [legal/accounting, etc.] needs both within your practice area and outside of your practice areas". "Can you tell me something about major issues affecting this company's industry?"; "Do you know how any of these issues affect the company's industry?"; "Do you believe there are any opportunities for additional business from this company?"; "If not, why not?". Responses to these and other questions are noted in the Notes column of the spreadsheet. Action to be taken is entered in the Activity column; when the action is complete it is entered in the Results column.
While enthusiasm is important, follow-through produces results. As the team of fee earners completes tasks in the four categories on the spreadsheet, priorities will be set, opportunities will be identified, and new business will be obtained. You now have the format to manage a successful new business effort. |
