Standing out in a rapidly changing market is now really hard

Harmonic Minute

There’s been a huge shift in professional services over the last 6-12 months, with the rise of smaller firms and others expanding their areas of expertise.

Examples include law firms offering consulting, insolvency firms offering performance improvement and industry specialists offering strategic advisory. Even mining companies are venturing into advisory or digital services.

Some very established organisations and industries have taken the leap.

While the services tend to be aligned with core offerings, the challenge is educating the market on the value proposition and fit, then winning the work.

This is where it gets hard.

For established businesses such as law firms, the customer base knows you for one thing and now you’re offering something totally different…

And you’re not even remotely top of mind.

This requires next level BD, cross-selling and cross-promotion.

Not easy with a whole bunch of subject matter experts learning a new culture, client mix, operating model and, most importantly, peer relationships.

The exodus of PwC veterans into this space is food for thought.

So what can you do?

If I was a leader growing one of these businesses or a new partner here’s where I’d start:

1. Build your home base – internal relationships are essential to success
2. Get a client relationship development plan – things have changed. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
3. Initiate a BD or growth pilot to foster collaboration – internal education is just as important as market education
4. Get the messaging right – being a one stop shop is not the answer, you have to be a strategic fit
5. Build trust and be visible – AI is massively hindering online efforts to stand out (link below). The best way to combat this is by talking to people

Don’t miss another minute to get cracking – February and March are networking season and people are back in action.

Nina

PS. If you want us to help you apply these types of frameworks to your business we’re here to help. Just hit reply to this message or contact me here.

AI and Content Flooding are killing LinkedIn – this post has gone viral!