Superstar Professional Service Firms: 12 Secrets of
Superstar Professional Service Firms: 12 Secrets of
Superstar Professional Service Firms: 12 Secrets of
Special Report
12 Secrets of
Superstar Professional
Service Firms
How To Take
Your Firm and Yourself to The Top and
Stay There
By Patrick M. McEvoy
12 Key Concepts to Boosting Your Sales And Profits NOW By Turning Your
Business Into a Client Directed Marketing Machine!
By Patrick McEvoy
I know youre busy so let me get right to the point. The single most powerful professional service firm
success tool on the planet is a marketing system. A good marketing system will also make your firm
very successful and the people in it very wealthy and it will do it very quickly.
When I talk about a marketing system I am not referring to those academic exercises found in college
textbooks or the templated, ineffective mumbo jumbo found in business planning software. I will not be
asking you to determine your share of the market today versus your competitors share. Most of you out
there just need to figure out how to get ten, twenty or one hundred more quality clients.
A marketing system by my way of thinking consists of two things:
A one page document that specifically answers who you are, what you do, who needs it, how you
plan to grab your prospects by the throat (i.e. your unique advantage), when you plan to do it and
how you plan to pay for itin a way that everyone in your organization, network and client base
can easily and clearly understand. It is not an 83 page marketing plan that no one reads,
understands, follows or even prepares.
A one page wall chart with months and weeks of the year across the top and marketing activities
down the left hand column. In each week, you have a marketing activity planned with a date for
execution and that you execute that plan without faileach and every single week of the year.
This is no-brainer managementthe best kind there is!
Now that was a mouthful so let me backup a moment. Marketing is not rocket science. Marketing is
simply developing a unique and simple message, communicating that unique message to the people who
are qualified to buy your service, and repeating that process continuously over and over again without
fail until you get rich.
The simple truth is thismost business owners and business advisors do not know how to design a real
world working and cost effective marketing system. As a result, most marketing efforts are a series of
one-shot, hit or miss adventures more akin to the game of craps than science. What follows is a
series of failure proof marketing concepts that will skyrocket your business profits if you
use and apply them consistently.
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To succeed in business, you need to attract clients. Not just first-timers, but those who continue to buy
from you on a regular basis.
Its clients that put you in business in the first place and allow you keep your enterprise operating.
Just the same, a lack of clients will force you out of business in very short order.
You can never actually claim to be in business until you first have clients. Sure, you can register a
company or a practice, lease space, buy equipment, develop or acquire a product to sell, and hang out
your shingle. But until that first sale all you have are expenses.
Few businesses fail when they have a steady stream of clients willing to spend money in exchange for
their services. Companies that establish workable systems to consistently attract clients are those most
likely to succeed in the long term.
Clients are the greatest asset of any business. Its the client list that adds significantly to the
value of a business, especially a service business.
Clients mean revenues and profits. Theyre the very lifeblood of every business large and small.
Therefore your focus as a business owner should be the continuous building and nurturing of your
own client list. This is what sustains your enterprise, gives you an income and enables you to
consistently expand and earn even greater sales and profits.
Acquiring new clients and then keeping them for life is what its all about.
Ideally, it should be a matter of delivering superior products and services, then
renewing the sales relationship with each new client, so they buy over and over
again and are happy to do so. With this kind of client satisfaction, youll not
only turn one-time buyers into lifetime fans, youll also automatically gain many
more new first-time clients by word-of- mouth referrals.
Business success begins with the first-time client. Unless you already have a large list of clients your
primary focus (at least 50% of your time) should be in the area of attracting more and more first-timer
clients, on an ongoing basis.
So where do you begin when attracting more clients is your goal?
In a wordmarketing.
Effective marketing is the what that brings you in new clients. A dependable, consistent marketing plan
and implementation system delivers clients efficiently, on a regular basis, and for a much lower
investment than the hit-and-miss methods many business owner.
No business can achieve optimum success without solid and consistent marketing. Without an
effective marketing program in action, your growth and your success in any business is
unnecessarily crippled.
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Clients mean everything to your business. The degree of success you enjoy in business is directly
related to your ability to continually attract new clients and to keep existing clients buying from you,
again and again.
In a perfect world, you might be able to just sit back and serve only existing clients. But to do so
inhibits growth because every business has only a finite number of clients it can reasonably expect to
serve. Whether you have 10 or 1,000 clients, in order to cultivate the maximum value from your
greatest asset, you need to market to these same clients again and again.
The best strategy is to continue efforts to attract first-time buyersand to constantly stimulate
sales from those who have purchased before.
Marketing is not just about finding new clients, but keeping those youve already won over and
encouraging them to buy from you repeatedly, for years. Thats where the real profits can be
harvested.
According to world-famous marketer Jay Abraham, there are only 3 ways to grow any business:
1. Increase the number of clients
2. Increase the unit value of each purchase transaction
3. Increase the number of purchases each client makes
The easiest and least-costly sale youll ever make is to an existing client. These folks have already
trusted you to deliver a product or service. You dont have to sell them again on the merits of doing
business with you, instead of your competitor down the street.
Existing clients are high-probability prospects for your next related product or service. Trust
has already been established. When clients are satisfied with their purchases, theyre more
likely to buy again and with much less scrutiny than the first time around.
To capitalize on the true value of your client list, you need to be aware of product and service life
cycles, individual buying frequency patterns and the value of typical purchases.
To fully illustrate the value of your client/customer list, lets look at an example:
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Once you have clients, its always in your best interest to continually serve clients
communicate with clients make offers to clientsand generally delight those clients who
have already bought from you.
Keep in mind that satisfied clients usually welcome frequent contact (as often as 13 times per year)
from businesses that have delivered superior overall satisfaction in the recent past. Often, your
frequent communications simply renew good feelings something everyone likes to experience.
Following are a few ideas for maintaining contact with your clients:
Put in place a system of regular contact where you can mention additional products
and services that might be of interest to your clients (read: automation)
Keep clients and prospects informed and up-to-date with any changes in your business
Let them know first about new products and services, as well as new
applications for existing products
Keep the lines of communication open so clients can easily have their problems solved
regular contact makes you seem more accessible to clients
Ask them to direct other people to you or if someone they know would like to receive
your free newsletter, sample, catalogue, etc.
Inform clients first about all upcoming events, new product releases etc.
Remind clients before its time to renew or replenish or come back in for a review
Provide helpful tips or pass along related information clients may find useful
The quality of your on-going relationships with clients is the primary underlying value of your
business. Clients are your business and should be treated as good friends.
Do whatever is necessary to stay in your clients thoughts. The ultimate pinnacle is to be top of
mind that is to be the first (and perhaps only) source your client thinks of, whenever she needs
what you provide. This gives you a tremendous competitive edge over others and adds considerably
to the true value of your business.
Your task is to maximize the value of your client list by continually renewing the sales relationship
with those people who have already purchased from you.
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Your business could be number one. You could be the best in townwith the most appealing,
useful, money-saving, health-inducing, miracle product in the world! But if you cant
communicate all those advantages in an enticing way that gets people to respond in droves, your
profits will be minimal and your success unnecessarily restricted.
Its true that most people are simply overloaded with marketing messages of all kinds. With the
explosive growth of the Internet, the problem is only growing in scope each year. It seems as
though were bombarded with commercial messages, almost from the moment we awaken until
we fall asleep.
Mass marketing is not the way to go for an entrepreneurial business. It may be acceptable for a CocaCola or IBM to advertise this way, but no small to medium size enterprise (< $1,000,000,000 in
annual revenues) can survive and thrive by throwing money into massive, widespread advertising
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2. Attention & Interest Command the attention of those prospects so your message
doesnt get overlooked.
3. Self-Interest Appeal to the wants of your target prospects before their needs.
Wants are emotionalneeds are logical and the heart often overrules the head. What are
your prospects interested in? What do they deeply desire? Put yourself in their shoes and
speak to each reader one-on-one as though you were sharing advice with a close personal
friend.
4. Advantages Communicate the unique advantages of your product or service. What
can you convey to your audience that will make them want to do business with you, or
at least take the next step towards buying?
5. Proof Its not enough to simply make a claim. You also need to provide evidence
of the advantages that you present. Proof makes your statements much more believable
and credible.
6. Action Move your prospects to act on your offer immediately by promising an
additional incentive such as a free sample, related report, or premium.
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Use meaningful specifics rather than vague generalities tests indicate that using actual
numbers, amounts, and results achieved, etc. produces better results than a general
statement or rounded-off number.
Include a huge promise (the big fat claim) state what the prospect stands to gain
by taking action NOW.
Make it believable. Perception equals reality as far as prospects are concerned.
Include a special offer to encourage action NOW. Make it limited in some way. Your
mission is to light a fire under the prospect to move them from a state of inertia into
action.
Be very clear in your instructions indicate the response you want prospects to take. A
confused prospect never buys.
The most effective way to launch a new advertising campaign is to start small and test. Test every
element of your ads publications, headlines, offers, benefits, special inducements, points of contact.
Starting with lead-generation advertising can help you determine the strongest possible appeal for
your market. The best lead-generation ads get prospects interested by offering appealing, free
information. The information should relate in some way to your product or service. By requesting the
information, the prospect positions themselves as an ideal target for your offer.
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Sin 2:
Running
Institutional
Ads:the
These
areofthe
biggest
suck and
blacksoholes
of your
marketing
Leverage
is about
multiplying
power
your
advertising
anddrain
marketing
you gain
a far
greater
money.
dontinvestment.
ask the reader
do anything.
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feelenergy
goodand
about
them because
you to
areget
a pompous
yieldThey
for your
Itsto
about
using your
time,
marketing
firepower,
ten or
professional
instead
of
client
centric
trusted
advisor.
You
however
are
not
the
client.
Thats
why
your
twenty times the result in less time and for one quarter the effort.
marketing is a failure. Develop humility and switch to direct response marketing. Direct response
precision marketing can be measured.
Your costs are the same to run any ad, whether it brings you 10 new prospects, 50 new
Sin 3: Not Understanding
Customer
Lifetime
Value:
Until you
know and
understand
prospects, or 550and
newUsing
prospects.
It requires
the same
amount
of creative
effort,
time andwhat
this calculation
is all
are prospects,
running a game
showto(not
a business.)
you 1want
to gamble and
money
to about,
close 1you
in 200
as it does
close
1 in 50, orIfeven
in 10.
lose, go to Las Vegas. If you want to gamble and winthen you must understand this metric, even if you
understand no
number
your
entire business
Butother
acquiring
50 in
new
prospects
instead career.
of just 10 gives you five times the
leverage. Gaining 550 new prospects instead of 10 delivers 55 times the
Sin 4: Not Stressing
Mostinvestment
super successful
result, forUniqueness:
exactly the same
of time,professional
energy, and practices
financial and businesses are built
around a single
USP (Unique
Selling
Proposition.)
It might
biotech
or the accountant for
resources.
Similarly,
closing
1 in 50, rather
thanbe1 the
in 200,
givesexperts
you
drycleaners or something else. It must set you apart from the sea of faceless competition out there. Think
about what makes you unique (or what you can change about you to make you unique) and then make this
the entire driving
your marketing
efforts.
400% engine
upside of
leverage,
and closing
1 in 10 delivers a whopping 2000%
increase!
Sin 5: Not Borrowing Winning Strategies: You are too involved in your own business and industry.
YouUsing
are doing
exactly
the same
things is
in athe
sameofway
as everyone
Go outside
industry and
leverage
to your
advantage
matter
increasing
yourelse.
success
quotientyour
through
lookintelligence.
for things that
can
be
tested
in
your
industry.
Did
you
know
for
instance
that
most
insurance
Employing proven strategies is one method to boost your odds and give you a greater
headlines
and
marketing
approaches
been adapted
and usedtoby
litigation
law firms
all over
probability for success.
Leveragecan
is aand
wayhave
of hedging
your chances
position
yourself
for better
the country
to sell more
legal aservices?
results without
spending
fortune.
Sin 6:
Not Using
Relevancy
Based
Marketing: superior
Education
based
marketing isbefore
a great
Leverage
is really
a strategy
for establishing
field
positioning,
theconcept.
game even
Professionals
have
destroyed
the
idea
by
turning
all
client
communications
into
memory
dumps. Your
begins.
clients are not tax accountants and they dont want to be. They want to know exactly what is relevant to
theirEssentially,
situation, what
the impact
is and what they can do about it. They want all this in plain (and
leverage
is about:
preferably) interesting English. They want what is relevant to them.
Sin 7: Not Using
Risk Reversal:
Always
makefor
it easier
for your
client to say yes rather than no.
Creating
the highest
likelihood
successful
results
Offer a money back guarantee. Clients say no because they are scared of making mistakes. When you
offer a guarantee you have removed the fear of bad decision in the clients mind. Every profession
from medicine
law can and
are offering
guarantees
today. Learn how to structure a guarantee for your
to
Providing
the lowest
possibility
of failure
practice or business and start featuring that as a prominent part of your client communications.
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Here are 7 ways to get more for less in your marketing efforts:
Use smaller, well-designed ads that pack a punch, as opposed to costly, larger ads.
Always test small, first.
Choose better publications or mailing lists, ones that better reflect the target market
youve identified as ideal for your product.
Rework your follow-up material so recipients are literally compelled to buy from you
because not doing so would actually cost them dearly due to all the benefits theyll miss
out on.
Once your system is working, expand your marketing reach and put it on autopilot so
you can free up more of your time for other activities.
Successful marketing really boils down to this:
1.
2. Determine the most viable, cost effective, productive, and expedient way to reach as
many targeted prospects as possible at the least cost
3. Convert as many prospects into clients for life delighted clients who happily tell others
all about your products and services.
Leveraging your marketing efforts helps you find more first-time clients. You can then turn that oneshot sale into a continued relationship that can last for many years and bring you thousands even
millions of dollars.
Using the principle of leveraging allows you to exponentially grow your business by multiplying the
effectiveness of every marketing initiative. Its like profiting from the results of 60 salespeople
instead of 3, and its like having a full-page ad instead of a one- line directory listing. Leverage
allows you to duplicate your efforts and produce many times greater results at a much lower
expense.
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The more closely you can define and pinpoint your target market, the more success youre likely to
enjoy. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people. Youre better off
choosing the markets you want to target and then focus exclusively on serving these segments better
than anyone else.
Specialize dont generalize. Choose niche markets that are both easily identifiable and easily
accessible.
Carefully examine the results youve achieved up to this point. Chances are the 80/20
rule, also known as the Pareto Principle comes into play here. This concept states that 80% of your
business comes from just 20% of your clients. Run the numbers and see if this idea is accurate in
your experience. In most cases, it is.
The next obvious step is to review those 20% of clients who account for 80% of your business. Do
they fit into a particular niche thats identifiable and accessible? Perhaps the top 20% of your clients
live in the same neighborhood, a characteristic not shared by the other 80%. Or, it could be that the
top 20% fit into specific occupational or special- interest groups.
It may be your top 20% consists of a variation of professional occupations like Architects, Dentists
and Chiropractors. In this case, each group could represent a specific niche, and each niche may
require a separate marketing approach one that speaks to them as special members of their peer
group.
In seeking a niche in which to focus your marketing effort, select a target group with an already
established want for what you offer. Success is much faster and more of a sure thing wherever
theres the likelihood of a strong desire for the benefits and advantages your product or service
offers.
Dont try to create a desire for your product, find where that desire and
demand already exist, then offer your superior solution in the most
advantageous and appealing way.
As marketing consultant, Anthony Blake says There are people walking around with money to
spend money thats burning holes in their pockets all you have to do is follow the smoke.
Youll achieve greater success by concentrating on specific market niches that are currently underserved or not served at all. In these markets, your products and services are wanted, appreciated
and placed in high esteem. Youre often seen as a savior of sorts, for providing much-wanted,
helpful solutions.
Look at what others are doing and do something different. Avoid the niches that most companies in
your field cater to. Go after the markets that others consider too small or too insignificant to
worry about. Just make sure that its a large enough market to make your efforts profitable.
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Share common problems and have similar wants so that you can, in effect,
package solutions that serve many, rather than customizing solutions to individual,
specific requirements.
You know and understand, or those you can gather relevant information about, that
will help you to understand the best marketing appeals to use.
Are easily identifiable as those who are under-served by others in the market.
Show a past history of buying related products or services in the recent past, where the
dollar volume of each purchase is close to or more than the cost of your product.
Using these ideas will help you determine the most lucrative and productive areas in which to
concentrate your marketing operations.
7 You Must Develop a Unique Competitive Advantage
Why should prospects do business with you? How are they substantially better off in doing business
with you vs. any other competitor? The answer to these questions should be carefully and consistently
communicated to your market at every opportunity.
Your most unique and relevant advantage is your strongest ally in attracting first-time buyers. This is
what gives you an original perspective and a strong competitive edge in the marketplace. Your
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or Unique Value Proposition (UVP) as it is also known, is what
sets you apart from everyone else even if they happen to be marketing the exact same products to
the exact same people.
A Unique Value Proposition gives your business a distinction in any competitive marketplace. Your
unique advantage helps to position you favorably, in the eyes of your market.
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18
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Information sheets
Free consultations
Its important to offer extras that clients want and place a high value upon. It doesnt do much good
to offer something that isnt desired by your prospects, or to offer something that is readily available
elsewhere. But it doesnt have to cost a lot to create an offer thats highly desired. Often these valueadded premiums can be acquired at an extremely low cost, but the perceived value they add to the
purchase can be worth a hundred times the cost or more.
10 Reverse The Risk and Remove The Final Barrier
Theres always an element of fear people have in doing business with a company or individual they
dont really know. The degree of fear usually increases with the amount of money involved in the
potential transaction.
Most of us have had an unfortunate experience or two in the past with products or services that
didnt quite measure up to our expectations. Weve been ripped-off by unscrupulous scam
operators, or businesses of dubious character. Those painful memories have taught us all to be
more cautious of unknown vendors and to make sure we have adequate recourse, should we be
unhappy with our purchases.
Your prospects are in this mode right now. They fear being taken in some way. Unfortunately, this
fear often paralyzes them from making a buying decision. If the fear is too intense, they run for cover
to avoid the potential pain of loss, like the ones from previous encounters that are forever etched into
their memory banks.
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Sales Letters
Brochures
Ezine Ads
Postcards
Card Decks
Lift Letters
Coupons
Press Releases
Websites
Invitations
Greeting Cards
Testimonial Letters
Complete Direct Mail Packages
Youll want to have systems in place for both your prospect list and your client list. Often, established
customer buy again and again, automatically, without the need to be
sold each time. The best way to keep clients active is to maintain a system of consistent
communication.
Your client list marketing system may include some of the following elements:
12 Execution Is Everything
Finally and most importantly you must actually implement your marketing strategies and tactics.
Read that again. Keep reading it until it becomes the mantra for all activities (not just marketing) in
your business.
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"Patrick McEvoy Has Helped Over 11,000 Businesses Grow and Prosper Over The Last 24
Years Using Innovative Marketing Strategies"
There are two types of people who teach marketing...those that read from books and simply
regurgitate information...and those that have lived in the trenches, gotten their hands and feet dirty,
and produced results. Patrick McEvoy has produced results from "both sides" of the desk...as a
consultant and as a business owner.
As the President of his own advisory firm, Rainmaker Best Practices, he has worked with scores
of small and medium sized professional service firms to help improve their profits.
"Patrick Has Been Both a Successful Consultant and Practitioner Working with Small and
Large Businesses"
As an experienced business consultant with Ernst & Young and KPMG Consulting...two of the
largest consulting firms in the world, Patrick worked with numerous Fortune 500 as well as midmarket and small businesses companies to improve business processes, select and implement cuttingedge technologies, and develop strategies and initiatives with successful results.
Patrick also served as a Partner with Orion Capital Partners... an investment banking firm that
specializes in helping finance and manage high potential early stage start-up companies. He
advised early stage management and company founders in such areas as executive development and
marketing.
He also successfully built his own manufacturing company at the age of 30 from zero employees
and zero revenues to 115 employees and $14 million in revenues in only 18 months starting with only
$50,000 of borrowed capital.
Today, Rainmaker Best Practices is a fast growing marketing consultancy helping business and
professional practices take the pain out of their marketing efforts.
Find Out How To Grow Your Business By Contacting:
Patrick McEvoy at:
Telephone: 519-752-2669
eMail: [email protected]
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