Go out and shout about the great services you’re selling

For a long time marketing has been mostly associated more with tangible goods than professional services. As such, professional service providers such as consultants, accountants, lawyers and doctors were reluctant to advertise, sometimes restricted by codes of conduct, other times by feeling such act would reduce them to mere merchandisers and lower dignity.

Their firms relied on networks of friends, word-of-mouth and referrals from associates. For example a specialist doctor would get most of clients through referrals from general physician and quantity surveyors get clients referred by an architect or a contractor.

The days of growing client base through this system is fading fast and most service providers are facing the reality that to grow they have to move out and meet customers. Although referral is a great way of getting clients, it must be supplemented by other emerging marketing ways to keep competition at bay.

The key reason referral in services industry worked well in the past and not now is the changing dynamics in terms of customer preferences and knowledge.

For example, in the past a patient would only visit a heart specialist on the recommendation of a general doctor, making more sense for a heart specialist to market to general physicians who have the potential to refer patients to them. To this end, marketing in golf clubs, professional meetings and other social gatherings was enough.

But today a customer will dig more from existing avenues of information before taking the advice of a referee. Some even know what they need before seeking expert opinion.

I get amused at how my wife has mastered so many basics about children illness to the extent of engaging a doctor in deciding the right prescription for our children.

With such customers, professionals need to find innovative ways of reaching their prospective customers. They must rethink familiar marketing practices and focus their marketing strategies on the issues that really matter to clients.

That good products or services sell themselves is a myth that has no place in the modern world. Delivering outstanding services is the foundation of a successful marketing strategy but not marketing in itself. It will sustain clients but will hardly bring the right number.

In the current business environment, it is not possible for the good news of your excellent services to freely flow through your client’s networks and beyond to others without sustained effort on your part.

Another marketing tool used by most service providers today is a website. Indeed a website is a powerful tool because after getting referral, most people visit websites before the provider’s premises.

Therefore, it is important to ensure that the website is up to date and reinforces what your referees and others who have tasted your services say by creating a positive first impression. This can make a whole difference between a prospect making a call or thinking otherwise even after getting a good recommendation.

Avoid the common mistake of developing a website or marketing strategy that is similar to your competitors. This may cloud your uniqueness and create a client perception that your services are like others, even when it is not.

Mr Kiunga is the author of ‘Entrepreneurial Journey: From Employment to Business’. Email: [email protected]