The last 6-12 months have been full of indicators of a slowdown and large-scale change across the consulting and professional services landscape. Among these are Deloitte launching its “biggest reorganization in a decade”, PwC naming its new US Senior Partner and increased attention on the ‘up or out’ model as a means to manage headcount. As a result, we’ve seen the desire to find new work among all firms higher than ever.
Insights
One of the evergreen questions our clients ask is: “what are the key factors that drive executive buying of high-end professional services?” The answer to this question is critical because it determines how to market, sell to and connect with these potential buyers and has become all the more important in the face of market head-winds. So here’s the good and the bad:
Active cost-cutting is all around as the global economy faces serious headwinds in the form of stubborn inflation and geo-political uncertainty. At the same time, we are hearing from our clients about tremendous pressure to grow. Squaring the circle of these competing demands isn’t as hard as many will make it and those that succeed will do things faster, better and simpler than the rest.
Not surprisingly, we are now hearing of slowing deal pace, longer decision cycles, and in some cases freezes on new contracts. So, we a ask the question again: Do you have the relationships with clients and potential clients that you’d like and that will serve you and them in the months ahead?
As is often the case in the lead-up to spring, the world begins to come back to life. We see similar signs of life as our clients begin to consider and plan for in-person gatherings. For the many who are suffering from ‘Zoom-fatigue’, the notion of meals and experiences with colleagues is more than welcome.
With the arrival of fall we are seeing the lingering and even the return of pandemic restrictions across many geographies. Given this, we take stock of the lessons from the last year to inform what have now become sound client engagement practices no matter what the coming months may bring. Here is our short list of three immediate to-do’s for marketing and sales leaders in professional services, B2B, and beyond.
The year 2021 is likely to see many remaining off of planes and still working from home. While the vaccine offers tremendous hope and promise, its deployment across the West will likely not see a return to normal before summer even in the most optimistic scenarios.
One of the more common questions we are asked is how do I stack up to my competitors? We do a tremendous amount of work helping our clients answer this question and preparing them to win in competitive situations.
Event marketing has always had elusive returns. So, we at H2A propose you drop “events” from your playbook and never look back.
To put a finer point on it, your event lift is likely killing you, taking a toll on your team, and its impact is likely negligible.
At H2A, we are not big on New Year resolutions. We are more of the “try new things all the time to improve performance” types. That said, we know many business leaders are making their lists for things to do in 2019. In that spirit, and regardless if you wear a B2B or B2C hat, here is a list we hope you find worth exploring if not a bit inspiring (spoiler alert: it has a bias toward doing less but doing it better).