If you’re vision is blurred, it’s time to get focused

It’s little wonder that many who fall in to the traditional definition of ‘professional services’ feel somewhat stymied when it comes to expressing their vision, let alone sufficiently focused to deliver their message when marketing their services.

Areas of expertise have come under increasing attack from the ‘new professions’ encroaching on territory previously called their own, as well as from their peers and a more uncompromising consumer.

And in a sector that’s not overly used to brand building, it’s enough to make many regress in to the shell of the brand that they could be.

However, none of these battles should be feared.

The definition of being of a ‘profession’ I would argue, is better based on a state of mind and a mode of operation that distinguishes the high calibre business, rather than on a specific market sector.

Though this does open up the territory to all who think they are similarly professionally minded and can act accordingly, the good news is that this can only improve the reputation of all who attach themselves to the category and whose brand can stand the test of time.

You might be an accountant, lawyer, surveyor, insurance broker, architect or an IFA. But whichever your trade and whatever your modus operandi, it cannot be an act. The way you are must be sustained by the service matching the brand promise, a belief in your offering, the customers’ expectations being fulfilled, if not surpassed and their recruitment as brand champions, repeating the experience and extolling the virtues of your brand to their peers along the way.

A doctor that solely clinically fulfils the functionary role is unlikely to be as spoken of favourably by patients and peers if he has a lousy bedside manner. He will quickly lose his ‘professional’ reputation, at least by those who care to check him out properly or seek an endorsement of his services. He would soon be struck off my personal ‘professional register’.

You need to make sure your brand has a good bedside manner!

With better brand marketing, your values can be leveraged to astutely position your brand as a sector leader, owning your distinct portion of the market through a better articulated offering.

Professional services are no longer the strict domain of lawyers and accountants. There is a blurring of the boundaries between the services offered and others are making inroads on the long-held, carefully schooled and previously jealously guarded disciplines.

Take Inheritance Tax Planning. Where do the individual roles for Accountant, Solicitor and IFA start and finish? And in our own world, there is patently duplication in some areas from ad agencies, management consultancies and brand consultancies.

Without clear demarcation, it is your brand character and the communication of how those services are practiced that will engage customers, old and new, in your brand, which will win business and engender that sought after loyalty.

Yet, few ‘professional’ firms are positioned appropriately to take advantage of their unique brand character and realise their vision. They could be communicating more appealing values, a more inviting personality, and a more credible consistent message as reasons why business should find their home with them.

These are all important differentiators in the battle to gain and retain clients.

Undoubtedly, the communication, implicitly or explicitly, of a Brand Personality is increasingly the key delineation for Professional Services.

It should be a reflection of the manner in which you do business, with a combination of values that are unique to you and of course, which can be substantiated.

Even more so if you have an off-the-shelf offering within your portfolio. Rarely will such a service escape the need to have a personality underpinning its offering to secure business. How else would one differentiate the ‘me too’ offering from some professions, such as payroll services from some accountants? Your brand personality should not and cannot be excluded from communicating your offering, however supplementary it is to your core services.

With professional services brands often comprising complex product areas, offering bespoke services, the construct of your brand and its personality should be as bespoke as the principles of your firm are individuals.

Yet some professions are on the retreat and taking a different tack, many unnecessarily so.

Accountants are a case in point. Quite a number are appearing somewhat ashamed of calling themselves by that name. In an attempt to differentiate themselves from other firms, it seems that they’ll try their damndest to deviate from this, by adopting monikers ranging from ‘management consultants’ to ‘business advisers’ and many variants in between. In fact, they’ll use more nom de plumes than you might care to count to, rather than be called by the title the consumer understands them to be, under which they have practiced for many years and through such credentials they will have gained many clients and retained them.

I believe these firms are in danger of losing some of those brand loyal clients if they jettison such heritage, throwing out the baby with the bath water by seeking a new personality, in their goal to secure new clients.

And it needn’t be so.

Smarter brand development and canny planning will deliver greater clarity for your brand, add greater value to your business, create a greater gap between you and your competitors and establish a cohesive platform for all your communications.

In short, you’ll deliver a true reflection of your brand personality, with what you wish to be heard communicated in the manner it should be heard; so distinguishing you from the herd and achieving a greater connection with your audiences.

And in my experience it is clear; a more connected customer is a more loyal customer.

In summary, if all is deemed a good brand fit, then your marketing communications, be they in print or on-line, or expressed in a meeting across a boardroom table, will be viewed similarly: appearing seamless, underpinned by a robust brand and have a singularly focused message, right across the media spectrum.

In fact, quite professional really!