The data delusion

To be clear, I don’t hate data. The right numbers, interpreted in the right way, can be very powerful. However, many firms don’t have the right data, and many marketers are looking for answers in a morass of meaningless numbers.

The result is a marketing culture that appears busy and accountable but is losing sight of what matters in professional services: trust, reputation and human connection.

Data, data everywhere…
The past decade has been kind to data. Too kind.

Dreary dashboards dominate. Marketing reports are unwieldy, and largely unread. ‘What’s the ROI?’ is now the first question rather than the last. It’s no surprise that marketers have learned to reach for numbers. They’re on the back foot. Scrutinised by colleagues who don’t ‘get’ marketing and have long dismissed it as ‘fluffy’ or ‘colouring in’. Data has been able to flourish in an environment of disrespect.
The irony is that despite all this data, the standing of marketing in many organisations remains low. Marketing leaders are increasingly forced into short-term, tactical initiatives, challenged on budgets, restricted on headcount.

On the back foot
Marketing has always been in a precarious position. It’s an odd function; a weird mix of service function, strategic partner and corporate conscience.

In many professional services firms, that tension is sharpened by a simple truth: partners and practitioners often believe that business is won through their own expertise, relationships and reputation, leading many to ask, ‘why do we even need Marketing?’

Professional services buying cycles are long, multi-staged and high‑trust. Clients are buying judgement, risk-sharing and political security. The traditional strengths of marketing in these firms have been storytelling, relationship‑building and cementing reputation. These are slow-burning activities.

At some point, something changed, likely driven by short-termism and impatience. Conversations about positioning were nudged aside by arguments about attribution models. Surveys supplanted genuine insight based on experience.

Marketers began spending more time defending the existence of their work, rehearsing answers to the perpetual ROI question from ‘the business’.

Again, the function found itself on the back foot, instead of challenging the business and asking bolder questions about direction and distinctiveness.

The data delusion
The dominance of data starts with the belief that every pound spent must be justified by a clear line back to revenue. It sounds reasonable. And it is. Yet, in environments where the route from first contact to signed engagement can span years, this can be misapplied or over-implemented.
Things that can be calculated quickly outweigh the things that compound slowly.

More abstract ideas, such as trust, whether your people can articulate your value, and whether clients feel understood when it counts, get lost.

The problem is not that measurable tactics are wrong. They are necessary. The problem is the weight placed on them, especially in professional services. In this world, buying decisions are made by committees, influenced by unseen conversations, shaped by long-term, consistent and comprehensive exposure to a firm and, in many cases, come down to a simple question: ‘Do they like you?’

Trying to force linear attribution on such a messy ecosystem is naive. The pressure to ‘prove every pound’ bends both groups into pretending the world is simpler than it is and we ignore human behaviour, emotional connection and genuine relationships.

The complication of the ecosystem
One of the quiet frustrations for professional services marketers is that the ecosystem they work in does not easily show cause and effect. Revenue is the outcome of many touchpoints, across many months, involving people with differing levels of influence and visibility.

A typical situation could be that someone hears a partner speak on a panel. Maybe they download a report. A few months later they might attend a small round table. In the meantime, they’re consistently receiving an email newsletter and seeing posts on LinkedIn. Then, when an issue flares up internally, the firm is suddenly asked to pitch. Where exactly should credit sit? Which channel ‘worked’? Any attempt to draw a single line of attribution is typically impossible.

Rebalancing marketing
This is not an argument to reject data. It’s about finding the right data. The most effective firms are not those that measure the most; they are those that select a small, relevant set of signals and use them to ask better questions.

That begins with a rebalancing. Marketing must enable, manifest and drive organisational culture and connection. This brings strategic clarity and surfaces what clients value. It highlights inconsistencies, ensures emotional resonance, and helps leaders join the dots between strategy, stories and behaviour.

This way, data becomes but one voice in the room. Numbers highlight patterns and challenge assumptions. However, it sits alongside, and often subordinate to, other sources of insight, such as client conversations, practitioner feedback, win-loss reviews, and the accumulated institutional knowledge of individuals who have experienced multiple cycles of the market.

Marketers must master data and not be mastered by it
If data is not there to justify every penny, what is it for?

It increases understanding, showing clearer patterns in who you help, how and why. Over time, data can show patterns in client behaviour, help the business understand the themes that resonate in the market, the formats and channels that work (and those that don’t) and where there is a mismatch between what you think you are known for and what the market comes to you for.
It helps with focus, driving a more thoughtful allocation of energy and budget. It can nudge teams to double down on the activities that drive the right kind of conversations, not just the highest level of noise.

It improves alignment, creating a shared view of reality inside the firm. When leadership, partners and marketing teams are looking at the same small set of signals, it becomes easier to have adult conversations about trade‑offs. Data becomes a tool for coordination.

This approach to data often blends quantitative signals with qualitative insight: client interviews, practitioner commentary, anecdotal feedback.
It brings clarity.

Three things to think about
If we accept the points I’ve put forward, what can we do to address it?

Firstly, start with value. Spend time understanding and articulating what clients want: reduced risk, political cover, clarity in complexity, the confidence to move. Use that as the starting point for your marketing, strategy, planning and your budgeting.

Secondly, design a comprehensive suite of activities and channels, rather than a string of isolated campaigns.

In a long‑cycle world, the impact comes from how brand, relationships, content, communities and internal enablement weave together over time. If we accept that many things lead to commercial success, why are our approaches so narrow? Campaigns should last months, not days.

Third, choose a small, honest measurement set. Agree upfront on a handful of indicators that speak to direction over sheer volume. Review them regularly, alongside qualitative insight, and be open about what you can and cannot know. Change them when needed. If KPIs don’t work, try OKRs (objectives and key results). Measurement is more than just data.

Beyond this, marketers must protect the space for craft, culture and courage. Make room for initiatives and experiments. Be prepared, sometimes, to say to the business: ‘We cannot prove this perfectly, but we can explain why it matters and we want to be judged over the long term.’ Be bold enough to also say ‘We don’t know if this will work; let’s find out.’

In professional services, the impact of marketing is something people have to feel. Coherent stories, confidence in the practitioners telling them, in the quality of the conversations. The feeling that comes from engaging with a firm and its people.
Marketing should be a steward of culture and a connector of people, using data to notice genuine gains and guide the organisation, not to police every line of spend.

When marketing stops chasing proof and starts embodying purpose, it not only becomes more effective; it becomes something the whole firm can believe in again.

Barney O’Kelly is Head of Solutions and Product Marketing at AlixPartners.

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