The professional services marketing and business development landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade, and continues to do so.
he rise of specialist roles and growing professionalism not only makes it a business-critical function in firms, but stands marketing, BD and comms teams apart from many businesses of similar size.
That change is reflected too in the consultancy landscape. The generalist marketing consultant remains, but increasingly firms need and look for the consultant that brings deep and specialist knowledge and skills.
Today, the consultancy market falls into two very broad camps: those that are, crudely, an extra pair of hands that help firms get stuff done, and those that elevate a firm’s marketing, BD and comms further and faster. Both are valued.
How consultants are engaged, how they charge, and how they are expected to report is increasingly sophisticated – and rightly so.
It does mean, however, that the marketing, BD or comms director, perhaps approaching the latter stages of a successful career and wanting to share the wisdom as an (almost always) ‘strategy consultant’, struggles to find purchase.
Put bluntly, consultants will always find themselves under intense scrutiny to deliver from those that hold the purse. The ability to deliver, and to demonstrate impact and value is a must.
I should declare an interest. For the past 20 years I have led Coast, a media relations consultancy.
We work with firms of all sizes and often alongside other consultants.
As editor of PM, I get to speak to some terrific consultants. We have observed and felt these changes first-hand.
In this issue of PM, we put the consultants under the spotlight. We speak to the buyers of consultancy services, senior marketers who have recently made the switch, and the established consultant. It is a fascinating read wherever you sit.
We explore too the new obsession of marketers – data. As marketers spend more time defending their existence by demonstrating ROI, Barney O’Kelly argues that they will once again find themselves on the back foot unable to ask the business those bold questions of direction and distinctiveness. Data, he says, should be there to notice ‘genuine gains and guide the organisation, not to police every line of spend’. A different approach is needed.
As external investment continues to reshape the professional services landscape it is always interesting to hear from firms that have chosen to take a very different approach. The Kent law firm Whitehead Monckton is one of them, transferring ownership of the firm into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). It is just one of 40 law firms structured in this way. The firm’s managing director, Christopher Longdon, tells PM why they did it and how it changes the way the firm goes
to market.
Every March, the PM Forum and Meridian West publish its Strategy and Marketing Benchmark. Alastair Beddow looks behind the data and finds that despite continued economic volatility, marketing and BD leaders are enormously optimistic for their firms. You can read the full article on pages 22 and 23.
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to contribute to this issue of PM.
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