MY TWIN BROTHER AND I ARE DIFFERENT

The Myths of Differentiation of Professional Firms

            If there is one pervasive problem in professional services marketing – a problem that’s defied a comfortable solution for decades – it’s the problem of differentiation.

            “How do I differentiate my firm from others like mine, particularly when we’re in a competitive situation? How do I do it in my marketing, my firm literature, and in presentations?”

            You know you’re a better lawyer or accountant than the others. You know you’ve got more experience than your competitors do, and that you can do a better job. You know you’re more imaginative, or skillful. You even know that your firm’s culture is more conducive to providing better client service than are others. But how can you project that to the market or to a prospective client?

How do you write a brochure for your firm that says, “We’re better”, without using language that makes your brochure interchangeable with everybody else’s? How do you avoid producing a brochure that really says, “One size fits all – just change the name on the cover?”

The truth is, you probably can’t specifically articulate what you think you know to be better about you or your firm, because without tangible evidence, there’s no way to be credible. You can’t say, “We do better briefs and write better contracts,” or “We do better audits,” or “We’re better litigators.” You can’t say these things because they’re outrageous and self-serving statements. Because you can’t prove it, in most cases. Because the Canons of Ethics won’t let you. And for most clients, because the real difference between one professional and another is not what you think it is – it’s what the client thinks it is.

            Two different manufacturers of cars or computers or toothpaste have advantages in differentiating their products and promoting the distinct differences between their products and those of competitors. Price, style, accessories, performance, taste and ingredients -- all these are marketable features not available to professionals, nor to professional services marketing.

The best a professional firm can do is project the expertise and experience of its people, and their ability to solve the specific problems of the prospective clientele. If that’s done well, and imaginatively, then differentiation takes care of itself. You don’t have to say, “I can lick any man in the house” to prove that you’re strong and capable.

            The focus, then, should not be on concerns for differentiation, but rather on demonstrating your own capabilities – imaginatively, effectively, thoughtfully. If you can do this, differentiation doesn’t matter. Your capabilities do.

            If differentiation, then, is impossible to truly accomplish, or to specifically define, there are still many ways to project your firm’s distinctive qualities. One way is through positioning. Another way is to demonstrate – demonstrate, not tell -- that you can be more useful to the client, particularly in the practice areas in which you specialize – that you have experience that’s relevant and useful to the clients’ needs. The third way is to focus on the individual skills of your partners and associates and to project them in all your outreach and promotional activities. How?

• Positioning is an important concept in marketing. Positioning is a term that’s often misused term and misunderstood. Valid positioning begins with a perception of what the firm’s marketplace sees as a major problem, need or opportunity, and then crafting messages that demonstrate your firm’s ability to respond to that need – to bring to bear the expertise and experience appropriate to serving that market. It focuses on the specific values your firm has that meet the needs of the client. It is not, as is often suggested, a projection of how the firm arbitrarily decides it wants to be seen – it must be defined by the clientele and the needs of the market. A well developed position brings you into closer harmony with your market. It better defines and projects your ability to serve your clients’ needs.

This is not to say that in a marketing program you must fathom every problem faced by every individual client. You can, however, address the problems generated by new regulation and law, new technology, new situations created in the industries in which you serve. You can project your industry expertise as well as any other of your strengths in addressing specific problems, or in dealing with specific industries. There is no shortage of problems. Look, for example, at the difficulties and opportunities for both accountants and lawyers generated by Sarbanes-Oxley.

A position is not an image. The concept of image is dangerous, because it implies that if you don’t like the way you’re perceived, you can change that perception by manipulating symbols. Nonsense. You are almost invariable perceived accurately. If you don’t like that perception, change what you are. The acoustics of the marketplace are magnificent. The market will always perceive you accurately.

• Recognize that the real difference between you and your competitors depends more upon the individuals in your firm than on the firm itself. It’s the individuals who do the work and who have the skills and experience to address and solve the client’s needs. It’s the individuals who make the firm more valuable to clients, not the firm. It’s the individuals who ultimately define the firm more than the firm’s culture defines the value of its individuals to clients.

• At the same time, the firm brings a context that helps define the environment in which the individual professional functions. The kind of firm you have helps define the way individuals practice – and certainly how they serve and relate to clients. Take the time, then, to recognize the distinction between what the firm brings to client service and how individuals serve the practice.

• Use that difference in strategic marketing and marketing planning. A good example is in the difference between the advertising of one major accounting firm whose advertising theme is “Accounting is our passion,” which is more self serving than helpful in distinguishing itself from competitors and in understanding what distinctive values the firm offers its clients, and the Jefferson-Wells advertising campaign that pictures an individual focuses on that person’s expertise and experience. (If accounting is your passion, enjoy yourself. But what can you do for me?)

One Jefferson-Wells ad shows a picture of an attractive and bright looking women, with the headline, “Pragmatism shows”. The copy spells it out. “Let’s cut to the chase. She’s tackled multiple Sarbanes-Oxley engagements in the past two years. Fifteen years of audit experience before that. There’s no learning curve. She knows the processes, the rules, the regulations, and the most efficient way to get it done. So does everyone on her team. Pragmatism comes with experience – and it shows.” A masterpiece of copy writing. If positioning may be surmised from the ads, it’s that Jefferson-Wells brings experience and expertise to serve the client, a simple but effective message. Does it differentiate? That’s not the point. It focuses on the firm’s ability and does it better than most.

• Remember that even the most sophisticated client has trouble assessing the skills of one law or accounting firm compared to those of another. The broad reputation and name recognition of a firm helps – but not as much as the profile and experience of the individuals in the firm that the client perceives to be best able to solve the client’s problems.

• Don’t get caught up in the myth of branding, an often misused and misunderstood concept which, in professional services, is often used to represent name recognition and reputation. Branding works in products because of the reliability and the consistency of quality of a product, and the perception of probity and skills and integrity behind the product. This is almost impossible to do in a professional firm. There have been exceptions in the professions, such as the famous and now defunct Arthur Andersen. A lesson in the fragility of branding.

• Don’t be persuaded that a logo or any other graphic design can differentiate your firm’s services from those of your competitors. It can enhance name recognition and memorability, and while that’s not insignificant, it says nothing about your ability to deliver services and serve your clients’ needs. In product marketing -- in any marketing – the best graphics and the best advertising can often represent the worst products and services.

• Client surveys and other studies indicate that, given an acceptance of substance and capability, clients choose a firm on its ability to demonstrate its grasp of the client’s needs and problems, and the capability to serve those needs, or its reputation for success in similar projects and matters, or the personality match between the client and the service team, and sometimes -- unfortunately – in price.

• Ultimately, the sale is made not by reputation, nor by virtually any other aspect of marketing. Marketing’s role is to pre-sell, and ultimately, to get an audience with a prospect. It’s in a face-to-face context that the selling is done and the sale is made.

There are two ways, then, to make this approach to marketing professional services work for you. One is to do it before your competitors do. The second is to do it better. And if your competitor knows how to do all this, then it’s even better yet, because the selling battle isn’t between sales people being slick – it’s between two professionals, one of whom is going to succeed in demonstrating superior skills and capability.

The differentiation, then, is not in saying you’re better, but in showing that you’re better.

            Are there other ways? Probably. Certainly, reputation helps, particularly if it’s based on reality. And reputation should be fostered, preferably a reputation for solving client problems. Having a highly visible and successful track record helps, but only if it can be shown to be relevant to a client’s needs. In many respects, yours are, no doubt, distinctive. Unfortunately its difficult to make those differences credible to a prospective clientele. It doesn’t matter. Clients just want to know that you’re capable of serving their needs.

            The motto, then, is “Don’t speak of love – show me.” It works.

In the final analysis, perhaps the enthusiasm for differentiation is overkill, as more and more firms find that differentiation is not as important as simply projecting that your firm and its individuals are strong where the clients need strength. That says more to distinguish yourself than all the differentiation schemes in the marketing arsenal.

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