In today’s highly competitive professional services world, making your firm stand out is not just increasingly important, but also increasingly difficult. You therefore need to use every tool you can to distinguish your firm and show why businesses and individuals should turn to you rather than a competitor for service.
Traditionally, firms used such factors as specialized expertise, attentiveness, range of capabilities, longevity and service quality to set themselves apart. These factors still matter. But in the information age, they’re no longer enough.
You now must also show that your firm is better than others at providing information that clients and prospects find useful, helpful or instructive. In other words, you must become a thought leader.
WHAT IT TAKES
Two key characteristics of content that positions you as a thought leader are its relevancy and value to your target audience. In addition, to be seen as a thought leader, you must share good content frequently and in a timely manner.
This means posting new information frequently — perhaps weekly — and sending it out consistently, such as on a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly basis. Ideally, you would share something as soon as possible when an important development occurs.
But becoming a thought leader doesn’t mean you have to develop everything you share in-house. Emailing links to content on your website, sending out newsletters or articles written by a third party, or posting an online tax guide can enable you to cost-effectively obtain the content required to become a thought leader.
WHY DO IT
Besides helping to set your firm apart from others and create goodwill, practicing thought leadership has other benefits, too. Perhaps the most significant is the positive effect it can have on your client relationships.
At a minimum, sharing targeted content with clients gives you another opportunity to communicate with them — it’s a way to stay in touch. But it’s also a way to educate them about other ways you can be of service and to encourage them to contact you for more information or assistance. That can lead to “cross-serve” opportunities that deepen your client relationships and result in new business.
For example, sharing an article on succession planning with construction business owners can lead to inquiries about your estate planning or business valuation services. Similarly, letting your manufacturer clients know about tax credits for energy efficiency improvements can result in requests for assistance in obtaining the credits.
But the benefits of sharing information about ways to save tax and achieve business or personal financial goals are not limited to your client relationships. Posting an article on your website about how a cost segregation study can result in significant tax benefits can lead to inquiries from non-clients, too. And that can help build your client base as well as your bottom line.
THE TIME TO START IS NOW
Becoming a thought leader doesn’t mean that you must immediately begin sharing a high volume of information. You can start small and build as you develop or acquire more content. Just realize that it will take more than a few posts, newsletters or other communications to position your firm as a thought leader. So don’t expect immediate results.
But if you develop and start to implement a plan to regularly share valuable and relevant information, clients and potential clients will begin to notice. And that will greatly facilitate your marketing, client relations and business development efforts.
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