Emerging trends in professional services
It’s no surprise that decades of economic and technological changes are accompanied by social changes. The following significant shifts in consumer behaviour have created both challenges and opportunities for professional services firms.
- Clients seek and find high-value services online.
Clients value professional services more highly today, and like almost everything else, they use the internet to find them. Where most people used to only use internet searches for low-value, trivial purchases, they now use it for serious and higher cost pieces of research.
- Clients rely less on referrals.
Referrals have long been the primary way that firms bring in new business, and while it won’t go away, internet searches, cloud partners and marketplace apps have become popular alternatives to referrals.
- The value of professional services is growing.
Professional services are more relevant today than ever, so while referrals are decreasing, the perceived value of professional services is increasing.
- Client loyalty is decreasing.
In a fiercely competitive and increasingly clientcentric market, client loyalty to their current firms is on the decline. Firms must adapt to a business model that is not predicated on long-term client relationships.
- As loyalty and referrals decline, online channels have become primary touchpoints.
The drop-off in loyalty and referrals can be explained by the broader shift from offline to online channels. People are biologically wired to economise their activities, and it’s never been easier to find solutions online.
Buyers are now looking online for insight and help, a trend clearly reflected in the 66 per cent increase in online searches globally. The likelihood of a buyer researching a business challenge through traditional methods – such as referrals, word of mouth and face to face – is about 30 per cent, where seeking answers digitally – through websites, webinars and search engines – is 70 per cent.
Five strategies to help your business go from fragile to agile
Long before a pandemic triggered widespread lockdowns and changed our lives so fundamentally, businesses were already adapting to these emerging trends. Many professional services firms have led the charge in cultivating agility and resilience, including undergoing digital transformation and implementing sophisticated remote working policies.
But the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the speed of change and forced us to adapt faster and more dramatically than ever before. And, while some firms prepared for a significant disruption such as a global pandemic, there’s a lot that professional service providers could do to be better prepared.
- Lean into the change.
Change is not easy, but it is inevitable. The only way to thrive in an unpredictable world is to prepare for and embrace change. You don’t need to follow everything happening on social media in your sector, but you do need to shift your mindset to be more adaptable. Changes that affect professional services firms come in two main forms: predictable and unpredictable.
Trends, which are solid and recurring, are predictable, such as continuing digital growth. Events are often unforeseen or unpredictable, such as a pandemic or financial crisis. We need to have a mechanism for reacting quickly and effectively to both.
Use trends as the foundation for your business plan, but account for unpredictable changes as well. Make staying abreast of emerging trends in consumer preferences, new technologies and marketing strategies in your industry a central part of your plan.
And remember, don’t do things the way you always have because it works: continuously seek ways to economise and improve your processes based on changes outside of your own business.
- Accelerate your planning cycles.
When uncertainty is a reality for the foreseeable future, it’s important to create and revisit your plans more frequently. Intelligent, detailed and up-to-date plans enable your business to react and adapt quickly and purposefully. What works one month may not be possible in the next, and as such, decision making is always more effective with up-to-date data.
In your planning sessions, be sure to:
- share and disseminate any currently available information with your team;
- make directional decisions, and revisit and optimise previous decisions; and
- communicate about directional decisions with teams and take action swiftly
- Get ahead of your target clients.
Research into your clients is an investment with a very long shelf life. It’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking we know our clients – their needs and preferences, and how they perceive us – but the reality is that most firms aren’t conducting research thoroughly or frequently enough to truly understand their clients. Only about a third of professional services firms take advantage of structured research required, so there is tremendous opportunity for improvement here.
Our rule of thumb is: the more frequent research you do, the faster your firm will grow. Firms that do regular research are in a better position to grow faster (about 2x), and at a higher margin, which ultimately makes them more profitable (at least double).
- Conduct and publish research to demonstrate your expertise.
There’s a reason that 20 per cent more firms are publishing original research as content than in the years before 2020. Research and thought leadership on key issues in your industry is one of the most authentic expressions of your expertise (Tip: Another reason why having a niche helps so much). Content that offers real value and useful insights can bring new business to your firm for years to come.
Ask yourself what you want your clients to turn to you for, and make understanding that and educating your clients on it your mission.
- Make small, reversible bets.
Marketing is always a process of continuous improvement: we test, we measure, we learn and we repeat, implementing learnings into an optimised process.
So, constantly experimenting with different activities, channels and approaches will give your business the best chance of thriving in times of uncertainty. Marketing data gives valuable insights on what’s working and what isn’t, so de-silo your departments and ensure marketing data is shared throughout.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of each activity and initiative and cut back on those with the least promising results.
- Harness the power of social networking to build trust and engagement with wider audiences.
- Add a digital-only service to diversify your potential revenue streams so that you’re ready to make the switch should the need arise.
- Trial an industry focus and pursue it if it’s successful.
Activities and experiments like this are fundamental to business agility, and the cost of doing them now is far less than the cost of losing out when times are tough.
Sonya Vanjicki co-founder, Hunt & Hawk
