Adapting to change: marketers in 2013
Alastair Beddow finds the results of
the latest MPF/PM Forum and Meridian
West benchmarking study reveal
marketers in professional services firms
making client relationships their
strategic focus.
Although clients always have been
– and will continue to be – king
for professional services firms,
the dynamic of the client-adviser
relationship has fundamentally shifted in
recent years. The 38 UK Heads of
Marketing who responded to the latest
MPF/PM Forum and Meridian West
benchmark are at the forefront of
managing this shift. As in the natural
world, they need to adapt to prosper in a
changing landscape.
Marketers’ preparedness to reinvigorate
their firm’s relationships with clients is one
measure of success. It is heartening that
two-thirds (66%) of respondents rate their
ability to shape their firm’s attitudes
towards clients as either good or very
good. However, the challenges ahead
remain significant: clients are demanding a
greater consistency of service and are
seeking more added-value services but
want to pay less for them. How are the
UK’s leading professional services
marketers addressing these challenges?
And how are they being supported by the
rest of the business? The results of our
benchmark provide a snapshot of the
state of professional services marketing in
2013.
Status of marketers is growing
Given the importance to firms of understanding
the needs and drivers of clients,
it should be no surprise that the marketing
and business development function is
gaining in status. This is reflected in the
45% of respondents who say being a
voting member of either the Board or
Management Committee is important for
the most senior marketer to effectively
carry out their role. This puts marketing –
and, by extension, the voice of the client –
at the heart of strategic decision-making.
The growing influence of marketers is also
felt by two thirds (66%) of respondents
who feel they are treated as an equal by
their firm’s CEO or managing partner. Only
8% say they feel subordinate to their peers
in the C-suite.
Developing a wide-ranging skill set
Most important
attributes for
effectively carrying out
a marketing role
1 Communicator: 76%
2 Strategist: 50%
3 Collaborative: 42%
4 Change agent: 37%
5 Problem solver: 21%
As marketers grow in status and influence,
they need to be equipped with the right
skills to carry out their role effectively.
Almost all of the 38 respondents are
university educated and nearly two-thirds
(63%) have a specialist qualification such
as CIM. Yet only four of the 38 have an
MBA or equivalent. Given the pressure
from clients for advisory firms to be more
commercial, it will be essential for
marketers to develop a wider appreciation
of the changing business landscape and
how this impacts on clients’ needs.
Softer skills are incredibly important too.
Marketers say the three most important
attributes for effectively executing their role
are communication, strategy and collaboration
(see box below). At a time of such
change for professional services, the ability
to effectively articulate new approaches to
deepening client relationships (both within
the business, and directly to clients) rise to
the top of the agenda for marketing and
business development professionals. Yet
this area is currently one of the biggest
weaknesses: over a third (34%) describe
their ability to ensure fee-earners understand
client strategies and business plans
as poor or average.
These soft skills help marketers develop
meaningful relationships with internal and
external clients, but our benchmark
suggests marketers are missing opportunities
to put them into practice. Over one
in five (21%) say they never develop direct
relationships with their equivalents at client
businesses. How often do you meet the
CMO of a client organisation for coffee?
Our research suggests this is simple, yet
impactful. Regular C-suite conversations
focusing on sector insights and trends,
and orchestrating learning networks,
emerge as strongly beneficial in Effective
Client-Adviser Relationships 2012, a study
published by the Financial Times, MPF
and Meridian West.
Opportunities on the horizon:
embedding the voice of the client
Outlook for marketing budgets and headcount
|
Average change over last 12 months |
Average expected change over the next 12 months |
Overall marketing budget |
+0.8% |
+0.7% |
Marketing function headcount |
+1.7% |
+0.2% |
Expenditure on marketing team salaries |
+2.5% |
+2.0% |
One of the most significant opportunities
for marketing and business development
colleagues will be to embed the voice of
the client deeper into the fabric of the firm
to foster more sustainable adviser-client
relationships. It is encouraging to see twothirds
(66%) of marketers say they are
directly involved in measuring client satisfaction
and feedback. The greatest challenge
is making sure client feedback is
acted-upon so that it translates into
tangible improvements for clients.
Respondents recognise there is more to
do in this area: over half (53%) describe
their firm’s ability to link employee reward
to personal contribution as somewhere
between average and very poor.
Focussing efforts on this area over the
months ahead will pay dividends. The
importance of understanding the drivers of
client relationships is validated by Effective
Client-Adviser Relationships, in which 93%
and 87% of clients describe account planning
and regular client feedback, respectively,
as beneficial for improving the quality
of their relationships with advisers.
Account planning and client feedback are
mechanisms for empowering both firm
and client to shape the future direction of
their relationship, and are proven to
enhance client loyalty.
Another opportunity will come from linking
up with other functional areas such as HR
or finance. Marketers recognise that
collaboration is a key skill, but how often
do you co-sponsor client initiatives with
HR or finance colleagues? Building internal
networks and sharing information to triangulate
client feedback with financial
analytics and employee engagements
provides incredibly powerful insight about
client-adviser relationships. It enables firms
to enhance the profitability of client assignments
and ensure fee-earners supported
in the right way to add real value.
The challenges ahead: marketers
breaking out of their comfort zone
As an increasing number of senior
marketers take their place around the
board table, others in the management
team will expect marketers to prove their
worth on a number of strategic issues. In
some instances this will require a break
away from the comfort zone: the respondents
to our benchmark say they are most
frequently involved in taking strategic decisions
about corporate identity (92%) and
targeting new client sectors (72%).
However, marketers will need to demonstrate
they have a vital contribution to the
following strategic decisions:
- Developing new products and service
lines. Only 45% of marketers say they
are involved in strategic decisions
about new products and service lines.
Successful new products or services
should align with the needs of clients and differentiate from
competitors – marketing
is well-placed to offer
these insights.
- Mergers & acquisitions.
Ongoing consolidation,
particularly in the
legal and accountancy
sectors, impacts on
brand and client experience.
These are core
focuses for marketing,
so why do 55% say they
are never involved in
strategic M&A decisions?
- Priorities for investment. With finite
resources firms need to prioritise
investments in systems to those which
will have most impact on clients. More
can be done here: three-quarters (74%)
of marketers say they are only sometimes
involved in these conversations.
Positive outlook for the year ahead
Our benchmark highlights shared opportunities
and challenges ahead for professional
services marketers. These must be
embraced within the context of an uncertain
economic environment where budgets
are squeezed. One in six (16%) will see
their marketing budget cut over the next
12 months, and over a third (37%) will see
their marketing budget frozen (ie. a real
terms cut). The average increase is less
than 1% (see box above). Headcount will
remain static at over half of the firms we
benchmarked (55%) and 18% say jobs will
be lost from the marketing team.
According to our benchmark average
marketing and business development
spend is 2.1% of the firm’s total revenue,
ranging from less than 1.0% to the highest
spend ratio of 4.5% of total revenue.
Those marketers who deploy these
resources efficiently and imaginatively to
strengthen their firm’s client relationships
will reap the biggest benefits.
Alastair Beddow is a senior consultant at
Meridian West. He works with professional
services and financial services firms to
develop and implement client-centric
strategic and thought leadership
campaigns. Contact abeddow@meridianwest.co.uk