Marketing the Experience

In a previous article, I wrote about the emergence of the Experience Economy and pondered what it means for our industry. Let's review: With goods and services becoming increasingly commoditized, high profits are shifting to those businesses that can deliver "unique and compelling experiences." Think of Disney World, Starbucks, and the entertainment industry (including spectator sports).

Is this relevant for technical consulting and design firms? I think so. Consider surveys that reveal that clients give as much importance to "service value" (the experience delivered) as they do to "technical value" (the expertise delivered). Yet most professionals in our business still cling to the misguided belief that clients value their technical capabilities most. This means there is a substantial gap between what clients say they value and what AE firms believe they value—presenting a key opportunity to differentiate your firm.

You may be thinking, "Sounds good in concept, but can I really sell the difference to perspective clients? How do I convince them that we can deliver a better experience, even if we figured out how to do it? Will they understand what in the world I'm talking about?" This article attempts to answer those questions.

Start With the Goal

Marketing the experience is better demonstrated than described. In other words, if you're wondering how to sell the "service difference" to clients, don't. Show them instead. This concept is at the heart of what I call Service-Centered Selling and it's complementary activity, Service-Centered Marketing. We'll define those terms in a minute, but first let's establish the fundamental goal behind both:

Make every encounter with the client (or prospective client) a positive experience

Your pursuit of this lofty goal begins in the sales process, where the relationship is initially forged. Unfortunately, most of our sales and marketing efforts deliver quite a different experience.

Think about it. Do you sense that most salespeople are primarily concerned about your interests, or their own? What about their companies' marketing collateral (brochures, mailers, websites, advertising). Do they serve the customer or are they self-serving? How many great experiences have you had when you're on the other end of a sales encounter?

Now put yourself in the client's position when you're marketing your firm. Is your focus on serving the client or selling your firm? Do you provide value for the time the client spends with you in a sales call? Do your marketing materials offer anything of real interest to the client? 

Every phone call, every meeting, every email, every visit to your website, every look at your brochure constitutes one of those defining encounters with the client. What kind of experience are you delivering? Did you happen to mention somewhere about providing great service? Is that validated by how you have served the client in the sales process?

Rethinking Business Development

If we're going to serve the client through the sales process, we need to examine our motives. Motives matter. It's the fundamental reason we distrust most salespeople, because we assume they are out to meet their needs at our expense. So when do we really get interested in sales? When our company really needs the business, right? Do you think that clients don't perceive our self-serving motives in how we approach business development?

Let me suggest that we rethink what drives our sales efforts. Rather than focusing on our need to generate more revenues, focus on the value of building strategic relationships. After all, revenue doesn't sustain our business, relationships do. We burn up backlog every day, but good client relationships last for years. Granted, not every project won will produce an enduring relationship. But relationships, not projects, should be the focal point of our sales efforts. 

With the right motives, we then need to rethink our methods. There are two primary categories of business development activities:

• Marketing—the indirect encounters we have with clients with the intent of attracting their interest in a business relationship with our firm; marketing sets the stage for sales; typical activities: publishing, speaking, news releases, website, etc.

• Sales—the direct encounters we have with clients with the intent of getting their commitment to enter into a contractual relationship; typical activities: sales calls, presentations, proposals, negotiations

Creating great experiences for clients requires a fundamentally different approach to these activities than the norm. Service-Centered Marketing moves away from the usual self-promotion to a focus on providing insight and information of value to the client. Do you really think your brochures, mailers, advertisements, and website set your firm apart? But a devotion to informing and advising clients through your "marketing" efforts will get noticed. I've seen it first-hand.

Service-Centered Selling flips the spotlight from the seller to the buyer, where it belongs. The focus is on helping clients address needs and concerns, not convincing them of your qualifications. Rather than telling clients what you can do for them, you show it. With Service-Centered Selling, prospective clients don't have to wonder about what it will be like to work with your firm. They've already experienced it. 

Those are the basic concepts. Now let me mention some specific ways to put this into action:

u Hone your consulting skills. In a profession that places high value on expertise, it should be noted that our clients value advisors more than experts. What's the difference? Advisors are better at seeing the big picture, solving complex problems (versus specialized ones), and providing strategic insight. Experts conduct studies, make recommendations, complete designs. But advisors help clients determine what needs to be done, what actions take priority, what the benefits will be. These are the rudimentary skills of Service-Centered Selling.

u Focus on relationships, not projects. Most of us will admit to a preoccupation with chasing projects rather than clients. Projects are what we do best; they fit our expertise. The nuances of dealing with clients, on the other hand, often falls outside our comfort zone. Yet this is where the top performers separate themselves from the also-rans in our business. Success is not measured by the depth of our expertise—although that's important—but by the extent to which we delight our clients. Service-Centered Selling demonstrates our ability to delight the client.

u Never waste the client's time. Have you ever considered what value the client gets from the typical sales call? Do you really think it's important for the client to learn about your firm? Doesn't he or she already know enough firms? Time is the client's most precious asset. Yet we seldom give much thought to giving something of value for the time a prospective client is willing to spend with us. Remember, we want every encounter to be a positive experience. So we certainly don't want to waste the client's time with a self-serving sales call. Bring something of value to every meeting with the client! For more insight into to this idea, see the article "Serving Your Entree." 

u Ask questions and listen, but don't interrogate. One way of wasting clients' time that we often don't consider is peppering them with questions. Perhaps you've learned that you shouldn't do all the talking, but focus instead on the client. Good! But what value is it to the client to simply answer a bunch of your questions? There's a delicate balance, of course, between asking and advising. Both are necessary, but in proper proportions. The point is that asking a lot of questions isn't necessarily a client-focused activity. You need to mix it with providing help and insight, not later in your proposal, but right there in that sales call. Remember, you're a consultant, not a salesperson.

u Focus marketing efforts on informing and instructing clients. You can do this both formally and informally. By formal, I mean things like writing articles, speaking to trade groups, publishing an issues-oriented newsletter, creating a resource website. Do these well and clients will be calling you. A more informal, more direct form of marketing that I've found effective is passing along helpful information by email. I am constantly researching best practices and subscribe to a number of free newsletters that keep me supplied with useful content. When I run across something that I think my clients (or a specific client or prospect) might be interested in, I send them an email with the internet link included. This a simple, cheap way to periodically convey the message, "I thinking about you. I'm here to help." Each such email adds another positive experience. (For more ideas on Service-Centered Marketing, check out this article.)

These are just a few suggestions on how to "market the experience." Hopefully I've whetted your appetite for exploring more ways to serve clients through the sales process. I really believe this is the new wave of selling and marketing your firm in a way that will set it apart. Better still, it's part of an overall strategy to enter the Experience Economy, where you create new client value by providing the "service difference" that everybody talks about but few actually deliver.

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