In the last six months, I've heard from some professional service firms who have asked for my help on choosing new markets in which to pursue growth....


When I first hear a request like this, my mind quickens: could this be the professional services firm that "gets it" about shrewdly analyzing marketplace opportunities?
But then my heart drops when I hear that all they want is a dry-as-a-bone assessment of the status quo in a geographical part of the country. They want secondary research of "underserved markets," and maybe a list of statistics and percentages from which they will determine the possibilities for locating a new office.
Sigh. This is exciting because it's a thrill to see professional service firms taking real steps to look outside of their traditionally insular purview, to see where marketplace opportunities lie. I've called for professional firms to "Look Out" for years, most notably in my (shameless plug coming) book Marketplace Masters. I can cite reams of research findings from my studies, about how much more effective a professional service firm is at attracting and retaining clients when it conducts market research.
And sigh. It's depressing because these firms think they can slap on their exactly-the-same services to an exactly-the-same set of clients that just happen to be in another part of the country. Sure, most practice leaders and firm managers understand there are variabilities in decision-making by geographical turf. What I'm talking about, though, is potentially more rewarding and competitively advantageous.
Here's what I plan to tell the next firm that asks me to conduct this kind of marketplace research: don't expect to succeed if you're limiting your exploration to geographical-growth opportunities. Clients don't care where your office is!
If you are a marketing leader or executive manager who is really serious about the company's growth, you should instead think about your firm's future favorable differentiators, advantageous positions and brand promises. You should examine your assumptions about the most strategically optimal targets and segments. (They may not be who you think they are today, and they will certainly be different tomorrow.) You should be thinking about the inevitable commoditization of your services, and your clients' evolving needs for new services or experiences to replace them.
Inevitably, I succeed in educating my potential clients that marketplace growth is not just about geographical expansion; that it's not just about a list of secondary research factoids, tables, statistics and population growth charts. Instead, the real "facts" come from the minds and mouths of potential decision makers, who are typically thrilled to articulate their evolving needs and decision criteria. That is where real marketplace growth and opportunity lies.