Professional Service Firms and Social Networking: Part 4 of 6

Here's Part Four of my six-part conversation about professional services firms and social networking, with Microengagement's Tim Gilchrist and Steve Fisher.

Lowe: Professional service firms are very client-oriented. But in order for this social networking paradigm shift to occur, it's got to be the client of the professional service firms who wants to work differently, or who wants to receive value differently. Will the clients of law firms, accounting firms, architecture firms be willing to receive value differently; value that they collaboratively develop with their professional service providers?
Gilchrist: Either in product development or service delivery, you have 'x' number of staff who are smart about such-and-such. That level of experience and intelligence stays relatively the same, even as the company progresses in time. If you engage in a social networking-like exchange of knowledge [like Microengagement's Virtual Executive Roundtable], you stand to geometrically increase the amount of knowledge you can deliver to your customer. And, you gain the advantage of stepping outside the boundaries of the company and bringing ideas in. That is a lot about what 'crowdsourcing' social media is. It starts very organically, with people who are willing to exchange knowledge rather than the people who are forced into a dog and pony show. Social networking is based on a partnership mindset; it's not anything that is staged.
Fisher: There are many different avenues today .... some more focused than others .... to try and access subject matter experts. [An example of social networking could be a brainstorming session [in which a] business leader has access to four or five trusted friends or colleagues. One perspective might be customers or consumers. Another might be distribution channels. Another perspective might be from an organizational development standpoint. You could bring these people together and spend a couple of hours bouncing ideas off of them, not only getting their individual perspectives, but getting their discussion among themselves that adds value to their perspectives. From the result of that conversation, you are a whole lot smarter about specific issues.
Next time: Will social networking change the way professional services are purchased?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Lowe is founder of Expertise Marketing, LLC and author of The Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos – Once and For All – in Professional Service Firms and Marketplace Masters: How Professional Services Firms Compete to Win. She blogs at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix and her own blog, the Expertise Marketplace.

Before founding Expertise Marketing in 1996, Ms. Lowe spent more than a decade leading the marketing programs for top-tier management consulting and business-to-business organizations. Before that, she spent more than a decade managing and implementing strategies for political candidates and organizations.

She spearheads the only widely disseminated research initiative on strategic marketing perceptions, practices and performance of professional service firms around the globe.

In addition, Suzanne Lowe has written or been quoted in nearly 100 articles on the topic of professional services marketing strategy. Her work has appeared in the a rel="nofollow" href="https://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/hbr/hbr_home.jhtml">Harvard
Business Review, BusinessWeek.com, CMO Magazine, Harvard
Management Update, and scores of profession-specific magazines and journals, including MarketTrends, Marketer, Marketing the Law Firm, Accounting Today, Engineering, Consultants News, Structure, Journal of Law Office Economics and Management, The Practicing CPA, Environmental Design and Construction, Massachusetts High Tech, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, and the Legal Marketing Association’s Strategy. She is a contributor to the second edition of the book Marketing
Professional Services, by Kotler, Hayes and Bloom. She has also been instrumental in the development, writing and publication of five books and nearly 50 articles and book chapters for her consulting clients.

Suzanne speaks regularly around the world to leading trade associations, industry groups and in-house firm audiences. Her work has also been presented internationally, most recently at the American Marketing Association's annual Frontiers in Services conference. She facilitates a Roundtable of Chief Marketing Officers from some of the world's largest and most prestigious professional service firms. She has guest-lectured at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and designs and delivers customized executive education programs in marketing for professional service executives.

She advises the leaders of professional service firms, from small start-up practices to large global organizations.

Ms. Lowe received a B.A. from Duke University.

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