Sep 29, 2011

Ideally the answer should be zero – it’s the facilities department’s job. Unfortunately, all too often in some firms it is one, or a committee of partners needs to sign off the spend. I’ve even helped one of my clients (senior partner in a practice) see that a 2 hour trip to homebase in normal working hours to get a replacement...

Sep 8, 2011

When I am working with my clients talking about a social media strategy. I will always ask them for the firm’s strategy and business plan. Unfortunately, at this point I often get very blank looks. Business plan? What business plan? Strategy for growth? What strategy? (or even strategy for survival!) Very often, I am finding that many firms don’t...

Aug 22, 2011

Let’s be honest, it’s much easier to do what we’ve always done. Change takes time and hard work. When a firm decides to listen to sensible and current marketing advice and stop trying to be all things to all people, and adopt a firm niche (or two), this takes time and energy to make this change. In my experience most firms only really play lip service to...

Mar 14, 2011

I was asked to deliver a session on ‘how to deliver good client service’ for a partner and managers away day for a top 50 accountancy practice. To help deliver a meaningful session for my client, I spoke to three of their clients to find out what they really wanted, in terms of good client service, from their accountant…. and how well my client...

Dec 21, 2010

This is the second part of a series of posts about how to successfully launch a new service. In part 1 we talked about the importance of your market research. In this part we will look in detail about the importance of your word of mouth communications plan. 4. Have strong influencers who publicly advocate your service This point really carries on from the first...

Dec 20, 2010

I have had the dubious privilege of watching a new company launch spectacularly badly. Yep, it’s kind of been car crash TV – you know you shouldn’t be watching, but you can’t stop wondering what is going to go wrong next… In the spirit of good festive cheer, I thought I would jot down some thoughts on how to help you ensure success for your new...