On Being 100%: A Social Media Tale

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Yesterday, I turned 100. More precisely, my LinkedIn profile registered at 100% complete. If you are a social media butterfly this may not seem like much of an accomplishment. But for me it was a big deal. You see, for many moons I hoovered around 40% and didn’t much care. I couldn’t see the benefit, nor did I know the way to reach this lofty goal.

So what changed to awaken me from my social media slumber? Two things, really. First, the world changed. My colleagues pointed to the need to understand and embrace social media as an important part of brand building and marketing. They were right, of course. The data were unambiguous and persuasive. If you are running a professional services firm you know it too.

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Too Many Referrals?

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Can there be such a thing as too many referrals? After all, referral business is the mother’s milk of professional services business development. Referral leads close faster and more easily than leads from any other source. And referral business usually means you have satisfied clients. So referral business is good and non-referral business is ... not so good?

This seems to be the prevailing wisdom. I’ve seen many professional services websites and pitch decks that tout their firms’ high rates of referral business. Well there is another side to the story.

While referral business should be an important component of any well balanced marketing plan, there are some downsides to a referrals-only diet.

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The Differentiation Difference

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Everybody knows that you’re suppose to differentiate your firm if you want to be successful, right? That’s what they teach you in business school. You’re suppose to reel off what makes your firm different as an integral part of your elevator pitch.

Apparently a lot of professional services marketers haven’t internalized that message. In our recently released research on high growth professional services firms, we found that most firms say they have a differentiator. But when they describe it, only about one in ten firms really comes across as different.

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