How Professional Services Buyers Are Changing: 5 Trends That Will Shape Your Firm.

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

As I talk with professional services executives and look at the data, it’s becoming clear that professional services buyers are changing. And the changes are not small.

While it’s easy to ignore changes that happen over time, you do so at your own peril. Why? Because these changes are already having a profound impact on the entire industry, and the longer you wait the harder it will be to catch up.

Here are five trends that will likely shape the future of your firm.

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5 Marketing Mistakes that Cost You New Clients and Wasted Resources

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

I recently wrote a post on five items to include in your marketing plan for next year. As I’ve shared these with clients and colleagues it has become obvious that I’ve covered only half the story.

You also need to consider what to avoid when developing and implementing your plan. Of course, none of us plans to do something stupid. But somehow, some way, these pesky blunders find their way into countless marketing programs.

Well, let’s put an end to these time wasters and dollar drains. Here are my top five marketing mistakes to avoid.

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Mazuma: Turning a Commodity Service Into a Brand

By Lee W. Fredeiksen, Ph.D.

Mazuma is a UK firm that goes against a lot of conventional wisdom in the accounting world.  Rather than trying to avoid being a commodity, they have embraced it and taken a high volume, low margin approach aimed at capturing the individual and small business market.  I was initially taken by their model and wrote a blog post about their business strategy. I decided it was worth a closer look.  Co-founder, Lucy Cohen, handles most of the marketing and business side of the firm.  I recently caught up with her for a one on one interview.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Mazuma?
It all started with the tax panic we saw all of our friends and family go through.  My partner, Sophie Hughes, and I saw that everyone had great difficulty with tax time.  We looked around and asked ourselves, “what is the simplest way to do this from the customer’s perspective?” And it grew from there.

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