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Marketing and Selling Professional Services
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Marketing and Selling Professional Services

Practical Approaches to Practice Development

Patrick Forsyth
Kogan Page, 2003
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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Background
  • For Beginners

Recommendation

Patrick Forsyth covers elementary marketing tactics in exacting detail, starting with how the publishing process works. The next few chapters address professional practices in selling intangible services. Forsyth offers abundant, almost dizzying detail. The checklists and flow charts that illustrate some of his basic ideas are helpful, and he reiterates key points as needed. This book will find its main purpose as a basic textbook for new service-for-a-fee providers and for those who are learning how to market the services of professional firms or their own one-person consultancies.

Summary

Marketing the Intangible

If you are a professional service provider, you need marketing as much as the manufacturer of tangible goods needs it. Those who sell professional services face many of the same marketing issues as those who provide merchandise, although some key differences exist.

First, clients have a different perspective about professional service providers, and this affects their selection methods. From a client’s perspective, the market offers many good service providers, so clients often choose a professional by repute or happenstance before they evaluate or experience the provider’s work. Instead of being able to evaluate results, clients base their decisions on qualities they perceive that may not become evident until after the work is done. When making a hiring decision, clients weigh factors that can range from your reputation to the style of your business card to the level of professionalism your support staff exhibits upon first contact.

Prospective clients look for the benefits your service provides, including problem solving, getting objective expert advice and the ability to identify and capitalize on new market opportunities. Because ...

About the Author

Patrick Forsyth manages an independent consulting firm, Touchstone Training and Consultancy, in London and has more than 20 years experience in marketing and management. He is the author of numerous books, including Marketing Stripped Bare, Successful Time Management and Powerful Reports and Proposals.

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