Today I had the pleasure of attending a very interactive panel session which included seven SMPS Fellows (a high honor for our society). These professionals are all clearly outstanding in their firm and had great words of wisdom. What I loved about this form though was also the admittance that we all always learning and thus the audience was invited to participate, offer examples, and ask more questions.
Well facilitated and covering a huge range of topics there was never a dull moment. This was a several hour session so rather than try to review the entire event up I'll simply add a few thoughts and hope that others who attended will also continue with their own thoughts and discussion. So.... Here are my highlights, but feel free to add your own:
- Differentiation: While initial conversation revolved around staying focused as a firm as well as creating thought leaders, there was also fascinating discussion about what really does differentiate a firm and what is your clients emotional connection to that differentiation. Advice from the panel included finding answers to questions your clients don't even know they need to be asking yet, and rethinking where the market is going so that you can create projects for your firm and your client. Clearly as marketers we can play a role in helping our firm to discover how they are different.
-Trends in BD: One of the panelist discussed their firms new strategy of hiring dedicated (non-tech) BD sales staff. Another one the process of innovating with their clients to create projects when none existed. But lot of discussion surrounded the idea of focusing on a limited niche or suite of services. I love this discussion around niche vs diversified firms in particularly because, while done correctly some tiered diversification can be terrific in economies like this, without careful focus and an understanding that you will sometimes have to say no to work that doesn't fit.... diversification can also turn into a quite slippery slope.
- Social Media, New Technologies, and Generational work places: I'm bulking these together because they were clearly a hot topic for the panel and the audience. On strait social media I think it was clear that our role can, at the very least, be encouraging personal brand and thought leadership through SoMe. A key comment for me was the reminder that more clients, potential employees, editors, etc. are gravitating to the online world, so this will not be going away. I particularly appreciated the conversation around SoMe in relation to firm size. Smaller firms seem nimble enough to get content from across the firm, larger firms have staff to manage content and strategy, but mid-size firms are struggling more with time, ROI, and strategy for a truly meaningful use for these tools. This directly tied to the generational practice discussion where panelists and audience alike gave examples of both a need to adapt to these new modes of communication as well as the golden rule in our industry of simply knowing (directly and in person) your clients and their needs. One final add from myself on the generational side - while new tools and technology need to be adopted and adapted, I also thing younger clients and employees alike are looking to see what your firms social commitments are. Oh, and I'm not talking about social media, I'm talking about social causes!
There was so much discussed that I don't think I can capture a tenth of it here, but I'll add just one more for tonight and this was also hot and a bit heated:
- Value-Added: The discussion of "value added" services were certainly intriguing to me. I think we all agree that you really have to prove the value in the eyes of the client (so very hard). But the very use of the term value added made one panelist suggest that our clients might perceive this to mean we didn't plan to bring value in the first place. One thing is for sure, 'value added' is so freely used in our industry that I'm sure we can keep this conversation going for a while!
Ok, I've got to wrap it up now to get ready for tomorrow.... But with so many 'chicken or the egg' scenarios discussed today, I am certain there is still plenty to keep us all talking...
So keep talking, and I'll see you tomorrow!
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