The Business of Professionals in a Crisis

We are in the middle of the pandemic crisis and you should already be thinking about the post COVID  19 era. Here are 8 very powerful and practical marketing tips to get out of the crisis stronger than you entered it.

1. Change your mindset
Sir Winston Churchill said: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees  the opportunity in every difficulty.”
The alarming media frenzy is overwhelming, the pressure from colleagues, staff, family is  substantial in an era of fear. As a key partner in your firm, you need to demonstrate leadership.
This starts with you and your mindset. Remain a winner and anticipate the end of the crisis once  you have handled the immediate urgencies.

2. Use strategically your time You are probably locked down at home. It is a unique chance to get out of your daily routine and  think strategically. How can you upgrade your business for the short-term and the long-term? After  a crisis like 9/11, the 2008 Credit crunch and the Covid-19 pandemic, some changes will remain and  become standards. Spend time reading articles on strategy and the market. Imagine how your clients  will adapt their business and how you can align your services.

3. Adapt your services and their delivery
Your services or products need to be adapted to the new needs of clients.
Changes will occur for the services themselves AND for the “delivery” of these services as well.
Clients will now seek advice for :
– Dealings and litigation with financial regulators and tax authorities to ease financial
constraints
– Benefitting fiscal stimulus and tax incentives
– Upgrading Risk compliance (financial, regulatory, legal, fiscal, reputational, health)
– Debt recovery
– Employee & HR policy: repatriation, sick leaves, liability risks, confidentiality when  working from home,…
– Consumer protection and claims. Collective actions.
– Supply chain issues, trade restrictions, unfair competition, quarantine of good
– Business interruption, insolvency and liquidation.
– M&A, demergers, …
– Sustainable business behavior and impact finance

4. Maintain your marketing budget
While what we are experiencing is very worrying, this is not the time to think about reducing this  budget despite the desire and pressure from partners worried about their dividends. On average, law  firms spend 2% of their annual budget on marketing which is low compared to other sectors. Reducing  your budget would be an overreaction that will impact the firm in the long run. Many competing  firms will reduce their marketing expenses, which will give you more space to shine in the market.

In a pandemic, events and rallies are cancelled. Budgets in your firm become available and can be  used differently. Beware, after the crisis, people will have a desire to get together and attend  events while price may rise. The demand will be high, conference organizers and hotels will have to  recover and adapt their prices. Networking budgets should not be cut but buffered when you will  need them in some months. However, you can cut on:
– Spending on business development (restaurants, outings, tickets, awards, galas, etc.)
– Client events and seminars
– Printing documents, brochures,…

5. Matchmaking instead of networking
The business development of independent professional firms is mainly based on peer to peer meetings   at large conferences. Lawyers and accountants exchange during seminars and events organized by  their traditional networks or event management companies.

The massive cancellation of events and the fear to delegate your best professionals to places where  they could get infected, heavily impacts the origination of referrals. This is particularly  impactful for firms dealing internationally. International clients are usually more remunerative  than domestic clienteles and international conferences are a must.

The way to go around it, is to evolve from mass networking into individual “matchmaking”. You must  avoid the crowds where mass fishing is now irrelevant to precisely target prospects during  one-to-one meetings organized through videoconferencing. Matchmaking is about market intelligence,  fine understanding of a client’s precise needs and going bilateral instead of mass fishing.

Use matchmaking tools like www.isfin.net or www.bizzz.me

6. Upgrade your digital communication

There is a multitude of digital communication instruments. Almost an anarchy between Zoom, Slack,
Teams, Skype, Loop, GoToMeeting, WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber …

These softwares often carry a cultural context and are used more heavily in some parts of the world. Mastering them is a pre-condition to enter the market and reach out to prospects and  clients. You do not want to lose time and look like an amateur when it is time to pick up the  conversation with an important prospect.

Make sure that your partners and staff have access and are trained to use these different tools  from home with the proper hardware and secure wifi networks.

7. Focus on digital marketing

More crisis means more digital. It is an opportunity to convince your conservative partners to step  ahead in digital. People and clients are sitting at home linked to the world only through the
Internet. For instance you can accelerate:

• Content Marketing: publish content to maximize your visibility. Step into the production of  short videos and create your firm’s TV channel on YouTube.
• Search Engines (SEOs): improve your website’s referencing and keywords
• Cost per click (SEM): position your firm for online searches and the search for information
• App: Transform your web site in a dynamic app.
• Email Marketing: Connect with your current and potential customers with specific
offers/expertise
• Social media: Improve and harmonize the use of tools like Linkedin, twitter, Facebook for  professionals,…
• Statistics: develop or use datas to improve your understanding of the market
• CRM: Update and clean your clients database. Make sure you can reach your best clients  through SMS and texts. Are all your clients connected to your Linkedin ?

8. Be a sustainable individual and firm

Before the Corona crisis, the media were asking you to save the planet, the climate, the  environment. Activist Greta Thunberg had as much media coverage as Donald Trump. People are  sensitive and sensible. They are affected. It is counter-productive to propagate panic-inducing  content, to capitalize on fear, to increase the prices of your services. Acting as a good corporate  citizen and behaving as a responsible corporation will bring you more new mandates than exploiting  without finesse a crisis.

 

The Corona crisis only brings one positive effect: it pushes us to refresh our business development  in a time of disruption. It is not time to stop everything in terms of marketing, communications  and business development, on the contrary. However, you need to rethink your ways of doing things  and invest time and money intelligently.

Prof Laurent Marliere is a recognized expert in Strategy and Marketing for professional firms.
He can be contacted on [email protected] – www.scipion.net