By David Ryan
They filmed the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray in Woodstock, Ill. The premise of the story was simple: Murray relives the same day over and over, doing the same things each time, forcing him (and us) to ask the question: "What would I do differently if I had the chance?"
I was reminded of that movie when my family and I ventured to Woodstock from our urban Chicago environs to house sit for a friend. That trip helped me crystallize a thought I've often wrestled with—most professional services firms are reliving their own version of Groundhog Day.
The Groundhog Day Rerun
How so? In good or difficult times, professional services firms, regardless of their "technical" specialty (operations management, IT, tax, audit, HR, health care, finance, etc.), relive many of the same challenges every day when it comes to their business and client development efforts: commoditization of services; how to differentiate themselves; rate pressure; securing client loyalty; scalable lead generation; account management/coverage models, and managing cost of sales. To combat these challenges, firms apply very similar approaches toward business/client development including recruiting rainmakers with proven books of business, hiring sales teams, developing marketing programs (special events, advertising, e-newsletters, thought leadership, entertainment, etc.), and instituting branding campaigns (new logo, industry aligned Web site, case studies, testimonials, etc.).
