Managing perceptions: The multiplier effect for all your marketing activity
by Chris Crossland
After over 25 years of working with numerous clients in many different market sectors including the legal sector, I've had the opportunity to observe why some companies are consistently better than others. Sometimes it's down to budget, sometimes it's just luck and a good judgment call on the day, but I know one factor that always always differentiates great companies from just good companies.
Great businesses are ones that embrace marketing at every level of the organization and are led by a senior management team that fully appreciate the power of creating and managing perceptions.
Here's a simple example based on a real client that I am working with at the moment. A mid-sized practice going through a non conflict MBO - management buy-out -- until the owner decided at the last minute to change the deal and demand more cash up front and shorten the earn out period.
My role at the time was to create marketing strategy for the new organization, but I was faced with clients who were angry, bitter, and distracted. My advice was to get them to realise that all the staff were looking to the new team for more than just new marketing ideas and a change of management.
They had to understand that the perception they created at this difficult time would make or break the deal and define their new position as owners once the deal was completed. I made it clear that if the new team understood the power of managing perceptions, not only would the problem of the change in the deal be reduced, but critically the whole organization would continue and be confident.
So it started with how the new team came into the office. No long faces as they got out of the car and walked into the reception area. Confident posture and smiling faces -- time with reception staff and lots of visibility throughout the organization. When approached and asked how the MBO was going the same response -- all was well and going forward. There were many times when that new team was under the most extraordinary personal pressure, but they managed the internal perceptions and the MBO was completed.
In your own practice if your marketing messages say one thing but your own leadership style says another, then at best you are wasting money, but in my view you are destroying your business. How the senior team is perceived has a powerful "multiplier" effect on all your marketing activity.
All your employees have to see and experience the same values that you promise to your clients. How can you be confident that your employees will deliver outstanding customer service, if you manage them with threats, sanctions and fear? The answer in my experience is that many owners and senior managers just don't care, because they see marketing as all external. They smile for the press and say the right things to the right people, then go back and create dissonance within their organizations. They wonder why their staff churn is high, and customer satisfaction levels are not consistent, they spend more on marketing than others in their industry, and they make less profit.
So, next time you get out of the car and scowl your way into the office, ignore the reception and junior staff, sit at your big desk and shout at people, whilst smiling at your biggest client -- think about how you are perceived within your company. I guarantee if you don't manage your internal and external perceptions so that they mirror each other -- you are building inertia and reducing confidence within your business, making you less competitive, and reducing your ROI on everything you spend on marketing.
-----
© Trey Ryder
FREE LAWYER MARKETING ALERT: If you'd like to receive Trey Ryder's weekly Lawyer Marketing Alert, send an e-mail to [email protected]. Write "Subscribe LMA" in the subject line and write your name and e-mail address in the body of the message.