Are you listening to your clients to inform your wider marketing strategy as well as your client relationships?

Talking to professional service firms, the key priority is to focus on client conversations to win business. As part of this effort, there are also opportunities to build on 'real time' information gathering from clients to put their interests at the heart of your strategy and help your firm adapt to new dynamics.

Formal and informal direct feedback is dynamite. Client surveys tend to focus on transactions as they close, but as the pandemic took hold, Flare Insight incorporated more forward-looking questions into client feedback interviews. These conversations can give you insight into the main challenges, goals, pain points, and interests of your client base.

Another method is to ask fee earners to come together to identify the issues that their clients are coming to them with. The practice was used to profound effect during the pandemic but can still be used to keep connected with clients, adapt your targeting and use partner time efficiently.

Other practical uses

Marketing and business planning: Do you look at client needs and wants when putting firmwide, CRM or BD plans together? Is this measured and corroborated with client feedback and market evidence?

Adaptation in real time: Do you have a hold on changes in your client's markets and agendas day to day? If not - are you keeping up with client strategy updates and market changes as they happen?

Product innovation: Are product launches rooted in your target markets needs, rather than the roll out of a solution that was tailored to a specific client's demands?

Campaigns: Can you showcase your campaign to clients before you launch it? It is a standard practice in B2C, but not so much in B2B.