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Press Release
THE INTEGRATION IMPERATIVE
BY SUZANNE C. LOWE
Professional and Business
Service Firms Expand Market Share and Increase Value
by Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos
CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS – July 27, 2009 –
Expertise Marketing LLC and Professional Services
Books announce the publication of The
Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business
Development Silos – Once and for All -- in Professional
Service Firms by Suzanne C. Lowe. The book, like
Lowe’s Marketplace Masters: How Professional
Service Firms Compete to Win (Praeger: 2004), provides
new clarity on professional and business service firms’
structural and cultural barriers to effective marketing
and selling. It outlines a customizable framework
of processes, skill sets and support functions that
managers can apply to ensure that marketing and business
development are integrated into every person’s
job, ultimately helping the firm thrive in any economic
environment.
“Finally, a book that gets to the heart
of the disconnect between marketers and sales professionals!
Suzanne Lowe’s thoughts will enable leaders
to improve significantly the effectiveness of their
go-to-market strategies and ultimately lead to happier
clients and greater business growth.”
Meredith Callanan, Vice President, Corporate
Marketing & Communications, T. Rowe Price
“Professional service firms leave so much
money on the table because of the lack of integration
between marketing and selling, and this book demonstrates
the path to getting it right.”
Don Spetner, Executive Vice President and
Chief Integration Officer, Korn/Ferry International
The book’s main themes are illuminated with
eleven case studies from prestigious professional
service firms including IBM Global Services, Perkins+Will,
Jones Lang LaSalle, Korn/Ferry International, Moss
Adams, Baker Donelson, Holland & Hart, Haley &
Aldrich, Randstad, Ross & Baruzzini, and R.W.
Beck. Each firm realized advantageous competitive
results by initiating one of the Imperatives described
in the book.
Despite the maturity of today’s knowledge-based
economy, marketing and selling “disconnects”
prevent service professionals (including consultants,
lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, executive
recruiters, IT specialists, HR service agencies, and
real estate experts) from competitive effectiveness,
impede their financial success, and hinder them from
delivering optimal client service. Today’s daunting
economic environment makes it all the more imperative
that they harness their people more effectively –
and differently – than they have ever done.
The Integration Imperative summarizes three structural
and cultural frameworks that provide practical solutions
to overcoming their internal functional barriers,
allowing firms to expand their market share, increase
the “right” kind of revenue, and provide
more value to clients.
Corroborating her own co-authored study
on marketing effectiveness in professional firms,
Lowe outlines extensive additional evidence of the
marketing and business development “silos”
that exist in most professional firms today. The Integration
Imperative presents three structural imperatives --
process, skills, and support — and identifies
three cultural paradigms that any service firm can
apply to achieve lasting competitive success. Lowe
calls for professional firms’ executive managers
to streamline and broaden their marketing-to-business
development processes; reframe their advancement pathways
to more clearly outline the steps every professional
can take toward competency growth in marketing and
business development; and create more formal avenues
for function-to-function collaboration, shared accountability
and co-leadership for marketing and business development.
Marketing Barriers Assessments
In conjunction with the book, Lowe has created two
free, online marketing
barriers assessment tests that help highlight
what structural and cultural barriers exist at professional
firms. These web-based tools offer instant, anonymous
results that help firms identify the exact areas to
address in building a more productive, integrated
marketing and business development engine.
About Suzanne C. Lowe
Suzanne C. Lowe is an analyst, advisor, writer and
speaker on the best practices and emerging strategies
in professional services marketing and management.
Lowe draws upon more than twenty years of marketing
experience gained from top-tier management consulting
and business services organizations to uncover the
structural and cultural processes, skills and support
functions that facilitate marketplace effectiveness.
Lowe’s clients include Analysis Group, Egon
Zehnder International, Gilbane Building Company, Houlihan
Lokey, Jones Lang LaSalle, L.E.K. Consulting, Noblis,
NTD Architecture, and Sibson Consulting. She also
facilitates a confidential Roundtable of the Chief
Marketing Officers of the world’s largest and
most prominent professional service firms.
Useful Links
www.integrationimperative.com
Professional Service
Marketing Assessments
Expertise Marketing LLC
To order a copy for review, email info@professionalservicesbooks.com
The Integration Imperative
Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos –
Once and for All – in Professional
Service Firms
Author: Suzanne C. Lowe
Publisher: Professional Services Books
Publication date: July 2009
ISBN: 978-0-615-29214-4
www.theintegrationimperative.com
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