Avoid these 4 things in professional service marketing

As a subject matter expert, you may not like the idea of having to ‘do your own marketing’.

I get that. To you ‘doing marketing’ may sound like doing things you don’t like or don’t want to do.

However, as a (senior) subject matter expert in a professional service firm, you are already ‘doing your own marketing’.

Think about it:

• When working on an assignment, you’re resolving an imminent challenge for your client. Ensuring client success.
  
• At the same time, you’re keeping your eyes and ears open. Spotting new business opportunities whenever they arise.
  
• You’re also educating your clients. Raising awareness for future challenges and generating demand for your solutions, to help them overcome these challenges.
  
• And finally, you’re always cultivating relationships and trust.

As you know, in the professional services industry, trust is essential for success.

Also, cultivating trust is a delicate endeavour.

Therefore, there are certain things that are best avoided in professional service marketing:

1. Obviously you shouldn’t tell your clients things that are not true.
   
   Providing them with information that turns out to be false, immediately undermines your credibility.
   
   Also, you’d want to be careful with exaggeration.
   
   Embellishing achievements may look good on your LinkedIn profile, it can also make people question your actual authority.
   
2. Don’t break the promises you made. And follow up on your commitments.
   
   Also, don’t change stances. At least, don’t change your standpoint often and without a valid justification. As this makes you come across as unreliable.
   
3. Don’t be too judgemental.
   
   Polarized statements will get you a lot of attention. However, they destroy intimacy which is a core component of trust. People will no longer feel emotionally comfortable around you and open up to you.
   
4. Don’t prioritize personal gain over the well-being of others.
   
   Showing little interest in others’ feelings and perspectives is a sign of self-orientation. Which will make people question your intentions.

Of course, you can ignore all of the above and still become the president of the largest economy in the world.

However, I doubt whether people will actually trust you…

Hope this helps!

Thank you for reading Nudge #042, sent to busy subject matter experts on February 4, 2025.