Marketing Professional Services: Forward-Thinking Strategies for Boosting Your Business, Your Image and Your Profits

Marketing your independent consulting practice may not be the same as marketing an inert product, be it surfboards or smoke detectors. Even so, according to the authors—headed by Philip Kotler, of the MBA student handbook Marketing Management, now in its 10th edition—many of the same rules apply, and those that don't apply can often be adapted. In this their second edition of Marketing Professional Services, Kotler et al. describe the basics in an easy-to-read format, emphasizing the unique problems faced by consultants, architects, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals who build a service business through more sophisticated means than mere word-of-mouth. Their advice, laden with examples, covers value proposition, segmenting, pricing, strategically growing a client base, and understanding clients' needs. "One of the fastest ways for an organization to grow is not to constantly search for new clients but to grow the ones the firm already has," they observe.