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Extract
For reasons that are cultural, historical, logical and illogical, and while the professional services community in the UK is now generally comfortable talking about marketing, business development, relationship management and even public relations, it doesn’t like to mention the five-letter ‘s’ word. While some fee earners might like to think they don’t sell, it is clearly a fiction. The accountancy firms have sales teams that are hundreds of people strong. And as non-accountancy professional services firms become bigger and more complicated, their own marketing and sales teams are growing. There are plenty of people engaged in selling the services of lawyers, accountants, architects and surveyors. And the ultimate point of all product marketing is to generate sales just as the ultimate point of all business is to deliver value to customers. The simple truth is, sales happens. And like it or not, it’s been happening in professional services for as long as professions have been around.
