Marketing in one sentence.

Every MBA student is taught frameworks created by consulting firms. And they all know the names of the firms behind them. Frameworks are incredibly powerful but underutilized marketing tools. And you don’t have to be a huge firm to benefit from them. They provide a basis for differentiation. They create unlimited content opportunities. The train potential clients to think how you think. They create opportunities for premium pricing. In this workshop we’ll walk step by step through a process for taking what you know and packaging it in a compelling framework, with dozens of examples. And we’ll talk about how to get the most out of them once you’ve created them. Link to RSVP in comments.

What keeps professionals from writing more? Several reasons: 🔴 Time constraints. They’re busy delivering on work. It’s important but never urgent. ✅ Block out time. Make it sacred. (Or hire someone to do it for you😉) 🔴 It’s scary. Consultants often associate their identity with their intelligence. Research has found when this is the case, people will avoid engaging in behaviors or doing tasks that risk them looking incompetent. ✅ You’re a consultant because you have legit insights. Your clients appreciate them. Your audience will too. No one will think you’re stupid. Worst case they’ll just ignore it and keep scrolling. 🔴 Perfectionism. Somewhat related. They aren’t saying they won’t hit publish. but they won’t hit publish “yet”. They want to get it “just right.” ✅ One benefit of writing on social - the bar is lower. You can be a little more unfiltered. It doesn’t have to be perfect. 🔴 Self-confidence with writing. Some consultants feel great presenting or speaking, and perhaps are confident creating deliverables. But they get sheepish creating content for a broader audience. ✅ As with most things, practice helps. Getting reps increases confidence, helps you find your voice. 🔴 They don’t want to “give away their secrets”. They’re worried a competitor will steal their ideas, or their potential clients will no longer need them. ✅ This is how you become a trusted advisor. Your best ideas, shared consistently. Gets people to associate you with your domain of expertise. They know they’ll still need help with implementation. When they’re ready they’ll raise their hand. 🔴 They don’t have a huge audience. They think unless they have thousands of followers it’s a waste of time. ✅ You don’t need to be an influencer. As long as your network has the right 1000 people, you can build a great sustainable business. And how do you build an audience of the right people? By writing about your area of expertise 😉.

It's not that you shouldn't have content for your company page. For some types of content it's definitely the most appropriate channel. It's necessary. But insufficient. Here's why: 👉 Organic reach on content from personal accounts is usually higher than from company pages. 👉 If you have multiple partners or managing directors, the aggregate reach of those accounts often exceeds that of the company page. And while there is sometimes some overlap in audience, it's typically more disparate than people think. 👉 True, people buy from Deloitte. But you're not Deloitte. For most boutique firms, people buy from Paul or Jordan or Jessica. We want them building familiarity with you as the trusted advisor, since you're going to be who they'll be working with. 👉 DMs are highly underrated - it's very common to go from liking your content, to following your account, to sending you a DM to chat. People prefer chatting with faces, not logos. You need both. But in most cases firms are underinvesting in helping their partners and senior leaders grow their personal brands.

The issue for most professional services firms is not that their partners don’t know what to write about. It’s that they don’t have time. Partners, Managing Directors, and other senior leaders in most firms are idea people by definition. They are students of their craft. They love talking about ideas with their clients and their teams. They’re also good writers. Most of their deliverables are ultimately documents, so they’ve had to learn how to communicate ideas well. The issue is the “cobbler’s kids” thing. They’re so busy communicating their ideas to their clients, they don’t have time to communicate those ideas to the wider world. Every hour they spend writing LinkedIn posts or making podcasts is an hour they aren’t billable. They see the value. But it’s the definition of important, not urgent. It was one of the key insights behind Madison. While we certainly bring ideas to the table, ultimately we’re not selling ideas. It’s our client’s ideas. What we’re selling is time. They hop on a phone call once a month. They get to riff about ideas they love talking about anyway. And a week or so later get a month’s worth of content. Their best ideas and thinking, in a nice little box.

How to become a “trusted advisor” when you’re not the subject matter expert: The typical model in professional services is a seller-doer model. The partners or managing directors have revenue responsibilities, but are also the SMEs. But sometimes firms also have folks specifically to do business development. They haven’t spent 30 years doing the work. When they find a lead, they fold in the SMEs in short order. But this doesn’t mean they can’t have a content strategy of their own. It just needs to be different. How? Be your client's guide to buying and working with firms like yours. You might not know the details of the work. But you do know what the buying journey looks like. You know how to get referred to the right firm, because people have referred you. You know how to tell a firm that knows what they’re doing from one that doesn’t, because you’ve either been that firm in the past or seen it in competitive bid situations. You know how to convince your internal team to use a consultant when historically they’ve avoided it. You know how to make sure your team and the consultant work well together. You do have subject matter expertise - it just happens to be in all the fuzzy stuff leading up to an engagement.

Give away your secrets. You have tools, techniques, methodologies, frameworks. It’s a large part of what makes you valuable to potential clients. If you're like most professional services firms you're hesitant to share too much through your content marketing. It's your "secret sauce" after all. But as a result your content is ineffectual at best, and potentially damaging at worst. 1️⃣ Your client is judging you by the stuff you give away. So if you give away useless or vague stuff, you end up harming your business more than you help. 2️⃣ Your clients are not your only source of referrals. It’s not uncommon for people to follow your content, never purchase from you, but still refer you to others. But only if the content you share is legitimately useful. Compare what most firms do to what Mike Rome is doing below (250k impressions and counting). He's offering legit value. It demonstrates he knows what he's talking about and that he's implemented it successfully. It's detailed and thorough. Tons of people are taking him up on the offer. Most of them will never become clients. But some of them will. And now he's 2 degrees away from hundreds more. Your secrets are some of your best marketing tools. Quit hiding them under lock and key - hit publish.