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What Marketing Can Do for a Firm
The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often, and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.
—Sergio Zyman
Marketing is the single most important function within a modern professional services firm.
This might strike some as overly bold given the widespread lack of respect that marketing receives within many firms. More than a few of today's principals believe marketing is only loosely connected to the success of their firms.
To be fair, the way marketing is done in many firms is of limited value. But it doesn't have to be that way. To understand why, we need only to look at today's most successful firms.
Inside the High-Growth Professional Services Firm
About five years ago, we began a series of studies that looked at high-growth professional services firms.1 To qualify for the study, these firms had to have a minimum compound annual organic growth rate of 20 percent or more. And these firms were exceptional on many fronts.
Compared with their peers, these firms showed:
Growth rates that were 5 to 10 times greater Profitability that was 2 to 5 times greater Valuations that were 2 to 10 times higher
