It was once the case that prospective clients of professional services firms had relatively few options to choose from when hiring a professional advisor. Anyone looking for a lawyer, accountant, management consultant, architect or engineer might have just a handful of choices to call from the phone book.
Today, however, that is not the case. The number of firms has skyrocketed and competition for clients is fierce. We know because Beaton has tracked the growth of the industry for two decades.
Firms that want to succeed or even survive need to be proactive in seeking out clients and winning work. This requires understanding the market you operate in, and how to offer greater value than your competition. Monitoring competitor activity and leveraging competitive intelligence tools is fundamental for the long-term success of your firm.
So, do you know who’s prospecting your clients?
What is prospecting?
Prospecting is the process of seeking out, identifying, and engaging potential clients with the aim of generating new business opportunities. Best practice prospecting is the proactive sharing of valuable ideas with potential – and current – clients.
The goal eventually is to move these targets, i.e. prospects, through a sales process until they become revenue-generating clients. With some effort, these clients can become long-term and highly valuable to your business.
Prospecting involves researching who might benefit from using your firm, and how to reach them. Initiating contact and then nurturing leads through a sales pipeline is all part of the greater goal – to win new clients and grow your firm’s business.
Worryingly, our tracking client feedback study shows that prospecting by firms is down and falling. For instance, 17 per cent of clients of built and natural environment consulting firms reported seeing proactive prospecting efforts by their firms in 2013. Just over a decade later that number has fallen to 9 per cent in 2024.
Why is prospecting important?
Bringing in new clients is essential to the long-term success of a professional services firm. As mentioned above, modern firms operate in a highly competitive market. In this environment it is natural that some clients will move on, use a different firm or go in-house for certain projects. Prospecting on a consistent basis ensures you replace the customers you lose and turn your current clients into long-term relationships.
Prospecting offers additional benefits to simply growing your firm, too. The process of researching and understanding new leads helps professional services firms stay ahead of market trends and competitors. Actively seeking out new opportunities and adapting offerings to meet evolving client needs is a great way to innovate.
Firms that are prospecting consistently ensure a healthy pipeline of projects, foster long-term relationships, and enhance their reputation in the industry.
Seventeen per cent of clients of built and natural environment consulting firms reported seeing proactive prospecting efforts by their firms in 2013. Just over a decade later that number has fallen to 9 per cent in 2024.
How does competitor monitoring help prospecting?
Effective prospecting requires a strategic approach with a sophisticated sales and marketing strategy. Monitoring your competitors and understanding what other firms are offering is crucial to informing this strategy. This is where competitive market research is so valuable. It gives you the insights that help identify what new clients want, and how you might be able to “cut through” the noise of other firms’ marketing and prospecting efforts on your current customers.
Monitoring competitor activity has several benefits for prospecting, including:
- Identifying market trends: Competitor insights can help you stay updated with market trends and shifts in consumer preferences. Monitoring what your competitors are doing can reveal emerging opportunities and threats.
- Benchmarking your performance: By comparing your performance with that of your competitors, you can identify areas where you excel and areas that need improvement. This benchmarking helps set realistic goals and standards for your sales team.
- Identifying competitive advantages: Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses helps you refine your firm’s value proposition. You can highlight what sets you apart and identify unique competitive advantages that make your pitch more compelling to new clients.
- Staying ahead of innovations: Competitors often introduce new products, services, or technologies. Keeping an eye on these innovations ensures that you are not left behind and can incorporate similar or better solutions into your offerings.
- Improving customer retention: Understanding why customers might choose competitors over you can help improve your retention strategies. By addressing gaps in your service or product offerings, you can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Protect your best clients: Identifying which of your competitors are trying to lure your clients gives you an opportunity to develop a defensive strategy to proactively “ring fence” your clients.
- Negotiate better deals: Knowledge of how competitors’ clients perceive their value and promotional strategies can be a powerful tool during negotiations. Being aware of what competitors are offering can help you negotiate better deals and offer more competitive pricing or added value.
Jon Huxley, Beaton partner, explains what prospecting is, what is isn’t and why it’s important.
What is competitor analysis?
Competitor analysis involves systematically gathering and evaluating information about firms that are of similar size and industry, or offering similar services to yours. These firms are very likely prospecting for the same potential clients as your firm. They may even be speaking with your current clients!
Competitor analysis starts with identifying who these competitors are, and collecting information about their offerings. Data points might include marketing activities, brand position, client feedback, and perceived value. The most important final step is organising the data into a competitor activity report that can identify strengths and weakness, opportunities and threats in the market.
A competitor analysis can help you develop strategies to exploit any advantages you identify.
A competitor analysis structured as a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.
How can professional services firms gather competitor insights?
Gathering competitor insights can be an incredibly difficult task for professional services firms. Firms are highly unlikely to directly share information with your about their work. Aside from that, there is very little publicly available data.
Collecting client feedback is one way to uncover competitor insights. By asking your clients questions about your firm in relation other firms, you may uncover strengths and weaknesses of others. To collect feedback regularly it can be useful to set up a regular “pulse check” survey system such as Beaton Debrief. This will send out surveys to your clients at regular intervals and offers opportunity for you to ask about competitor firms. The limitation of this method is that you are only receiving insights from clients who already use your firm. Therefore, you may be missing external prospects you haven’t worked with yet.
We find clients are often more willing to share insights with a third party researcher, rather than directly with the firm they are paying. They may feel less exposed and more willing to be honest. We know this because every year, Beaton asks clients for insights about professional services firms via Beaton Benchmarks. And every year, thousands of clients respond to our survey with invaluable feedback on firms across the market.
Beaton’s market research competitor analysis
Beaton Benchmarks is a competitor analysis that collects client feedback on hundreds of firms from tens of thousands of clients every year. We collect this feedback across a range of metrics including brand, price, value, the likelihood prospects would consider using your firm, and so on.
In presenting the data, we can filter between size of firm, industry and other factors, to home in how you compare to relevant competitor firms. We present it in smart visual formats that show, via graphs and charts, how your firm measures up on key attributes.
Our market research competitor analysis is unique and completely unrivalled in professional services. We have undertaken such analyses for the past 20 years and have the biggest data pool available in the industry.
Actionable client feedback and tailored benchmarking
Registration for Beaton Benchmarks is now open for a limited time. Participate for free in the largest, most comprehensive client sentiment industry benchmarking study in professional services.
