Is your investment in marketing paying off?

"We've made a significant investment in our website, marketing literature, and intellectual capital over the years," the CEO told us. "We need to know if we 're striking the right chord with clients."

He wanted to quantify how and why their clients decide to use -- or not to use -- their services.

What Roland Communications did

We created a client-generated picture of criteria and priorities applied when selecting a consulting firm in our client's specialty areas. We used that intelligence as the basis for a website, marketing material, and intellectual capital that will resonate with the clients' needs.  The process, at a glance: 

• Tapping into the client's point of view -  Working with the management consulting firm CEO and his team, we created an interview guide to bring clients' priorities for selecting and working with management consulting firms such as theirs into high relief. We gathered information from current, former, and prospective clients in face-to-face meetings (without the participation of our client). 
• An analysis that leads to "aha!" moments - A thorough analysis of our interviews, in the interviewees' own words, made light bulbs go on with our client as no marketing planning or soul searching had ever done before. "We gained insight into what is really important  to our clients when they hire and work with us," the CEO said.
• And, yes, a few surprises - While we had predicted what their clients wanted, the actual priorities were quite different. The quality of the relationship and frequent communication, for example, topped the clients' lists, but not that of the CEO and his team. Conversely, the CEO was convinced that clients valued prestigious academic degrees, and had always prominently featured these in marketing communications. It turned out that clients cared little about specific academic background, and far more about relevant professional experience.