85% of Professional Services Buyers Report that Service Providers Make Critical Errors When Trying to Win Business According to RainToday.com

June 3, 2005 -- In the newly released customer-side research study from RainToday.com titled How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling from the Client Perspective, 85% of decision makers who buy professional services report that service providers make critical errors when trying to win their business. At the same time, professional services purchasing is expected to increase over the next two years across eight professional service industries.

Nearly 200 buyers, representing over $1.6 billion in professional services purchased, in companies of all sizes revealed their positive projections for profits and spending for 2005 – 2007. In each of eight service sectors participants expect increases in spending. Spending on IT consulting and services leads the pack at 60%, followed by marketing, advertising and PR (56%), legal services (56%), architecture, engineering and construction (55%), training (52%), accounting and financial consulting (47%), HR consulting (45%), and management consulting (44%).

“It seems the market for professional services is looking up in a big way,” said Mike Schultz, Publisher of RainToday.com. “The opportunities for services firms to win new clients are increasingly out there, and it's up to the firms themselves to make the most of them.”

How Clients Buy: The Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling from the Client Perspective provides not only useful data direct from decision makers, but also advice on how to apply the data to help professional services marketers and sellers be as successful as they can be. For example, 85% of buyers report encountering one or more major problems when trying to purchase services. Problems cited by decision makers included: service provider "not understand my needs” (40%), “did not craft compelling solution to my needs” (31%), “did not convince me of value I would receive” (32%), “had poor presentation skills” (24%), and “seemed to lack enthusiasm for winning my business” (24%).

"While service providers have more opportunities than in recent years to grow their firms, they can't seem to get their business development processes right by their clients," said John Doerr, Principal with the Wellesley Hills Group and report co-author. "If these firms want to win more than their fair share of clients, they're going to have to get better at selling...something most of them have never had to do before."

The report authors are Mike Schultz, Publisher of RainToday.com, John Doerr, Principal with the Wellesley Hills Group, and Andrea Meacham, Chief Content Officer of RainToday.com The report also details information on how clients prefer to source professional services providers, having implications for what marketing strategies service firms employ. Further information and advice for service providers from clients on how well the providers are doing in their business development processes are also included.
About RainToday.com

RainToday.com is the premier online source for insight, advice, and tools for growing a service business. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, RainToday.com features the most up-to-date resources including articles by industry experts, how-to guides and tools, sales and marketing research reports, webinars and events, and a weekly newsletter. For more information on RainToday.com, visit http://www.raintoday.com.

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RainToday.com

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