2nd Edition

How to Market Design Consultancy Services Finding, Winning, Keeping and Developing Clients

By Shan Preddy Copyright 2004
    238 Pages
    by Routledge

    238 Pages
    by Routledge

    The fast-paced nature of the design business means that you probably spend most of your time, energy and resources looking after your clients' needs, not your own. In our current, increasingly competitive marketplace where supply far outstrips demand, no design business will survive for long - let alone grow and develop - without a really effective marketing programme. It is no longer enough for you to provide a good product and simply hope for the best. Potential clients need to know exactly what you can do for them and what makes you different from your competitors. Existing clients need to know exactly why they should develop and continue their business with you. Quite simply, you need to convince design buyers that you are unequivocally the right consultancy for them, time and time again. This second, fully revised and updated, edition of Shan Preddy's popular book will help you to improve your marketing skills, no matter how large or small your design company, or which of the many disciplines you specialise in. Packed full of accessible, practical advice and information, this book is indispensable for all design consultancies.

    Contents: Foreword. Preface; Part I The Principles - How To Do It: Introduction: getting started; Marketing and mousetraps; Looking backwards to look forwards; Where are you going? The vision thing; The marketplace: clients' selection criteria; What are you and what do you do? How to establish your market positioning; Who wants you? How to define your target markets; Why should they bother? Developing sales propositions; How will they find out about you? Approach media; I think, therefore I plan: putting it all together; Words and pictures: it's what you say and the way you say it; Life's a pitch: getting the business; Resources: man and machine; Just hang on to what you've got: client care and retention; Deeper and wider: client development. Part II The Practice - How It Is Done. Part III The Private Views - How It Could Be Done Better. Part IV The Priority - How Clients Would Like It To Be Done. Index.

    Biography

    Shan Preddy is a Partner at Preddy&Co which specialises in business development consultancy for design firms and training for their staff. Her professional affiliations include the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Marketing Society, where she is a Business Leader. She is a member of the Institute of Directors, an Elected Associate of D&AD, a Fellow of the RSA and an accredited consultant on the DBA Experts Register. In addition, she is a regular speaker at, and chair of, design conferences and a skilled awayday facilitator. Throughout Europe, many leading design firms have benefited from Shan's expert business advice, and thousands of design professionals have read her books and participated in her popular masterclasses.