Becoming known and trusted where you want to grow

Reputation in one sector doesn’t guarantee visibility in another. Mary Cloonan explains how targeted visibility can help firms win new business and boost revenues

In professional services, business has always been built on reputation.

For tax advisers, accountants and corporate finance professionals, relationships, referrals and technical expertise remain fundamental to winning work.

However, some of the best people are almost invisible outside their existing networks.

They may be exceptional technically with loyal clients in a particular sector, but this doesn’t mean the wider market knows about them.

At the same time, these people may find they are expected to build relationships and bring in new business.

There is a disconnect and the solution lies in firms focusing on how they can make their best people more visible by positioning their expertise in the sectors in which they want to grow.

Visibility is a commercial issue

Making top-performing employees more visible on LinkedIn isn’t the answer here. The issue is more commercial. Do the people your firm needs to win future work have enough visibility in your target markets?

For an accountancy firm, this might be a partner with considerable experience in manufacturing. For a tax firm, it could be an adviser who has built a strong reputation in transactions or succession. For a corporate finance boutique, it could be someone who has completed several deals in the pharmacy, retail or technology sectors.

The expertise may already exist; the challenge is making sure the right market knows about it.

Where should your experts be visible?

Ideally, your best professionals should be visible where the opportunities are. This is why sector strategy matters so much.

If a corporate finance adviser has completed several pharmacy transactions and genuinely understands this market, describing their role as simply “corporate finance specialist” isn’t enough.

Look at the sector itself. Which publications do people in pharmacy read? Which industry organisations and groups matter? What conferences do they attend? Where are the opportunities to speak, contribute an article, join a panel or provide useful commentary?

The same principle applies to an accountant specialising in manufacturing or a tax adviser with considerable retail expertise.

LinkedIn is part of the picture and just one potential channel. An article in a respected industry publication, involvement with an industry group or a speaking slot at the right industry conference can be considerably more valuable than another general social media post.

The objective is not to be visible everywhere; it is to be consistently visible in the places that matter to the market you want to develop.

Referrals still matter

A referral remains one of the most powerful ways to win work in professional services, but a recommendation won’t necessarily prompt an immediate phone call.

People may encounter an adviser several times before anything happens. Someone recommends their name. Later, they see them speaking at an industry event. They come across an article they have written in a sector publication. They notice their commentary on LinkedIn. Then, when an opportunity eventually arises, the name is already familiar.

The same principle applies to an adviser developing a sector. One introduction or article is unlikely to establish someone as the go-to adviser in manufacturing, pharmacy or retail. Repeated, relevant visibility builds recognition over time.

Start with the commercial opportunity

Visibility planning should begin with the firm’s growth strategy rather than its marketing calendar.

Where does the firm see opportunity arising in the three years ahead? Which sectors are growing? Where does the firm already have strong credentials? Which partners and senior advisers have genuine expertise that could be developed into a stronger market position?

Once those questions have been answered, visibility becomes much easier to plan.

If manufacturing represents an opportunity, identify the people with genuine manufacturing expertise and understand the associations, publications, events and networks that matter within this sector.

If a corporate finance adviser has significant experience in healthcare, think about how this expertise can be made more visible before the next mandate comes to market.

This approach is more purposeful than asking partners to post on their socials more often.

Think about the next generation

Many successful professional services firms have senior partners with extraordinary networks built over twenty or thirty years, and these relationships can’t simply be handed to the next generation.

If a director or recently appointed partner is expected to become an important business generator, their market profile needs to grow.

Help them identify the sectors in which they can become known. Give them opportunities to speak. Introduce them to relevant industry groups. Build relationships with sector publications. Put them into the rooms where the people they want to reach already gather.

Over time, familiarity and credibility will build.

Make expertise visible where it matters

Professional services will always be relationship-based. Visibility does not replace relationships. It supports relationships and can make an existing referral considerably more powerful.

The question for firms is not simply whether their people are visible; it is whether the right people are visible, for the right expertise in right target markets.

The opportunity is not to make these professionals “louder”. It is to make sure genuine expertise is visible where it matters.

Mary Cloonan is a strategic marketing adviser and founder of Marketing Clever