The Passionate Professional
– Creating value, success, prosperity
By Linda Julian. Published by Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd, Mosman, 2007. Paperback, 252 pages. RRP $29.50. ISBN 9780 6464 5926 4. Available online at www.julianmidwinter.com.au
Linda Julian is one of Australia’s more prominent business development consultants. She periodically and freely conveys her knowledge and experience through ‘eTips’ – a concise email communication that encapsulates advice about various aspects of business development as applied within the professional services firm environment.
As it happens, the latest of these arrived in my inbox today, and I recommend you go to www.julianmidwinter.com.au and subscribe to this free offering if you haven’t already.
The Passionate Professional is essentially a compilation of Linda’s ‘eTips’ pieces over the years, so if you aren’t yet a subscriber this is an opportunity to assemble the ‘back catalogue’ in hard copy – one piece to a page or so.
From the perspective of a marketing professional, there’s probably nothing new in this book, and that’s exactly the point. As Julian points out in the introduction, it has been noted that her advice “is all common sense”. As she further observes, how often is common sense actually not that common?
Therefore, there is a degree of repetition throughout this book in terms of the content and the concepts conveyed, but this probably reflects the original source of the material and the need for the basics to be constantly reinforced.
Where The Passionate Professional has great application is in the ongoing business development and client relationship management education and coaching of professional services practitioners.
Marketing management professionals may be well aware of the principles, processes and nuances of positioning the firm, pursuing differentiation and identifying how to add value to clients in scientific and creative terms.
But in law firms, accountancy practices and business consultancies (among others), under the umbrella of firm-wide integrated marketing management it is ultimately up to the partners and practitioners to manage the client relationships and deliver the specialist technical service.
A paradox is that while the information and ideas contained in this book are eminently understandable by practitioners (it is totally free of marketing jargon), they almost certainly won’t have the time or inclination to read it in preference to focusing on their billings, or recuperating before taking on that next big matter.
However, as an aide-memoire for marketing managers and business developers to reinforce concepts to practitioners with the added credibility of an informed third party (show me the lawyer that doesn’t value consultancy), The Passionate Professional represents great value. Julian suggests that her material provides ready-made content for your next retreat or as the basis for marketing discussion between practitioners and their mentor or coach, and I would suggest that is a most appropriate application.
For the professional services marketer, it is useful to be reminded that your own internal clients – the lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects, etc. – haven’t had the benefit of years of formal education studying the intricacies of marketing and subsequent experience in the application of this art and science.
Although it is back to basics, The Passionate Professional emphasises that many behaviours and thought patterns that are obvious and natural to marketing professionals are not necessarily apparent or habitual to the practitioner.
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