What are you actually known for?

As we have looked at in previous blogs, the majority of private client services aren't as amenable to traditional marketing as the commercial services your firm may offer.

Successful private client practices are much more reliant upon client and professional referrals and if you are to maximise the level of referrals you create and receive, you will need to have something worth referring.

For many solicitors, tax advisers, IFAs and investment specialists, 'something worth referring' comes down to their technical skills. These technical skills are expressed in the preferred legal or financial argot of the day; professional terms that mean little outside the offices of the firm they've emanated from.

I'll be the first to agree that these terms are factually correct. They do indeed describe exactly what you offer your clients. The problem is, they are terms that mean nothing to the consumer or, in many cases, to the other professionals you rely on to introduce new opportunities.

As we enter a new year, is it time you thought about articulating the services you offer in a way that means more to your clients and referrers? If so, it will also be worth double-checking you are using language that clearly expresses the benefits both groups will derive from instructing you over your competitors.

Bene facere

If we start by looking at the word, 'benefit', it is derived from the Latin bene facere, meaning 'to do good'. So what good stuff will happen when you do what you do for your clients? What good stuff will your referrers' clients enjoy should they introduce them to you?

In general terms, these benefits come down to three things:

1. You save them time

2. You save them hassle

3. You save them money (and when I talk about saving them money I'm not talking about leading with discounted fee offers or trying to compete on price at every level of your market; I'm talking about saving them unnecessary fees or bills further down the line).

When you work out which are applicable to your practice (and it could well be you offer the potential to do two or even three in different ways) try to put it into a relevant context and into everyday language, ensuring you get over exactly what you do for every sort of interested party within your particular purchasing chain.

For example:

• If you are a wills and trusts solicitor, you will make sure your clients have all the correct structures in place so their assets are correctly (and, in all likelihood, tax efficiently) distributed. Here the benefit is peace of mind for the client, as they will know their family members will be less likely to have to endure an expensive, stressful and drawn-out probate, at a time likely to be painful and emotionally charged.

• If you're a tax accountant, your particular set of skills will enable them to take advantage of all the available reliefs so they end up paying no more than is strictly necessary; this has to be the overriding benefit. You will also save your clients the time it takes to prepare their tax return and the hassle of making sure all the relevant boxes are filled in and the deadline is met, which in turn means you'll save them any potential penalties.

• If you are an IFA or investment manager, the benefit you offer is an up-to-date understanding of the myriad of complex financial products open to the general public, a set of rules, regulations and compliance us mere mortals can't be counted on (and that's not sarcastic in any way) to gain best advantage from. This not only saves clients the time and hassle of trying to weigh each up against the others, it also makes sure we pick the one that is best for us and most likely to generate the best return given our particular set of circumstances.

Deliver the package

Once you have your offering aligned and clearly articulated, the next question we tend to be asked is: Where do I use it? The most obvious applications are:

• Your website and LinkedIn profile. Increasingly, this is where people either 'meet' you for the first time or go to check you out after someone has mentioned you to them. Make sure you describe yourself in terms of what you really do and how that will benefit the reader, and not though a list of impenetrable technical jargon.

• Tell clients when you meet them. This may be at first meetings, during your response to a telephone enquiry, at a local networking or social event, or it may even be delivered in a brochure. Just make sure the message gets out to your clients so they know how to introduce you to their personal networks.

• Tell existing and potential referrers. They can't picture who to refer you to, or when to refer you if they don't know exactly what you do. Additionally, this will tell them exactly how referring you will make them look good in front of their clients. You can get this over at networking events, over coffee or on team events between your firms.

• In your marketing collateral. We've already touched on including the benefits you provide in your brochures, but you can also include it in your newsletters (perhaps as part of an interview or departmental focus rather than as a strap-line) or in your signage at local events, or at the seminars and workshops you run either as a firm or in conjunction with your preferred professional partners.

Exactly what you choose to promote the benefits you offer is irrelevant; what is essential is being able to articulate the benefits and making sure that by hook or by crook, those messages get out to your most fertile sources of new work so they understand what it is you do and exactly how it will benefit them.

Douglas McPherson is a director at Size 10 1/2 Boots

He writes a regular blog about marketing for Private Client Adviser