The Illusion of Success

Marketing Costs - are they worth it?

Most well-positioned professional services organisations invest heavily in marketing. They employ internal marketing teams or retain specialist agencies to define brand personality, identify a unique selling proposition, and create a coherent visual identity. Serious or playful. Traditional or modern. Colours, fonts, brochures, websites, and logos are all aligned to tell a single story.

This is where marketing usually stops being effective.

The assumption is that a strong brand, clever messaging, and high-quality collateral will naturally convert into higher profits. Yet in many professional firms, marketing directors do not last long. They are often blamed for failing to move the bottom line while being perceived as an expensive cost centre once events, travel, hospitality, and rebranding are added up.

If marketing is not the answer, what is?

Marketing is essential—but in professional services, it rarely addresses the real problem, what moves the bottom line - net profit.

Marketing teams are usually tasked with “getting people through the door.” Events, speaker series, lunches, dinners, and networking evenings are designed to create visibility and buzz. Public relations follows, with quotes placed in relevant publications and advertisements appearing where the target audience is expected to look.

And still, profitability often disappoints.

The issue is not awareness. It is conversion. Professional services are not consumer goods. They are not bought because of familiarity alone. They are bought because of trust—and trust is not confidence created by branding and an impressive office.

Lessons from the front line.

When I became head of the private client department at Simmons & Simmons, I was given a stark instruction: if the department did not generate City-level profits within two years, the future for me and my group lay elsewhere. I received no manual, no mentor, and no strategic guidance.

So I started with the clients I wanted to work for.

I identified the type of client the firm wanted to serve: international entrepreneurs. I then focused on their real concern—succession of decision-making within their businesses. Think less “inheritance planning” and more Succession, the television drama centred on the Murdoch empire.

This clarity immediately highlighted the work we should not be doing. Domestic inheritance and probate matters were better handled by other firms. Saying no created space to excel where we could add real value.

Trust Is Personal, Not Corporate

One important exception to my narrow focus involved working with David Bulteel, an investment manager. David had an extraordinary ability to build trust. He met clients annually, asked about their health and wellbeing, and explained his investment strategy in the context of world events and politics.

Clients may not have fully understood the technical details—but they trusted him.

The investment firm’s brand reassured me of competence, but I referred clients to David because I trusted him, not the logo. This distinction matters. Professional services are not like laundry detergent. Clients cannot assess quality before purchase. They engage advisers on faith, referrals, and personal credibility.

Profitability Lives at the Individual Level

Client feedback reinforced this truth. I asked them for feedback. Many described professional firms as intimidating. Expensive offices, technical language, unclear costs, and a sense of being rushed through a “revolving door” without truly understanding what they were buying.

The weakest link in professional services profitability is not marketing spend—it is the lack of client focus at the individual professional level. I want to start a ‘Client Focus Revolution’ and would like you to join us.

My award-winning methodology addresses this directly:
Sustained Growth = Visibility + Strategy, applied not at brand level, but at the level of the individual lawyer, banker, accountant, or adviser.

In February, I will share how professional organisations can use AI to reclaim time—and reinvest it where it matters most: clients. Those who do will increase revenue, reduce costs, improve retention, and build trust that no brand campaign can buy.