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If you are a professional whose prime commodity is brainpower, or if your organization identifies itself as
´knowledge-based´, this book is for you. Whether you are a lawyer, accountant, architect, IT or management
consultant, or whether you sell your services in internal markets, for example HRD or R&D.
Sell Your Knowledge deals specifically with business development and marketing in business- to business markets.
The markets can be both inter- and intraorganisational. Knowledge as competitive strategy goes beyond products
and services. The more complicated products and services become, the more buyers and clients will have to interact.
Furthermore, professionals who offer their clients expertise and knowledge cannot delegate their marketing to sales
people. This is because their source of business is their own skills.
Is your company a Knowledge Organization (Definition)? Is knowledge your business? Ask yourself the crucial
question: Do we use our knowledge to carry out services for our clients or do we offer our knowledge to help them
improve their business? "The aim we have for our clients is to enhance their competitiveness through either: -
development, improvement - creating something new - problem solving". This is achieved through the transfer of
information and knowledge between you and your client.
Why is it difficult to market knowledge?
1. There is no demand. Knowledge companies have a range of methods, concepts and techniques through which
they help clients to solve their problems or develop
2. The client buys ´a pig in a poke´. The more complex or new the technique or method is, the more trust the client
needs to have for the knowledge professional.
3. The long-term acquisition process. While a simple product or service can be sold in half an hour, a knowledge-
intensive service or product needs a time space. The marketing of knowledge puts a focus on relationship
management. The image of your Knowledge Company, unit or organization is no make-up. It is your real
The model for relationship management is the four phases model of the dynamic client relationship.
4. Follow-up, feedback and client care. (Retaining the relationship and getting an ambassador).
If you succeed in managing the relationship and creating an understanding of the results that you have created for
your client, you will have a ´sales department´ in your customer´s organization.
* identifying client categories (market segments) which can benefit from their knowledge;
* contributing to change and results for clients so that they will act as ambassadors
To plan your business development and market communication, you can use seven key words, the seven C´s. The
first three Cs deal with visualizing your target groups.
FIRST C: CHOICE OF CLIENTS. Start by breaking down your total potential client market into a number of
distinct groups. This gives you the possibility to analyze the different needs Choosing target groups, ideal client
companies and clients help knowledge professionals to a joint vision and a goal image.
SECOND C: CLIENT INFORMATION. The most important qualification of a knowledge professional, except for
professional expertise, is the ability to search for and analyze the chosen clients´ needs. If you are a big company
you ought to organize internal pools of expertise that provide the organization with business intelligence through
gathering, analyzing information. Client information is the process of seeking information about target markets and
clients, and analyzing that information to find new needs for knowledge, pro
THIRD C: CHAIN OF CLIENT VALUES. You sell a result, not a method or an activity! Consultants are often
fascinated by their methods and skills but unaware of the results that they are hired to achieve. 1. Intrinsic value -
soft, intellectual or emotional value e g knowledge, capability, skill, attitude, confidence, satisfaction, relationship. 2.
Extrinsic value - practical/functional value, having to do with output, time and quality e g enhanced productivity,
efficiency, time reduction, task completion. 3. Systemic - financial value e g yields, profitability, turnover, income,
cost reduction. Applying value theory to the context of knowledge marketing gives you a means of discussing and
analyzing your clients´ problems and needs, the value you are going to offer them.
FOURTH C: CONTACT NETWORK. The most effective way of selling knowledge is to be recommended by a
person whom the client respects and trusts. Knowledge professionals need actively to build networks. In order to
communicate with strategic business contacts in a goal-oriented way, you can organize them into four groups: *
clients * investors * suppliers * key people Clients represent former, present and prospective clients. Investors
represent those people that have invested their money, reputation, ambition, etc. Suppliers include those external
organizations and people who contribute to your organization´s knowledge, services and administration, e g
subcontractors. Key people are those strategic people in your chosen client categories, who control media and
forums in their business environments.
FIFTH C: CLIENT EDUCATION. A knowledge company´s responsibility lies in helping their target groups
understand their needs through educating them. The knowledge organization is a step ahead of the customer, so you
need to * point out threats and opportunities * suggest solutions * activate crucial issues * give advice * debate and
share values. Your aim is to create an awareness of lacks and opportunities and thereby create a demand for your
knowledge.
SIXTH C: CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION. Communication is the strategy for developing an optimal chain
of marketing activities. Professionals have access to many different communicative media for clients. How does the
knowledge professional communicate to create, retain and develop mutually beneficial client relationships? One of
the most important aspects of ma
SEVENTH C: COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT. Competence is the attraction factor for knowledge companies.
Knowledge acts as a magnet and as such it is your most important competitive tool to attract both customers and
new employees. * Shared visions for their client categories and clear knowledge goals for themselves, * Courage to
take the risk of demanding assignments, * Professionals who take responsibility for their own and their colleagues´
learning, * Openness to share mistakes and learn from them, * Commitment to develop through working via
strategic partnerships and networks * Continuous development of new concepts, methods, tools etc for efficient and
effective ´production´.
Is there a role for a full time marketing professional in the knowledge organization? What are the organization´s
expectations on this person that can be called Marketing Developer? This person has to synthesize different skills.
Marketing skill * Coordinator (e g client data management, administrator of activities) * Analyst/controller (e g
market and client research, client base management) * Consultant (e g act as pedagogue, adviser and coach) *
Leader (e g facilitate the formulation of goals and strategies, encourage and coach the professionals in their
marketing activities)
References:
"Sell Your Knowledge offers a 158-page gold mine of ideas and examples on the issue of Know-how marketing". Dr.
Kerstin Friedrich, Strategie Brief Frankfurter Allgemeine.
"Sell Your Knowledge gives an interesting structure of theory together with valuable practical suggestions." Bob
Barnden, Partner, Coopers and Lybrand.
Case: PLS-Consult
The Danish management consultancy firm PLS-Consult, follows a deliberate knowledge strategy, and has begun to
measure the competencies, and development of its own staff, as well as the ways in which its customers contribute
invisible revenues.
Customers are divided into:
customers who contribute to image, references, and/or new assignments (very much/average/not much);
customers with challenging and widely educational projects that contribute to the firm's internal structure
(very much/average/not much);
customers who improve individual competence (very much/ average/not much).
About 15% of all their customers belong to the most valuable, "very much" class, which PLS-consult wants
to expand.
It divides consultants into three categories of experience: less than three years, between three and seven
years and over seven years. The basic qualification is a Bachelor's degree in engineering or business
administration. Over half the firm's consultants have over seven years' experience. PLS is anxious to
develop three more strategic competencies in its consultants, and therefore seeks to identify:
Leaders competent at managing major projects;
Teachers competent at transferring skills to others working on a project (and so contributing to internal
structure);
Generators competent at bringing in new customers.
About half PLS-Consult employees possess one or more of these abilities, which is a high figure. Most of
these findings are based on subjective assessments made by the senior executives at PLS. Internal attitude
surveys, and customer satisfaction polls have also been run, and will be repeated systematically in future.
These kinds of data enable PLS-Consult to keep strategy under constant review. How much of its revenue,
for example, comes from "image", and how much from "educational" customers? What proportion of its
most valuable skills is being assigned to customers that can enhance the firm's image? How much of the
revenue comes from very satisfied customers? Who are the most and the least satisfied customers? Which
customers are most profitable in cash terms? How much revenue comes from "bread-and-butter
customers", who contribute 'financial' profit, but nothing else?
The management has, for example, identified the need for more "teachers" to enable PLS to grow faster.
This begs questions like "How can actual and potential teachers, be developed and recruited?", and "What
kind of customer projects should such people be assigned to?". By measuring the growth of volume in
projects in which teachers are involved, the company can tell whether it is on the right track.
PLS would also like to win more image-enhancing customers. By measuring the volume of that segment,
they can see the extent to which that goal is being achieved. Customer polls can thus be used for strategic
purposes.
An issue of concern: The share of fees coming from highly satisfied are the same as last year, whereas the share of
least satisfied customers has increased. (not PLS data)
Satisfied customers are all important so the key to sustained profitability is the ability to establish and maintain
stable customer relationships. Regular customer surveys paint moving pictures of customer satisfaction. A summary
of responses to such a survey is shown in the chart. The share of fees coming from customers who regard the service
as very satisfactory, is the same as last year, whereas the share accounted for by the least satisfied customers has
increased. A chart of this kind should raise some questions from the Board.
The value of a customer base can also be assessed in terms of market development, because customers likely to
generate a flow of new projects, rather than the occasional one-off, are clearly more valuable.
Large efforts are put into low image projects while the share of fees coming from high quality project, which give
high image is low.
One of the most important means of competition is thus the ability to choose the right customers. One might
distinguish the following categories:
a) Customers who are profitable.
b) Customers who increase the competence of the engineers.
c) Customers who support the build up of internal structure.
d) Customers who build up the image and provide contacts with other customers.
Thus a key strategic aim should be to attract customers whose projects will improve image, internal structure or
individual competence, as well as being of high quality, and profitable.
The graph in the Figure above shows a not-too-favorable picture (the numbers in the example do not come from
PLS-consult).
High image projects are both the best and the worst: the best if the customer is impressed by the high quality of the
work, and the worst if the customer is dissatisfied.
In the chart above, no revenue is being earned from satisfied high-image customers. If the firm is to gain image,
something must be done about a situation like this.
A good situation: Almost 25% of the revenues come from customers who also contribute highly to both external
image and corporate structure.
Projects that make it possible to develop new concepts and methods, or which are big enough to be educational for
many employees, are more valuable than other projects. Customers who provide opportunities for such projects help
to reinforce the company's internal structure.