It is our sense that there has never been a better time to be in professional services. While budgets are tight and clients and prospects scrutinize every project for value, there have never been more buyers of professional services who are this open to new providers.

1. FIVE STRATEGIES
TO ACQUIRE
NEW IDEAL CLIENTS
IN A TOUGH ECONOMY
PLAN. BRAND. EXPAND.

2. Introduction 3
Strategy 1: Build Or Update Your Ideal Client Profile 6
Strategy 2: Analyze Your Existing Messages And Promises 11
Strategy 3: Identify Gaps Where Changes Should Be Made 17
Strategy 4: Build A Client Acquisition Plan 24
Strategy 5: Execute The Strategy And Track Results 29
Conclusion 31
About The Shattuck Group 32
About The Author 34
Table of Contents
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
2
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
By Randy Shattuck, CEO, The Shattuck Group
© Copyright 2009, The Shattuck Group. All rights reserved.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
All content contained in this document is the intellectual property of The Shattuck Group.
By using this document, you agree to the following terms and conditions. 1. You may
download, print, and copy this workbook one time for your personal use provided that you
retain all copyright notices and do not modify the workbook in any way. 2. This workbook is
provided “as is” without any warranties of any kind whatsoever, including warranties of title
or fitness for a particular purpose. The Shattuck Group makes no warranties of any results
that may be obtained from the use of this workbook. 3. In no event will The Shattuck Group,
Randy Shattuck, or any officers, employees, or agents of The Shattuck Group be liable for
any indirect, consequential, special, incidental, or punitive damages from the use of this
workbook.
If you cannot abide by these terms and conditions than you agree to, and are hereby charged
with, destroying all copies, both electronic and physical, of this workbook.

3. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
3
Never before have we, at The Shattuck Group, witnessed so
much interest among professional services (PS) firms in acquir-
ing new clients. As we all grapple with the worst recession that
today’s working adults have ever seen, a hunger for client acqui-
sition grows to almost desperate proportions.
This hunger puts many firms at risk of making poor decisions.
Introduction
In fact, The Shattuck Group conducted
market research with more than 200
PS executives in early 2009. We asked
those executives to identify priorities
among a wide range of topics that were
of importance to them. The results?
“Acquiring new clients” was the num-
ber one concern of these executives,
with 77.3% reporting that this was
“very important” to them and 17.7%
stating that it was “important.”
“Retaining existing clients” was the
number two concern of these execu-
tives, with 70.6% reporting that this was
“very important” to them and 22.3%
stating that it was “important.”
Their number three concern, not sur-
prisingly, was “generating leads,” with
66.5% reporting that this was “very
important” to them and 23.9% stating
that it was “important.”
Now you might be wondering why
these statistics are significant enough
to warrant being on page three of this
document. There are two reasons.
First, if you examine how these con-
cerns rank next to other legitimate
concerns, there is a sizable gap be-
tween them. Topics such as “develop-
ing effective marketing plans, upgrad-
ing brand identity, differentiating from
competitors, increasing brand aware-
ness, conducting research, productizing
services, and pricing services appro-
priately” were ranked as much as 50%
lower in importance compared to the
client-revenue-oriented concerns.
Second, if you compare this survey to
previous surveys about these same top-
ics, there is far less distance between
the client-revenue-oriented concerns
and the other concerns. This suggests
a dramatic shift in mentality and priori-
ties, a shift which may have unhealthy
consequences.

4. Analysis
What do these statistics tell us? We
think there are three observations of
critical importance here.
1. PS executives are under tremen-
dous pressure to generate new rev-
enue. Unfortunately, human beings
are prone to make hasty decisions
that may not be in their long-term
best interest when facing these
conditions.
2. We are concerned that executives
are obfuscating “revenue genera-
tion” and “client acquisition.” To
us, the two are not one and the
same. New clients often come with
high risk and may not remain good
clients over time. New clients are
far more likely, in our experience,
to negatively impact profitability
and create management headaches.
More often than not, existing clients
are the best source of quick new
revenue. While client retention was
a top concern of PS executives, the
techniques that empower firms to
grow revenues from existing clients
(research and productizing services)
were at the bottom of the list of
priorities.
3. While acquiring new clients and
retaining existing clients were of
top importance, the techniques that
make these goals possible were
of lowest importance. This again
suggests that PS executives are not
thinking entirely clearly in these
stressful times. In our experience,
conducting market research to bet-
ter understand ideal clients (only
22.3% ranked this as very impor-
tant) and productizing services (only
17% ranked this as very important)
are two of the very best ways to
impact revenue quickly. A great
new idea, packaged up and ready to
sell to a friendly existing client, can
have a huge impact on quarterly
earnings reports.
A Big Mistake
But our biggest concern today is that
PS executives are moving straight to
tactics without understanding how and
why those tactics will deliver the rev-
enue results they seek. It seems almost
as if they read about a new tactic that a
marketing guru recommends and they
are only too eager to try it.
We believe this distracts from sound
strategy and a methodical approach to
touching the market and gaining great-
er market share.
Executives who fail to put strategy in
front of tactics will soon find them-
selves with a lot of activity but not the
results they were hoping for.
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
4

5. How To Use This Workbook
The remainder of this workbook ad-
dresses these observations by offering
an alternative approach to client ac-
quisition and revenue generation that
is thoughtful, based on best-practices,
and that has proven to be highly suc-
cessful for The Shattuck Group and our
clients over time.
It is our sense that there has never
been a better time to be in professional
services. While budgets are tight and
clients and prospects scrutinize every
project for value, there have never
been more buyers of professional ser-
vices who are this open to new pro-
viders. Traditional loyalties between
buyers and sellers have been shat-
tered, opening the door to new firms
and new ideas.
The remainder of this workbook shows
you step-by-step how to exploit these
new opportunities and effectively grab
market share. Each chapter in this
workbook is comprised of a concept
and an exercise. The concept will ex-
plain what you can do to acquire new
ideal clients and the exercise will ask
you to put the idea into action for your
firm. Ready to get started?
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
5
N = 199 Professional Services Executives.
Acquiring
New Clients
Retaining
Existing Clients
Generating
Leads
1.0% 4.0% 17.7% 77.3%
2.5% 4.6% 22.3% 70.6%
1.5% 8.1% 23.9% 66.5%
Source: Professional Services Journal and The Shattuck Group
study of 207 professional services leaders. 2009.
PS Executives’ Top Three Concerns
Not
Important
Somewhat
Important
Very
ImportantImportant

6. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
6
Every professional services (PS) firm has ideal clients - the type
of client that you are best suited to serve. When PS firms serve
ideal clients effectively, everything else falls into place. But until
PS firms discover who their ideal client is and the best way to
serve them, they often struggle.
The goal of this strategy is to help you discover or update your
ideal client profile.
Strategy 1: Build Or Update Your
Ideal Client Profile
Ideal Clients Defined
An ideal client is a business that your
firm is best suited to serve. There are
seven major qualities that most PS
firms look for in an ideal client:
1. Impact – you deliver services that
have a significant impact on their
business, usually their top or bot-
tom line or both.
2. Budget – ideal clients easily afford
your services and usually have
already reserved a line item in their
annual budget for those services.
3. Profits – you earn a substantial
profit by delivering these services.
4. Insights – you understand what
your ideal client needs often better
than they do.
5. Expertise – your ideal clients want
and need your specific capabilities
and have limited options for acquir-
ing that expertise.
6. Culture – there is a good fit between
the way you do business and the
way your ideal clients prefer to be
served.
7. Chemistry – your staff and your
ideal clients’ staff work well togeth-
er with few conflicts.
When PS firms have an abundance of
these types of clients, they find them-
selves in the enviable position of real-
izing seven major benefits:
1. Revenue – they have all of the rev-
enue they need to reward employ-
ees and stakeholders.
2. Profitability – their deals are con-
sistently profitable at levels that
exceed industry averages and fuel
their economic engine.
3. Growth – they consistently grow at
a rate that meets the expectations of
stakeholders.
4. Loyalty – both employees and
clients feel a strong sense of affin-
ity for the firm and want to see it do
well over time.
5. Satisfaction – employees find their

7. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
7
work fulfilling and enjoyable. Cli-
ents realize results that meet or
exceed their expectations.
6. Commitment – employees devote
themselves to supporting clients
and giving their best efforts.
7. Vision – executives and stakehold-
ers take a long-term view and invest
in initiatives that enable the firm to
achieve its full potential.
How can your firm acquire ideal clients
and realize these benefits? You build
an ideal client profile for every service
you offer. An ideal client profile is a list
of attributes across the following pa-
rameters:
• Demographic factors
• Decision-makers & influencers
• Key concerns of those decision-
makers and influencers
• Goals they want to achieve
The value of building an ideal client
profile is that it helps you see clearly
whom you are seeking to serve, chal-
lenges you will help them overcome
and opportunities you will help them
exploit, and results they want to realize
from associating with your firm. This
profile can and should be shared with
everyone inside your organization to
ensure you are all united in your vision
and goals.
Please note that your firm may have
several ideal clients, one for each ser-
vice you offer. You will realize tremen-
dous benefits and focus by building
an ideal client profile for each of your
services. To do this, pick an important
service and complete the exercise form
below. You can repeat this exercise for
every service you offer.
If you cannot complete the following
exercise with a high degree of confi-
dence that your answers are accurate
and representative of the ideal buyer of
that service, you should seriously con-
sider conducting market research. To
learn more about how to do this, please
visit www.theshattuckgroup.com and
click on Our Services.

8. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
8
Strategy 1 Exercise:
Build Or Update Your Ideal Client Profile
Pick one important service you offer and complete the exercise below about the
ideal client for that service. Repeat this exercise for each service you offer.
Demographic Factors
Industry:
Broad industry
Sub-industry
Geography
Company size:
Employee count
Annual revenue
Decision Makers & Influencers:
Major responsibilities
Departments
Titles

9. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
9
Tenure with company
Psychographic data:
Age range
Education
Gender
Key Concerns
Challenges: (what keeps them up at night worrying?)
Challenge 1
Challenge 2
Challenge 3
Opportunities: (what they dream of accomplishing?)
Opportunity 1
Opportunity 2
Opportunity 3

10. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
10
Goals They Want To Achieve
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Goal 5

11. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
11
Many PS people believe that what they do is about expertise,
credibility, and capability. While this may be true, it is not the
reason that clients buy. Clients buy because they believe in a
promise. In fact, the fundamental nature of selling professional
services is – in a word – promise. As PS people, we promise to
help our clients go from where they are now to where they want
to be in the future.
The goal of this strategy is to help you analyze the efficacy of the
promises you make to your market.
Strategy 2: Analyze Your Existing
Promises
Your Promises
What promises are you making to your
clients, prospects, and the market at
large? To answer this question, you
need to look at your messages. Let’s
pick one service that you offer, say the
most popular or maybe the most profit-
able service you offer, and let’s exam-
ine it in greater detail.
Most of the time, promises are made
through brochures, web pages, presen-
tations, webinars, and other types of
marketing materials. Gather those ma-
terials together in one location and lay
them out on a table. Have a highlighter
handy. What do you see?
An Objective Look
If your firm is like most, you’ll see in-
consistencies of several kinds:
• Identity – this is probably the most
obvious one. Many firms struggle
to keep their identity consistent
across all points of exposure to the
market. But this is the least likely
area to negatively impact client
acquisition.
• Value Proposition – is your value
proposition consistent from one
document to the next? Is it clearly,
simply, and elegantly articulated
so that it stands out? Can a client
look at a document and know within
seconds why they should buy this
service?

12. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
12
• Results – do you promise to deliver
specific results or outcomes from
your service and if so what are
they? Are these results consistently
stated from one document to the
next? More than just deliverables,
results are the impact of the deliv-
erables on your client’s business.
Results are typically tied to specific,
quantifiable outcomes from your
service.
• Benefits – what benefits will clients
realize from the service? While re-
sults are specific to business drivers
of a quantifiable nature, benefits are
more subjective but equally impor-
tant. Benefits are the psychological
rewards of having achieved certain
results.
• Deliverables – do you consistently
outline the deliverables from your
service? Do clients and prospects
understand the tangible items that
they will take possession of as you
deliver services?
It is important to examine your sales
and marketing materials from a disin-
terested perspective. If you do not feel
confident that you can do this on your
own, we recommend that you hire an
outside firm or find a friend or col-
league to do this on your behalf.

13. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
13
Strategy 2 Exercise:
Analyze Your Existing Promises
Pick one major service you offer, preferably a popular or highly profitable service,
and complete the exercise below for that service.
Promises Made To Clients
Value proposition:
Results
Result 1
Result 2

14. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
14
Result 3
Result 4
Result 5
Benefits:
Benefit 1
Benefit 2

15. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
15
Benefit 3
Benefit 4
Benefit 5
Deliverables:
Deliverable 1

16. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
16
Deliverable 2
Deliverable 3
Deliverable 4
Deliverable 5

17. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
17
When PS firm struggle to close deals, there is often a problem
with their promises. If ideal clients deeply desire the results you
can deliver, have adequate budget, and have a business reason
to take action, more often than not you’ll win their business. But
when gaps exist between ideal client’s goals and your promises,
close rates suffer.
The goal of this strategy is to identify gaps between ideal clients’
desires and your promises and create strategies to close those
gaps.
Strategy 3: Identify Gaps Where
You Should Make Changes
Discover The Disconnect
Once you’ve built your ideal client pro-
file and analyzed an important service,
you are in a good position to compare
the two. This is a powerful exercise
that will clearly demonstrate where you
need to make changes to your mes-
sages so they become more persuasive
and you win more deals and increase
profits.
It is often at this point in this process
that PS executives begin to make the
following observations:
• Truth In Advertising – some PS
executives become concerned that
this exercise is leading them to a
point where they simply tell clients
and prospect what they want to
hear rather than making substantive
changes to what a PS firm actually
does. Rest assured, this exercise is
not heading in that direction. You
have to understand where the gaps
lie before you create a plan to ad-
dress them.
• This Is A Lot Of Work – yes it is.
This strategy will call for not only
changes to the way you package
and present your services, but also
changes to the actual services and
deliverables themselves. Make no
mistake about it.
• A Crossroads – this is the moment
where you get to see what the
market wants, what they care about,
and how you stack up against those
desires. Now you have a decision

18. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
18
to make. Will you put the work into
re-positioning your services and
sales and marketing messages? Is
it really worth the effort? Only you
can answer this question.
Steps To Success
Begin this exercise by listing the key
concerns and results that ideal clients
care about deeply. Then list the prom-
ises from your service. Analyze the
two and then record the major gaps
that you see. Rank each gap in order of
importance. Some criteria for deciding
the significance of the gap can include:
• Expectations – do ideal clients ex-
pectations so significantly outweigh
your ability to deliver that it is not
worth it to try to address those ex-
pectations?
• Profitability – do ideal client ex-
pectations dramatically exceed the
price they are willing to pay, nega-
tively impacting profitability and
making changes to your service
unattractive to you?
• Messaging – can you substantially
improve the positioning of your
service simply by changing your
messaging and promises? This is
an ideal situation because it will
increase the attractiveness of the
service and allow you to charge
more for it – all without impacting
your cost of operations and profit-
ability.
• Adjustments – can you make a few
minor upgrades to deliverables,
your methodology, or other opera-
tional components and then re-
package the service to make it more
attractive to ideal clients? This
is also a very desirable situation
because it empowers you to charge
more with only minor decreases to
profitability.
Finally, list some strategies for how you
will close the gap between ideal clients’
key concerns and desired results and
your service’s promises. Some criteria
for defining strategies to close the gaps
can include:
• Impact – how much more attractive
can you make the service by closing
the gaps?
• Revenue – how much more revenue
can you generate by closing the
gaps?
• Client Acquisition – how many more
new clients can you acquire by clos-
ing the gap?
• Hard Costs – how much will it cost
you, in terms of collateral re-prints
and other hard costs, to complete
this work?
• Opportunity Costs – if you choose
not to close the gaps, what opportu-
nities might you miss?

19. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
19
Strategy 3 Exercise:
Identify Gaps Where You Should Make Changes
Compare the ideal client profile and the promises of your service by completing
the exercise below. Use abbreviated statements for the work you’ve completed
thus far.
Ideal Client Profile
Key Concerns
Challenges: (what keeps them up at night worrying?)
Challenge 1
Challenge 2
Challenge 3
Opportunities: (what do they dream of accomplishing?)
Opportunity 1
Opportunity 2
Opportunity 3
Goals They Want To Achieve:
Goal 1

20. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
20
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Goal 5
Your Service Profile
Promises Made To Clients
Value Proposition
Results
Result 1
Result 2
Result 3
Result 4
Result 5

21. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
21
Benefits
Benefit 1
Benefit 2
Benefit 3
Benefit 4
Benefit 5
Deliverables
Deliverable 1
Deliverable 2
Deliverable 3
Deliverable 4
Deliverable 5

22. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
22
Gaps Between Ideal Clients’ Key Concerns And Desired
Results And Your Service’s Promises
Gap 1
Gap 2
Gap 3
Gap 4
Gap 5

23. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
23
Strategies To Close The Gaps Between Ideal Clients’ Key
Concerns And Desired Results And Your Service’s
Promises
Strategy 1
Strategy 2
Strategy 3
Strategy 4
Strategy 5

24. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
24
Earlier we noted the inherent danger of putting tactics in front of
strategy. Too often we see PS executives mapping out a twelve-
month plan on a spreadsheet and inserting activities, like webi-
nars, emails, and other tactics. Sometimes it seems the actual
content of these activities is almost an after-thought. In the end,
you do want to have a good plan laid out logically in a spread-
sheet, but this is not the place to start. Pull marketing, by com-
parison, begins with the message and emphasizes the reasons
the market should pay attention to your firm.
The goal of this strategy is to help you develop a highly effective
client acquisition plan based on pull-marketing concepts.
Strategy 4: Build A Client
Acquisition Plan Based On
A Pull Strategy
Pull Marketing Defined
Pull marketing draws ideal clients into
your brand by giving them content
and ideas that are meaningful to them,
causing them to want to reach out to
you. It is predicated on the notion that
ideal clients are already incredibly busy
and only if you provide them some-
thing of value, usually for free, will they
pay attention to you.
Push marketing, on the other hand, is
predicated on the notion that if you tell
your target audience who you are, what
you do, and why they should do busi-
ness with you - and tell them repeat-
edly - they will listen and eventually do
business with you.
One of the best examples of pull mar-
keting is thought leadership. We often
say that if you tell clients how to solve
their most pressing problems, they will
pay attention and begin to conceive of
you as a source of solutions. This is an
excellent starting point for building a
client relationship. So how can you do
this?
Begin With The End In Mind
An effective pull marketing strategy
focuses around just a few key themes
divided up into specific messages
delivered across a handful of cam-

25. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
25
paigns. Think of this as your editorial
calendar, the kind that trade publica-
tions use.
To build a highly effective pull market-
ing strategy, you need two things: great
content and a campaign plan. Here are
a few suggestions for building solid
content and an editorial calendar:
• Utilize The Concerns Noted From
Your Ideal Client Profile – if it mat-
ters to ideal clients it should matter
to you. Select the top three ideal
client concerns and create an edito-
rial calendar where you plan out
10-12 messages that address these
concerns.
• Tell Your Market How To Solve
Their Most Pressing Problems – ev-
ery ideal client has goals they want
to accomplish. You draw them into
your brand when you tell them how
to accomplish those goals. And re-
member, just because you tell them
how to solve their greatest challeng-
es, that doesn’t mean they can or
will do it independently of you. But
if you show them you know how
to accomplish goals that they care
about deeply, they will be far more
likely to contact you than a competi-
tor when the time is right.
• Provide Insights That Come Directly
From Your Experiences – part of the
goal of this exercise is to position
you and your brand as a thought
leader. The more you can relate
insights that arise directly from your
experiences, the more you will be
perceived as a leader.
• Use Case Studies And Market
Research – whenever possible,
develop and use case studies and
market research. This adds a sense
of objectivity and credibility to your
marketing strategies.
• Emphasize Good Clear Communica-
tion – make your writing as clean
and as simple as possible. Avoid
technical terms and maintain a con-
versational, yet professional, tone.
Hire a proofreader and publish qual-
ity final pieces.
The primary goal of your campaign
plan is to insert your brand into the
buying cycle of as many ideal clients
as possible. Your campaigns should
be tactical, short-term, and designed
to elicit buying behavior quickly from
ideal clients. Some of these types of
tactics include:
• Direct-response campaigns targeted
at specific buyers inside specific
businesses
• Email marketing campaigns with
white papers and other value-based
offers
• Webinars
• Telemarketing campaigns
• Social networking campaigns
• Website upgrades
• Online video and audio tools
• Search engine marketing
• Referral incentive plans for existing
clients
• Strategic alliances with key partners
who have clients who fit your ideal
client profile
Map these across a twelve-month plan
and assign specific messages to spe-
cific tactics.

26. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
26
Strategy 4 Exercise:
Build A Client Acquisition Plan Based On A Pull Strategy
Develop your editorial calendar below and then apply messages to specific tactics.
Editorial Calendar (Content):
Key Themes: (major topics of importance to ideal clients)
Theme 1
Theme 2
Theme 3

27. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
27
Theme 4
Theme 5
Messages: (your treatment of the themes divided into specific topics where you
provide insights and expertise)
Message 1
Message 2
Message 3
Message 4
Message 5
Message 6
Message 7
Message 8

28. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
28
Message 9
Message 10
Message 11
Message 12
Campaign Plan (Tactics):
Direct-response
Email marketing
Webinars
Telemarketing
Social networking
Website upgrades
Online video and audio tools
Search engine marketing
Referral incentive plans
Strategic alliances

29. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
29
PS executives with outdated or incorrect data, or worse yet – no
data at all – are not in a good position to make course correc-
tions where necessary. In our experience, certain tactics and
messages pull much more effectively than others. What’s more,
it is nearly impossible at the outset of a campaign to know which
are the winners and which are just okay. Tracking systems great-
ly improve your ability to target the right messages at the right
audience and increase deal-flow.
The goal of this strategy is to help you implement tracking sys-
tems that provide actionable intelligence so you can continually
refine your campaigns.
Strategy 5: Execute Your Pull
Strategy And Track Results
Implement Tracking Systems
Now that your client acquisition plan is
ready to execute, there are few more
final steps you should take to ensure
the greatest success possible. Some of
those steps include:
• Integration – integrate tracking into
key business processes, especially
the addition of contacts to your
CRM. We recommend that you
create technology policies that will
not allow a new contact to be added
to the CRM unless their source of
origin is identified.
• Training – train your staff to use the
tracking systems effectively and
always tout the benefits to them of
knowing which tactics are produc-
ing the best results.
• Monitoring – we recommend that
you monitor your CRM at least
weekly and look for the source of
new contacts in the database.
• Assessment – define a “check-in”
point when you will analyze data
from a set period of time and assess
what changes, if any, you want to
make to your client acquisition plan.
We typically recommend a quarterly
assessment.
Some key data points that are impor-
tant to track over time include:
• Web Statistics – there are a few
different types of statistics to track
here: total unique visitors monthly,
length of visits, total pages clicked

30. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
30
per user, and specific actions such as
registering for white papers, webi-
nars, and other activities.
• Email Statistics – whether you man-
age email in-house or use a service
bureau, it is advisable to track total
messages sent, total opens, and
click-throughs to landing pages.
• Source Of New Leads – if your CRM
system will allow it, set up a filter
that you can run weekly for new
contacts who have entered your
database. Then filter a report on the
source of these new contacts. Be
sure to have a unique “source” for
every campaign you run.
• Messages – between web landing
pages, specific emails, and coor-
dinated campaigns, you should be
able to see relatively quickly which
messages seem to elicit the right
behavior from your target audience.
This data is invaluable for refining
campaigns and making them as suc-
cessful as possible.
• Close Rates – if your CRM will allow
it, track leads all the way through
the sales funnel, from first contact
to proposal to close. Then look
for trends at both the content and
campaign level. If you can identify
specific campaigns and messages
that produce a greater number of
new clients, you can repeat them
knowing they will impact revenue.

31. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
31
In today’s tough economic climate, PS firms need to maximize
their resources to achieve the greatest success possible. These
five strategies, when implemented effectively, have produced
outstanding results for The Shattuck Group and our clients.
While they require concerted effort to realize their full potential,
they will impact acquisition of the right clients, revenue, and
growth.
Is your firm ready to grow?
Conclusion
Final Thoughts
An ideal client is a business that your
firm is best suited to serve. Relation-
ships with ideal clients produce out-
standing results for both the client and
your firm. PS firms who have an abun-
dance of ideal clients experience ben-
efits like growth, stability, work satisfac-
tion, and the breathing room they need
to plan for the future.
To capture an ever-increasing share of
ideal clients, you need to understand
them deeply. If you do not, you should
conduct qualitative and quantitative
market research. Your deep under-
standing of ideal clients positions you
to tailor your services and promises to
them. As you implement a pull-mar-
keting strategy to attract them, you’ll
notice that they perceive you as both
an expert and a source of great ideas
and solutions.
To maximize the impact of your cam-
paigns and messages, implement track-
ing systems across key metrics such as
web, email, messages that pull more
effectively than others, and ultimately
close rates.
How We Can Help
At The Shattuck Group we understand
how much work these strategies re-
quire. But the good news is that you
do not have to go it alone. We would
be happy to have a conversation about
how we can support you through this
process. To begin this conversation,
call us today at 877-296-5301
or send an email to info@theshattuck-
group.com.

32. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
32
The Shattuck Group is a full-service marketing firm that special-
izes in professional services. We are a highly focused team of
branding, marketing, and business development experts. Based
out of the Silicon Valley in San Jose, California, we serve select
clients nationwide.
About The Shattuck Group
Our Mission And Vision
Our mission is simple – we help our cli-
ents grow. This is our only purpose for
existing as a business. Every member
of The Shattuck Group team knows this
mantra and works every day to make it
real for our clients.
Our vision is equally simple – we only
grow when our clients grow. We know
that our success is unequivocally tied
to our clients’ success. This provides
tremendous motivation in everything
we do. Every strategy we recommend,
every tactic we implement, and every
project we manage – they’re all de-
signed to help our clients achieve the
goals that matter most to them.
Our Value Proposition
We empower our clients to achieve the
goals that are most important to them.
Increased revenue. Increased profits.
Increased demand. All of our services,
our ideas, and our energy are focused
on these goals.

33. Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
33
Our Services
We achieve these objectives with a
unique combination of 10 services that
are customized for each client. We’ve
learned through market research, our
experiences, and empirical observation
that these 10 services have the greatest
impact on our client’s top and bottom
lines:
• Market Research
• Positioning Strategies
• Marketing Plans
• Messaging Development
• Brand Identity
• Brand Awareness
• Client Acquisition
• Lead Generation
• Thought Leadership
• Video Development
Our Background
The Shattuck Group was founded in
1998. For more than a decade, we’ve
been helping professional services
firms grow, sometimes exponentially.
We have the success stories to prove it.
For instance, we helped Avcom grow
from 40 million to over 300 million in
top line revenue. If you’d like to hear
more about these stories, please send
an email to info@theshattuckgroup.
com with the title “success stories.”
If you would like to learn more about
how we can help your firm, please call
us today at 877-296-5301. Or you can
send an email to info@theshattuck-
group.com.

34. Randy Shattuck is a senior marketing executive and founder of
The Shattuck Group, a marketing firm that empowers PS com-
panies to reach their growth objectives. For 20 years Randy has
helped PS firms grow by building strong brands, generating
leads, acquiring the right clients, and positioning effectively.
About The Author
Randy Shattuck’s Background
Before The Shattuck Group, Randy
helped Acclaim Technology, a Silicon
Valley systems integrator, grow from
10 to 120 million in sales in 3 years.
As marketing strategist for that firm,
Randy lead the charge to the market by
building a brand that grew from a bou-
tique technology sales organization to a
true enterprise. Under Randy’s market-
ing leadership, the company grew from
a few employees in one office to more
than 130 employees in offices through-
out the greater Western United States.
Prior to Acclaim Technology, Randy
headed the marketing function of Con-
tec Microelectronics, helping that firm
double its revenues. Under his mar-
keting leadership, Contec’s brand grew
from a relatively unknown company to
a recognized industry player. Randy
negotiated the largest contract ever in
that firm’s history, resulting in tremen-
dous new sales and profits.
For the past 11 years Randy has lead
The Shattuck Group, helping dozens of
PS firms in a variety of industries real-
ize their goals.
Randy’s background is in marketing,
behavioral science, strategy, and rheto-
ric. He is a featured columnist in Pro-
fessional Services Journal and Rain-
Today. He is a sought-after speaker,
writer, and thinker.
You can email him at randy@theshat-
tuckgroup.com and visit his firm online
at www.theshattuckgroup.com.
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
34

35. Notes
Five Strategies To Acquire New Ideal Clients In A Tough Economy
35

36. PLAN. BRAND. EXPAND.
www.theshattuckgroup.com
info@theshattuckgroup.com
877-296-5301