PM Forum is the largest group for professionals marketing firms, writes Gabrielle Monaghan

Law firms and accountancy practices traditionally drummed up business by playing a round of golf or taking a long lunch with a potential client.

However, marketers say these firms can no longer rely on the old boys' club to keep existing clients and win new business.

"The Celtic Tiger has given people the money and opportunity to do more with their wealth, which in turn has created more competition in the professional services market," said Joanne Purtill, chairwoman and co-founder of Professional Marketing Forum Ireland. "Clients are more sophisticated in their needs and tend to shop around a bit more."

A group of marketers set up the Irish chapter of the PM Forum in 2002 after realising that many firms in professions such as law, accounting, architecture and engineering weren't selling themselves well and needed to align their marketing with companies in other industries, according to Adrienne Regan, regional director of PM Forum Ireland.

"In the 1990s, I was the first in-house marketing manager at law firm A&L Goodbody and it was quite a lonely position as professional services marketing was rare at the time," Regan said. "I thought there should be a group of marketers who can share best practice in the industry without disclosing trade secrets, so we set up an Irish version of the PM Forum in the UK."

Founded 11 years ago by an accountant in the UK, the global PM Forum is now the world's largest and fastest-growing community for professional services marketers, with more than 4,000 members across the globe. The forum enables marketers working in professional services to network, share knowledge and learn more about the industry from their peers. PM Forum Europe was set up last month to bring together more than 300 marketers in 20 countries.

The Irish forum currently boasts 35 member companies representing thousands of marketers and practitioners from the country's leading legal, accountancy, architectural and engineering firms, said Ms Regan, a partner at marketing consultancy Regan Lowey.

The PM Forum hosts five events a year in Ireland and gives members access to web seminars in Britain and Europe as well as an online job bank. It will host a speech in Dublin this month by Tim Nightingale, director of Nisus Consulting, on what the UK's FTSE 100 companies think of their law firms and on the importance of listening to clients in a bid to improve a practice's service. British practice is typically six months' ahead of that in Ireland, said Purtill, who is also head of marketing and sales support at business and financial advisers BDO Simpson Xavier.

Law firms and other professional practices have been slow to recognise the importance of marketing and branding beyond word-of-mouth advertising, though attitudes towards modernising their marketing methods are beginning to change, Purtill said.

"It has taken professional services firms a bit longer to catch on to the importance of marketing," she said. "It started in accountancy firms about 10 years ago but legal firms have only starting professional marketing in the last five years." About a quarter of professional services firms in Ireland currently employ a marketing manager and smaller firms are increasingly taking on advice from outside consultants.

"Things have really changed in the last five years," Regan said. "Firms are beginning to realise that you can't rely on old schoolboy networks anymore and that they have to be more strategic.

"Firms used to describe their sales department as 'business development' but now people are more forward-thinking and are not afraid to say they are a business as well and need to keep up with the competition. We now put in place a sales strategy for these firms, with targets to grow a certain percentage each year."

The main goal of professional services firms should be to keep existing clients and win new business, Purtill believes. Firms can discover clients' true feelings about the service they are receiving by hiring an independent consultant.

"Clients often won't open up properly if they are speaking to someone who works internally for fear of offending them," Regan said.

"People working in these professions are incredibly busy and get bogged down in the day-to-day running of the business so they rarely get a chance to find out what is best practice management for their firm." Marketers can help firms train staff in personal communications and negotiation skills and improve their relationship with clients.

"Clients nowadays are more discerning about what good service delivery means," Regan said.

"So firms need to have more face-to-face contact with clients rather than sending them piles of paper, visit them on their premises to understand the practicalities of their business, and make sure once the transaction is done and dusted that the client doesn't move on to another practice.

"They need to be proactively thinking about legislative changes and sharing knowledge such as by running seminars. Speaking engagements and articles in the press, for instance, will get them in front of their clients, as will sponsorship and PR." Branding and profiling of a firm is also an important facet in the recruitment process, especially as professions such as engineering are struggling to fill vacancies, she said.

• The PM Forum will be hosting its next speaking engagement, with Nightingale, on February 21st at BDO Simpson Xavier's office on Mercer Street, Dublin 2. For more details, see www.pmforumglobal.com.