Industry · 03
Professional services
Firms that compete on trust signals and are structurally under-branded.
The landscape
Professional services firms sell judgement and relationships, which are hard to see and easy to commoditise if the brand does not make expertise visible before a prospect ever picks up the phone. Referrals travel on a partner's individual name far more often than on the firm's, which works until that partner leaves or retires and the firm discovers it never actually had a brand of its own.
Where Covorn fits
Signs you need this
- New business still comes almost entirely from partner relationships rather than the firm's own reputation.
- A senior partner nearing retirement holds relationships the firm has no plan to retain without them.
- Junior staff describe the firm's expertise differently than the partners who built it.