Irish Professional Services Firms Lose Clients to North American Counterparts

Less than 3% of European based professional services companies are leveraging their expertise through the creation of products that they are losing market share to North American competitors as clients turn to the internet for resources.

Every week new businesses are establishing themselves with the majority being small businesses providing professional services. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in itís 2005 national report for Ireland published earlier this year, indicated that one in ten adults in Ireland are considering or are setting up a new business.

But with customers and consumers heading to the internet for immediate answers to their problems, increasingly professional services firms, from recruitment agencies to law practices, are losing out to competitors overseas.

The reason? Because they are failing to turn what they know into cash flow and create information products which might include online courses, CDís, DVDís, electronic books (e-books) or published books.

Krishna De, Managing Director of Oneocean Ltd, and one of Europeís leading business development and personal branding strategists, has been creating information products and programmes for the last 20 years and in the last 12 months alone, she has taught over 300 service professionals how to create profitable and lead generating information products.

ìOnly 2 of the last 300 information product creators we taught were based in Europe ñ in fact there was only one person on the programme from Ireland and that was me as one of the tutors for the programme!î commented Krishna De.

ìIrish professional services firms are losing market share to North American businesses as prospective clients search on the internet for solutions to help them. We are in a time where consumers are time poor and are searching on-line for immediate solutionsî.

ìIt is difficult to portray to potential clients the value of your services and expertise if you are a professional services firm ñ not only are you trading time for money, but you are selling your intellectual expertise and it is difficult for clients to assess one business from a seemingly similar one. Information products immediately position you as the expert in your fieldî.

Asked why she though this was the case, Krishna De commented ìMany people are in awe of their competitors who have created audio and video products or have authored books. It is a fact that these products enhance your credibility with prospective clients and provide for an additional revenue stream. However they are not as difficult, costly or time consuming to produce with the advent of new technologyî.

Her company Oneocean Ltd has this week launched a series of one-day workshops for professional services firms, consultants, coaches and professional speakers in Ireland which will be held in Dublin and Cork. This is the first time such a comprehensive programme has been held in Ireland.