You Can't Just Treat the Symptoms

In an article published in RainToday, Bruce Marcus begins his article on professional service marketing by stating, "If all the world of professional services is ruled by billable hours, which says that thou shalt feel guilty about any hours spent that are non-billable, and at the same time you realize that some time must be spent in practice development, then a way must be found to make your practice development hours more productive."Well Bruce may have hit a tree, but he missed the target. While I know that it was not the focus of his article, this opening line is the problem. Not spending time on marketing, building intellectual capital, customer service, et al. are all symptoms of the disease called ABH — the Almighty Billable Hour!Understanding the categories of lead sources is important, but we will never make any headway unless the underlying disease is cut out. We must kill the billable hour as the Satan-spawned offspring of Marx' Labor Theory of Value that it is.As a consultant to the professions Bruce should be assisting us in leading the charge against this insidious beast. I invite him and all of you to join us! Come sign the VeraSage Declaration of Independence.