Common questions
Twenty questions partners and principals actually ask.
And what we'd say if you asked us.
The questions below come from forums, communities, and conversations with firms we've worked with. The answers are ours. Some are short. Some run longer. None are exhaustive. If a question lands close to your situation, the conversation starts in your inbox.
Where buyers look first, and what they find.
Why isn't my firm showing up when people search for what we do?
Three gaps recur: incomplete Google Business Profile, no practice area pages, inconsistent local citations.
Why isn't my firm showing up when people search for what we do?
Three gaps recur: incomplete Google Business Profile, no practice area pages, inconsistent local citations.
Three gaps recur in firms that don't rank: an incomplete Google Business Profile, no dedicated practice area pages, inconsistent local citations across directories. The firm has done the work. The infrastructure that tells search engines what you specifically do and where you do it is what's missing. We examine whether your online presence is doing the work it should.
Do practice area pages actually matter, or is the homepage enough?
Practice area pages do most of the visible work for search.
Do practice area pages actually matter, or is the homepage enough?
Practice area pages do most of the visible work for search.
Practice area pages do most of the visible work for search. The homepage tells the firm's story. The practice area pages tell search engines and potential clients what you specifically handle. Firms without dedicated pages for their main practice areas typically rank behind firms that have them, even when the work is equivalent.
How important is Google Business Profile for a firm like mine?
More important than most established firms realize.
How important is Google Business Profile for a firm like mine?
More important than most established firms realize.
More important than most established firms realize. For local searches like "estate planning attorney near me" or "CPA in [city]," the Map Pack sits above organic results, and most users click one of the three listings shown. A complete profile with accurate practice areas, consistent reviews, and weekly posts often outranks the firm's main website for searches on the firm's name. It's free, and most firms underuse it.
Showing what you're worth, before you say it.
How do we explain our value when our work is technical and hard to see from outside?
Clients evaluate technical work by proxy. The brand carries those proxies, or it doesn't.
How do we explain our value when our work is technical and hard to see from outside?
Clients evaluate technical work by proxy. The brand carries those proxies, or it doesn't.
Clients evaluate technical work by proxy. Credentials. Reputation. Specificity. Visible expertise. The brand carries those proxies, or it doesn't. When it doesn't, buyers default to other signals: firm size, name recognition, who their friend uses. None of these favors a smaller, specialized firm with better work. The fix isn't to claim the work is better. It's to make the specific expertise visible: the industry, the problem type, the named outcome. We examine whether your visible expertise matches the actual expertise.
Why do clients sometimes pick the bigger firm over us when we're better suited?
Smaller firms compete by being unambiguously the expert in a defined area, not by being better in general.
Why do clients sometimes pick the bigger firm over us when we're better suited?
Smaller firms compete by being unambiguously the expert in a defined area, not by being better in general.
Bigger firms benefit from institutional brand recognition, which lowers perceived risk for risk-averse buyers. Hiring a name brand feels safer to defend internally. Smaller firms compete by being unambiguously the expert in a defined area, not by being better in general. A firm named clearly as the leader in a specific specialty carries more perceived authority than a generalist boutique.
How do we compete when most firms in our area look the same on paper?
Differentiation comes from what the firm chooses to be specifically known for.
How do we compete when most firms in our area look the same on paper?
Differentiation comes from what the firm chooses to be specifically known for.
The look-alike problem is real across legal, accounting, and advisory. Most firm websites describe similar credentials, services, and values. Differentiation comes from what the firm chooses to be specifically known for, and from making that visible across the brand. The work is rarely about adding new services. It's about naming what you already do well and committing to it publicly.
When the original engine isn't enough.
Our referrals slowed. What replaces them?
Referrals don't disappear. They stop scaling. A brand has to do the work the referrer used to do.
Our referrals slowed. What replaces them?
Referrals don't disappear. They stop scaling. A brand has to do the work the referrer used to do.
Referrals don't disappear. They stop scaling once the firm reaches a certain size. Buyers increasingly research online before reaching out, even when referred. The replacement isn't a single channel. It's a brand that does the work the referrer used to do between introduction and conversion. When a referred prospect arrives at your website, what they see decides whether the referral converts. We examine whether your brand is doing that downstream work.
How do we systematize business development beyond the partners' personal networks?
Three things in parallel: consistent content, every partner's presence supports the firm, an inbound channel that runs continuously.
How do we systematize business development beyond the partners' personal networks?
Three things in parallel: consistent content, every partner's presence supports the firm, an inbound channel that runs continuously.
Three things in parallel. Consistent content that demonstrates the firm's expertise. Every partner's online presence supports the firm's positioning. An inbound channel (typically content plus SEO) that runs continuously. None of these replaces personal relationships. Together they create a second engine that runs when the partners are working, and keeps running when they're not.
What happens to the firm when the rainmaker partner retires?
In firms where the brand belongs to one or two partners, the answer is uncomfortable.
What happens to the firm when the rainmaker partner retires?
In firms where the brand belongs to one or two partners, the answer is uncomfortable.
In firms where the brand belongs to one or two partners, the answer is uncomfortable. Clients followed the rainmaker, not the firm. Successions in those firms are difficult and revenue often drops sharply. The firms that transition well shifted brand equity from the individual to the firm itself, usually over several years through deliberate content, named specialties, and team-level positioning. The work begins long before retirement is on the calendar.
What to charge, and how to structure it.
Should we still be billing by the hour?
Depends on the work. Most firms now run hybrid models.
Should we still be billing by the hour?
Depends on the work. Most firms now run hybrid models.
Depends on the work. Routine, well-defined matters increasingly pencil out better as flat fees: predictable for the client, efficient for the firm. Complex, scope-uncertain work still fits hourly. Most firms now run hybrid models: flat fees on routine matters, hourly on bespoke ones, value-based pricing where the outcome is measurable. The question isn't whether to change the entire model. It's which of your matters should already have moved.
How do we explain a fee increase to existing clients?
Directly, with the rationale attached. Most clients accept increases when the reasoning is clear.
How do we explain a fee increase to existing clients?
Directly, with the rationale attached. Most clients accept increases when the reasoning is clear.
Directly, with the rationale attached. Most clients accept increases when the reasoning is clear: deeper expertise, expanded scope, market conditions. Most firms hesitate because the conversation feels uncomfortable. The hesitation costs more than the conversation. Annual fee reviews communicated in writing land better than occasional unscheduled increases.
How do we move toward value-based pricing without losing clients?
Gradually, and with the clients who are right for it.
How do we move toward value-based pricing without losing clients?
Gradually, and with the clients who are right for it.
Gradually, and with the clients who are right for it. Value-based pricing fits work where the outcome is measurable and the firm's role is clear: tax savings, planning outcomes, transaction success. Most firms move pieces of the work to value-based pricing rather than restructuring everything at once. The shift requires the brand to articulate the value clearly, which is the upstream work most firms haven't yet done.
Becoming known for something specific.
Does thought leadership actually generate clients, or just signal credibility?
Both, and the relationship compounds. Visible experts charge more and convert faster.
Does thought leadership actually generate clients, or just signal credibility?
Both, and the relationship compounds. Visible experts charge more and convert faster.
Both, and the relationship compounds. Research from Hinge Marketing found a direct correlation between visibility as a subject matter expert and billing rate. Visible experts charge more and convert faster. Clients arriving pre-sold by thought leadership trust the firm before the first call. The sales conversation becomes about confirmation, not persuasion. The work doesn't pay off in three months. It pays off in twelve to twenty-four. Firms that quit at month six rarely see the curve.
What kind of content should a professional services firm actually publish?
Substantive analysis on the specific problems your buyers face. Pieces that show expertise rather than describe it.
What kind of content should a professional services firm actually publish?
Substantive analysis on the specific problems your buyers face. Pieces that show expertise rather than describe it.
Substantive analysis on the specific problems your buyers face. Not general industry commentary. Not personality content. Practice area explanations. Case-type breakdowns. Market shifts and what they mean for specific clients. Pieces that show expertise rather than describe it. Buyers reading professional services content can tell within a paragraph whether they're reading expertise or filler. We examine whether your existing content is doing the work it should.
We don't have time for thought leadership. Is there a smaller version that works?
Yes. One substantial piece per month, plus regular short-form commentary.
We don't have time for thought leadership. Is there a smaller version that works?
Yes. One substantial piece per month, plus regular short-form commentary.
Yes. One substantial piece per month, plus regular short-form commentary on LinkedIn or in a newsletter. Most firms that sustain content over years run at this cadence, not at the higher volumes agencies recommend. Consistency matters more than volume. What kills most efforts isn't lack of skill. It's lack of sustainable structure.
How specific does our positioning need to be?
Specific enough that a buyer reading your description in two sentences knows whether you're the right firm.
How specific does our positioning need to be?
Specific enough that a buyer reading your description in two sentences knows whether you're the right firm.
Specific enough that a buyer reading your description in two sentences knows whether you're the right firm. Generalist positioning ("we serve businesses of all sizes across various industries") rules almost no firm out, which means it rules almost no firm in. Named industry, named problem, named outcome is the pattern that consistently works. Narrowing feels like closing doors. In practice it produces more inquiries, not fewer.
What's changing, and what it means for the firm.
Will AI replace what my firm does?
The commodity end is being absorbed. Firms positioned as advisors are more defensible.
Will AI replace what my firm does?
The commodity end is being absorbed. Firms positioned as advisors are more defensible.
It's replacing some of what firms historically did. Bookkeeping, document review, first-draft legal research, routine tax prep, standard contract drafting. The commodity end is being absorbed. What AI doesn't replace is judgment, advisory work, complex matters requiring contextual decisions, and the relationship layer where trust gets built. Firms positioned at the commodity end face real pressure. Firms positioned as advisors are more defensible.
How do we position above the AI line?
By making the advisory layer visible in the brand.
How do we position above the AI line?
By making the advisory layer visible in the brand.
By making the advisory layer visible in the brand. A firm positioned as "compliance and tax preparation" sits at the layer AI eats first. A firm positioned as "tax strategy for businesses going through ownership transitions" sits where AI can't deliver alone. The shift is partly operational (what work you take on) and partly brand (how you describe what you do). Most firms have already shifted some of the work. Few have updated the brand to match.
Is this audit just going to tell me what we already know?
Some of it. What the audit changes is the rank order.
Is this audit just going to tell me what we already know?
Some of it. What the audit changes is the rank order.
Some of it. Most established partners roughly know what's wrong: five or six things they could change, none obviously the right one to do first. What the audit changes is the rank order. You leave with a prioritized list, sequenced by what's most likely to move new client acquisition and fee realization first, with the evidence behind each recommendation. The audit also produces what's hard to do from inside: profiling the 8 to 10 firms a serious buyer compares you against, with their language, positioning, and visible expertise. That outside view consistently surfaces gaps that aren't visible from inside. If the audit confirmed only what you already knew, we'd refund it. It hasn't yet.
Is Brand Runway right for a professional services firm?
Yes, when you already know the direction and want the assets built.
Is Brand Runway right for a professional services firm?
Yes, when you already know the direction and want the assets built.
Yes, when you already know the direction and want the assets built. Brand Runway works for firms that have worked out their specialty, their client, and their differentiator, and now need the website, thought leadership content, practice area pages, and six-month roadmap to put it all into market. For firms still figuring out the diagnosis, the audit comes first.
Pick your next step.
See both engagements compared, or tell us about your firm directly.