One of the misconceptions in professional services is that visibility should match buying cycles.
Clients aren’t buying, so visibility drops.
Clients start buying, so visibility spikes.
It’s a logical instinct, yet wrong.
Buyers remember you when you’ve been there all along. Consistently visible.
Yet at the same time, that consistent visibility isn’t about volume. It’s about resonance.
It’s those small moments when a client contact scrolls past a partner’s Linkedin post and thinks, “They’re always talking about and offering strong opinions on the challenges I face.”
It’s the sense that a firm isn’t just “active,” but always present.
Professional services decisions are emotional long before they’re rational.
Buyers often want familiarity. Safety – no one got fired if you’re hire IBM. Evidence that you understand their day to day challenges.
And, as much as we think it does, this doesn’t necessarily always happen in the big campaigns we roll out, but more often that not, in the in-between moments, the weeks when no one is selling, the months when no one is pitching, the quiet signals that build brand recall.
When buyers finally enter the market, the question then isn’t:
“Who should we talk to?”
It’s: “This is a firm that’s worth having a conversation with…”
And that familiarity isn’t won during buying season.
It’s earned in the shadows beforehand.