How Internal Design Services Teams can Become a Competitive Differentiator for Professional Services Firms

In today's competitive business landscape, Professional Services firms such as Management Consulting, Accounting, Advisory and Legal firms are constantly striving to improve their products and services to meet the ever-changing needs of their customers. One of the key areas where companies are focusing their efforts is on design. This is because it has been proven time and time again that effective design can make a significant impact on a company's bottom line. Leading Professional Services firms have made significant progress in designing impactful marketing collaterals by adopting the latest technologies, focusing on customer-centric designs, and emphasizing storytelling and visual communication in their marketing materials.

Three Essential Design Tactics Adopted by Leading Professional Services Firms:

1

Extensive focus on user or customer centric designs, which prioritize the needs and preferences of the end-users. This has led to the development of more user-friendly interfaces, intuitive collaterals, and visually appealing designs that help to engage and retain customers.

2

Visually compelling storytelling can be a catalyst in any marketing collateral. Instead of relying solely on technical specifications and product features, forward thinking management consulting, accounting and advisory, Education and Edtech firms are incorporating narratives that have attention catching graphics to connect with their customers and demonstrate the benefits of their products or services.

3

Adopting design thinking methodologies, which emphasize empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing to develop innovative digital marketing collaterals. By applying design thinking principles to marketing collateral, Professional Services firms are creating more customer-centric and effective marketing campaigns.

However, not all companies have the internal resources and expertise to handle their design needs. At times, large scale management consulting companies or other professional services firms need design services firms that can be an extension of their internal teams. This is where B2B design services firms come into play. In this article, we will explore some of the ways in which B2B design services firms can add value to internal design teams. I would like you to read the below points before getting into the solution and see if you and your internal branding teams are facing similar challenges.

Common Challenges Faced by Internal Branding Teams of Professional Services firms

Limited Resources: Internal branding and design teams often have limited resources, including budgets, personnel, and time. This can make it difficult for them to keep up with the number of requests and at times with the latest design trends and technologies. This can lead to the inability to produce innovative designs and deliver projects on time.

Communication and Collaboration: Professional services firms often have complex organizational structures, with multiple departments and teams involved in design projects. This can lead to communication and collaboration challenges between the internal design team and other stakeholders, including product managers, developers, and sales teams.

Meeting Client Expectations: Management Consulting and Advisory firms’ clients often have specific design requirements that need to be met. Internal design teams may struggle to balance meeting these requirements with the need to innovate and create designs that stand out in the marketplace.

Keeping Up with Technology: Professional Services firms operate in an ever-evolving technological landscape. Internal design teams need to stay up to date with emerging design software and tools, as well as the latest technologies.

Balancing Creativity with Business Goals: Internal branding and design teams need to balance their creative vision with the commercial goals of the firm. This can be challenging, as designers need to work on visually appealing marketing collaterals and on other project-related deliverables. Resource crunch makes it difficult to maintain the balance between creativity and business goals.

Expert B2B design services firms can add additional thrust to your internal design teams as they can quickly adapt to current and changing business needs, bring-in up-to-date and latest design trends, balance creativity with practicality to deliver effective solutions, and more than anything, they have the resources to do heavy lifting tasks.

How B2B Design Services Firms Can Enable Internal Design Teams to Become a Competitive Differentiator

Augmenting internal design capabilities: Expert B2B design services firms act as an extension of a company’s internal design team. By working with B2B design services firms, companies can augment their internal design capabilities and get access to a wider range of design expertise. B2B design services firms can provide Professional Services firms access to experienced designers who have worked on a variety of projects in a particular domain. These designers can bring fresh perspectives to a company’s design challenges.

Providing specialized expertise: Design services firms can provide specialized expertise that may not be available within a company’s internal design team. For example, if a company is focusing extensively on animated videos and requires expertise in a specific area of design, such as storyboarding, they may not have the internal resources to handle the project. A design services firms can provide access to designers who specialize in these areas and can bring their expertise to the project. This can help ensure that the project is completed to a high standard and that the video is engaging and informative.

Bringing in fresh perspectives: Working with a design services firms can also bring in fresh perspectives to a company’s design challenges. Sometimes, internal design teams can become too close to a project and may miss opportunities for innovation or improvement. By working with a B2B design services firm, companies can get access to designers who are not as close to the project and can bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. This can help companies break out of their design ruts and come up with new and innovative solutions to their design challenges.

Increasing design efficiency: Such firms can also help to increase design efficiency within a company. By taking on some of the design work, design services firms can free up internal design teams to focus on other high-priority projects. This can help to streamline the design process and ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget. Design services firms can also provide specialized tools and software that can help to increase design efficiency and streamline the design process.

Providing access to the latest design trends and technologies: These firms are often at the forefront of the latest design trends and technologies. Professional services firm can get access to the latest design tools, software, and technologies. This can help to ensure that a company’s designs are up-to-date and competitive. Such firms can also provide access to industry experts and thought leaders who can provide valuable insights into the latest design trends and technologies.

Improving design quality: B2B design services firms can also help to improve the overall quality of a company’s designs. By providing access to experienced designers who have worked on a variety of projects, these design services firms can help ensure that a company’s designs are of a high standard.

In today’s business landscape, having a well-designed collateral, website, or video can make all the difference in attracting and retaining customers. Internal teams can become your competitive differentiator by adopting new technologies, focusing on customer-centric designs, emphasizing storytelling and visual communication in marketing materials, and most importantly aligning with an expert design services firm that can be an extension of your internal teams.

Evalueserve offers a 360° approach to design services – from creative storytelling to intuitive design thinking to streamlined design delivery. We have assembled a team of thinkers and creators who enable design acceleration for our clients by leveraging advanced tools. Our talented team is our greatest value proposition – they are highly skilled at data-to-design transformation, can conceive high-quality design concepts, and have expertise in creating compelling graphics. A team of 160+ design professionals ranging from Brand Managers and Art Directors to Graphic Designers and Presentation Specialists provide end-to-end design solutions to 40+ Professional Services clients. Our presence in India, Chile, Romania, and Egypt enables us to provide global support. We act as an extension of your internal design teams and ensure easy scalability across your member firms.

Use compelling visual elements to surpass your rivals.

Alan Wheeler
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