Where Does Presence Affect Your Firm?

In professional service firms, people are your biggest variable. What they’re like, and how they act, affects landing work, growing relationships, brand consistency in the client experience, and leadership’s ability to align teams to strategy. They say all ships rise with the tide, and Dean thinks of ‘presence’ as the water that rises to elevate your firm, talking here about how to think holistically about elevating the human factors of presence for greater success.

To learn more about increasing your team’s presence to land more work, check out our Grow-it page.

Transcript

The Four Pillars of Presence in Professional Services

Everyone knows Sage Presence. And most people know us based on where they use us most. If you use us to help you win a project pitch, a shortlist interview, or a client presentation, then to you, we’re the sales pitch experts, the interview prep coaches, the team who helps you outperform the competition during go/no-go decisions and high-stakes BD moments.

Other people use us to strengthen their relationship-building—networking, deepening connections, turning colleagues and contacts into real opportunities. To them, we’re the relationship growth people.

To others, we’re the ones who look at client experience through the lens of brand alignment. We take your brand promise and translate it into human behaviors—the way your people show up, the way they communicate, and the way they collectively deliver on the experience your marketing promises.

A Football Analogy for Brand, Behavior, and Client Experience

Think of your firm like a football team:

Leadership is the coach—the source of strategy.
Marketing is the quarterback—throwing the ball, making the brand promise.
Your project teams are the receivers—running the route, catching the brand promise, and delivering it in the end zone as the client experience.

If your people don’t know where the “brand ball” is landing, they can’t catch it—and the experience breaks down. That’s why some know us as the brand translators.

And still others know us for leadership and executive presence coaching—helping leaders communicate with clarity, inspire alignment, and guide their organizations with conviction.

Presence Is Not One Thing — It’s in Everything

Presence is not confined to sales. It’s not just about leadership. It’s not just about brand. It’s not just about client experience. Presence is woven into every single stage of the professional services lifecycle:

Winning the work — pitches, interviews, BD meetings
Growing relationships — networking, trust-building, influence
Being the brand — delivering on the promised client experience
Leading the organization — aligning teams, inspiring people, setting direction

All of those zones—win it, grow it, be it, lead it—are powered by presence. It’s the human performance side of your strategy.

A Presence Partner for the Entire Organization

What we’re really here to be is your presence partner. Not just for one sliver of your business, but for the whole ecosystem. The question we help you answer is:

Where does the presence of your people affect your success?

Once you see that, we draw from all four pillars—winning business, growing relationships, delivering the brand, and leading the organization—to craft a tailored solution that elevates your entire firm.

When presence rises, everything rises. All ships go up as the water level rises.

Where Does Presence Matter Most in Your Firm?

The next time you think of Sage Presence, don’t just think about us in the narrow lane where you’ve used us. Look across your organization and ask: