The professional service sector is growing rapidly and professional service firms (PSFs) contribute significantly to economic growth in most economies. PSFs work in a very competitive and dynamic environment and face both increasing opportunities and challenges. PSFs have unique characteristics that set them apart from other service firms. PSFs are knowledge intensive service firms who deliver highly customised services across a range of sectors such as consultancy, health, engineering, and IT services. These characteristics justify consideration of whether conventional marketing management concepts and models need to be adapted to better account for service-dominant economies and for the successful marketing of business relationships in PSFs.

The focus of this unit is on synthesising students' understanding of the specific characteristics of PSFs and how to manage and market their services in business to business (B2B) markets. This unit will help students to learn how to create and develop relationships with business customers, organise to provide high quality customised service solutions to business customers, and plan to recruit and retain highly qualified professionals. Other topics covered in this unit include knowledge management, relationship marketing, and PSF branding. This unit will integrate the necessary knowledge and skills to market professional service firms.