Consulting is a barometer of the professional services market overall and it is still struggling. Robert W. Baird & Co. is a financial advisory firm that produces quarterly research reports about the consulting industry. I recently caught a glimpse of Baird’s Q1, 2009 report and I took away these top three findings:
1. Weak and spotty demand: Current and predicted consulting engagement activity was weak across the board excluding restructuring work which was strong. While there’s still mostly the hint of work to come, the government consulting space is becoming more crowded as consultants are repackaging services in anticipation of a spending boom.
2. Competitive pressure is coming from David-sized firms at the expense of Goliath-sized ones: For instance, competition is being seen by laid off personnel attempting to enter the consulting market. And, smaller consulting practices are offering creative installment payment plans for cash strapped clients and lowering fees in an attempt to draw business away from larger competitors. As a result, Bill rates are under continued pressure.
3. Relationships harder to get and keep: Professional services firm buying decisions are increasingly made at the Executive level with declining buying power below that level. Plus, higher-than-normal management turnover at client companies leads to consultants having to “re-sell” their services and capabilities. It’s taking longer for client decisions to be made and for projects to reach completion.
Whether you’re a consultant, lawyer, accountant, or other form of professional services advisor, what can we do to win more business in an environment like this? Accelerate velocity, volume and value related to your client development efforts and service offerings.
1. Velocity: Existing relationships are fastest – Marketing 101 – what else can you do with/for your existing clients? But beyond that, if you and your team haven’t already done so, circle back to those most willing and able to help your practice including family, friends, colleagues from your community involvement, alumni from your firm, former clients, partners in kindred practice groups or offices across your firm. If they already know you, like you, trust you and, maybe even, have tried your services before – your odds of success and speed in getting work or referrals goes up significantly. Have you fully tapped these assets and helped equip them to drive work your way? Velocity also means proving that you can deliver results faster for your clients than any other competitor can – how else can tweak your delivery processes to accelerate project completion?
2. Volume: Volume of outreach matters more than ever. Existing relationships aren’t nearly enough right now – because it takes so much longer for any one opportunity to come to fruition, we need to dramatically increase the volume of outreach – look for leverage in your rainmaking. By leverage, I mean more opportunities for you to meaningfully connect with more than one prospect or referral source at the same time – this can be done through writing, speaking and other thought leadership activities but also through having meetings where you invite key contacts from different non-competing organizations and you’re the facilitator or match-maker. They meet each other and benefit from that but you get a two-for-the-price-of-one type encounter. We all ought to be asking ourselves “how else?” with regard to the internet as leverage – it’s a powerful tool for reaching out more broadly, more quickly through social media, e-mail, etc. Whatever means chosen, get the volume of outreach for yourself and across your office up to record heights – measure it – celebrate it – take it higher.
3. Value: Make ROI measurable, vivid and immediate – Not only do we all need to do a better job of highlighting and communicating the benefits of working with our firms, we need to be bolder than ever in measuring before-after results and finding ways to tighten our processes so the results are delivered with much greater efficiency and in nearly real-time. If you don’t typically measure quantifiable results in your profession, well now’s the time to start. If you already do so, challenge yourself to develop an offering whereby you can deliver the same results (or better) in half the time. Don’t imagine that it can’t be done. Nobody could run a four minute mile either until Roger Bannister did the impossible. Also: Value is a function of benefits delivered over price paid. If you’re going to get squeezed by clients squawking about “value” …and you’re gonna…get something back in return. Seek pricing quid quo pro. Make a concession if, quid pro quo, you get more ALL of the client’s work and push a competitor out. Make a concession if, quid pro quo, the client lets you do work for another division of their business that you’ve not before touched. Offer to work on partial or full contingency if, quid pro quo, the client pays a penalty if they impede your ability to get results for them - or put some other equal risk-sharing mechanism in place.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Pump Up The Volume
How can you and your colleagues each make at least 15 meaningful business development contacts per month? We expect our professional services clients make at least that many contacts. Depending on your perspective, fifteen may be an enormous number or a nominal one. We more often hear about the former, “How do you make 15 meaningful contacts each 30 days?! Isn’t that an unreasonably aggressive goal?”
Play with me on this for a minute. Imagine we ratchet the monthly number up to 100 meaningful contacts per month? Assuming you can’t give up your existing client responsibilities, how would you accomplish this? Got no idea? Think again. How else?
Broaden your view of meaningful. What if meaningful contact meant something broader than “sales pitch to a ready, willing and able prospect?” For instance, a contact which helps move your relationship with a prospect or referral source from awareness of you to trust of you qualifies as meaningful contact. Here are some other examples of “meaningful” contact:
· Gaining knowledge about a prospective client by talking with someone connected to but not within that company
· Building a business friendship with a complementary professional services advisor who could refer business to you
· Sharing content of value with a client (unrelated to your existing work with them)
· Reaching out to a college classmate who you haven’t talked with in a long time but who is now in a position or company where she might be of help to you
· Setting up meetings with members of a Board of Directors for a community non-profit or business association where you are interested in getting involved.
· Interviewing a CEO for an article you write about an emerging business topic
· Reaching out to your firm’s alumni who are now in client-side roles?
· Come up with some of your own ideas here please.
Broaden your view of who is a contact. What if a meaningful contact didn’t just mean someone you’ve never met before in your life? What if it included a phone call with an existing client about an idea you have for how they can improve their business? If the encounter is intentionally leading towards more business with a current client – it’s a meaningful contact.
Broaden your view of how and where contact occurs. What if a meaningful contact didn’t just mean a one-to-one encounter? You could invite two clients or referral sources from non-competing firms to lunch – they benefit from meeting each other and you benefit from meeting with two contacts over lunch instead of just one. What if you gave a talk in front of fifty prospective clients? What if “how and where” included meeting a key executive at a prospective client while standing on the sidelines at your kid’s soccer game and suggested you get together for coffee during the work week? Or, spending time over a Saturday night dinner with a prospective referral source along with spouses?
I can brainstorm dozens of other opportunities and ways through which you could make meaningful contacts – many of which you may already be doing but not recognizing or mining as a meaningful contact opportunity. We’re not asking you to make 100 contacts…just fifteen each month.
Fifteen meaningful contacts a month is less than four a week. Because it takes longer right now for any one prospect to convert to a client, volume of outreach (in addition to quality) to clients, prospects and referral sources matters now more than ever. You can do it. Contact us at Creative Growth Group if you’re getting stuck.
Play with me on this for a minute. Imagine we ratchet the monthly number up to 100 meaningful contacts per month? Assuming you can’t give up your existing client responsibilities, how would you accomplish this? Got no idea? Think again. How else?
Broaden your view of meaningful. What if meaningful contact meant something broader than “sales pitch to a ready, willing and able prospect?” For instance, a contact which helps move your relationship with a prospect or referral source from awareness of you to trust of you qualifies as meaningful contact. Here are some other examples of “meaningful” contact:
· Gaining knowledge about a prospective client by talking with someone connected to but not within that company
· Building a business friendship with a complementary professional services advisor who could refer business to you
· Sharing content of value with a client (unrelated to your existing work with them)
· Reaching out to a college classmate who you haven’t talked with in a long time but who is now in a position or company where she might be of help to you
· Setting up meetings with members of a Board of Directors for a community non-profit or business association where you are interested in getting involved.
· Interviewing a CEO for an article you write about an emerging business topic
· Reaching out to your firm’s alumni who are now in client-side roles?
· Come up with some of your own ideas here please.
Broaden your view of who is a contact. What if a meaningful contact didn’t just mean someone you’ve never met before in your life? What if it included a phone call with an existing client about an idea you have for how they can improve their business? If the encounter is intentionally leading towards more business with a current client – it’s a meaningful contact.
Broaden your view of how and where contact occurs. What if a meaningful contact didn’t just mean a one-to-one encounter? You could invite two clients or referral sources from non-competing firms to lunch – they benefit from meeting each other and you benefit from meeting with two contacts over lunch instead of just one. What if you gave a talk in front of fifty prospective clients? What if “how and where” included meeting a key executive at a prospective client while standing on the sidelines at your kid’s soccer game and suggested you get together for coffee during the work week? Or, spending time over a Saturday night dinner with a prospective referral source along with spouses?
I can brainstorm dozens of other opportunities and ways through which you could make meaningful contacts – many of which you may already be doing but not recognizing or mining as a meaningful contact opportunity. We’re not asking you to make 100 contacts…just fifteen each month.
Fifteen meaningful contacts a month is less than four a week. Because it takes longer right now for any one prospect to convert to a client, volume of outreach (in addition to quality) to clients, prospects and referral sources matters now more than ever. You can do it. Contact us at Creative Growth Group if you’re getting stuck.
Generate More Revenue Faster
A word about the veracity of the words you’re reading in Growing Professional Services: whatever we, at Creative Growth Group, tell our professional services clients to do in order to increase revenue; we do and have proven ourselves. We eat our own cooking and, as a result, we’ve grown Creative Growth Group nearly 50% annually for the past several years. Given the economic pressure on professional services firms, we’ve been sharpening our approach so that our clients can realize even faster results. We recently completed a six month engagement for a key practice of a major global consultancy in which participants realized a 142% increase in the value of issued proposals and a 41% increase in sold revenue. In order to help professional services firms realize stronger business results faster, we’ve now launched Creative Growth Group’s 90-Day Revenue Acceleration Program which, within a three month window, delivers a minimum 25% impact on the number and dollar value of opportunities and closed deals. We’re so certain that we can drive results that we’re willing to take some of our compensation from the upside we generate. Contact us at Creative Growth Group if you would like to ramp revenue faster.
Walk the Walk
Standards of Professionalism are often set by governing bodies in each field – like the AICPA or the American Bar Association. More generally, professionalism is when you choose to consistently conduct yourself with your clients and colleagues with the highest possible character, ethics, spirit, and methods. It’s when your real-world actions are fully aligned with what you espouse as your true values.
When you’re entrusted with giving business leaders mission critical advice, we believe there’s a common set of behaviors that equal professionalism regardless of profession. And, back in 2006 we launched the Client Advisor Awards to showcase firms which consistently displayed those behaviors. It turns out that a great outcome between client and advisor is also highly dependent on the CLIENT’s professionalism. So, the Client Advisor Awards program honors clients as well as advisors. What if a client chose to be a “world class client” or a “client of choice?” We’ve all had difficult clients from time to time and they simply don’t get out best work – what would happen if client professionalism became a matter of importance? Clients would get far more value from their professional services firm engagements.
We’ve outlined five behaviors that make a difference on both sides of the table:
1. Capability – successful professional services providers will consistently maintain and demonstrate their subject matter expertise and capabilities at the highest levels of their profession. Successful client nominees appropriately staff engagements with client-side personnel who meet their obligations to client-advisor projects to ensure successful deliverables.
2. Content and Value-orientation – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate thought leadership on behalf of their clients. Successful client nominees look beyond fees and pricing of professional service firms to the total value provided.
3. Collaboration – Successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate a team-oriented approach to their client and colleague relationships. Successful client nominees operate as if the professional service advisor is a virtual part of their organization while, at the same time, respecting all legal and ethical boundaries.
4. Creativity – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate innovative approaches to solving client problems and to growing the client-advisor relationship. Successful clients consistently encourage their providers to provide innovative approaches to solving client problems and to growing the client-advisor relationship.
5. Credibility – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate Integrity and the ability to build and sustain trust at the highest levels of their client-base. Successful client nominees consistently manage professional service firm relationships in a forthright, high-integrity, intelligent and humane manner.
Last year, we had a blockbuster speaker – Paul Voss – Managing Partner of Ethikos and Georgia State professor who spoke about ethics in the relationship between clients and their advisors. This year our key note speaker is Alan Deutschman – Alan is a business journalist and a regular contributor to publications such as Fortune Magazine, Fast Company and Vanity Fair. Check out www.alandeutschman.com He’s the author of three best-selling business books including one of my favorites – Change or Die – how’s that for a direct title? And, his fourth book, Walk the Walk, is due out this Fall and is about the number 1 rule that leaders need to know to be truly effective. He’s going to talk at the Client Advisor Awards about where leadership and professional services intersect. If you want to know what the rule is, join us for the event.
When you’re entrusted with giving business leaders mission critical advice, we believe there’s a common set of behaviors that equal professionalism regardless of profession. And, back in 2006 we launched the Client Advisor Awards to showcase firms which consistently displayed those behaviors. It turns out that a great outcome between client and advisor is also highly dependent on the CLIENT’s professionalism. So, the Client Advisor Awards program honors clients as well as advisors. What if a client chose to be a “world class client” or a “client of choice?” We’ve all had difficult clients from time to time and they simply don’t get out best work – what would happen if client professionalism became a matter of importance? Clients would get far more value from their professional services firm engagements.
We’ve outlined five behaviors that make a difference on both sides of the table:
1. Capability – successful professional services providers will consistently maintain and demonstrate their subject matter expertise and capabilities at the highest levels of their profession. Successful client nominees appropriately staff engagements with client-side personnel who meet their obligations to client-advisor projects to ensure successful deliverables.
2. Content and Value-orientation – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate thought leadership on behalf of their clients. Successful client nominees look beyond fees and pricing of professional service firms to the total value provided.
3. Collaboration – Successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate a team-oriented approach to their client and colleague relationships. Successful client nominees operate as if the professional service advisor is a virtual part of their organization while, at the same time, respecting all legal and ethical boundaries.
4. Creativity – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate innovative approaches to solving client problems and to growing the client-advisor relationship. Successful clients consistently encourage their providers to provide innovative approaches to solving client problems and to growing the client-advisor relationship.
5. Credibility – successful professional services providers will consistently demonstrate Integrity and the ability to build and sustain trust at the highest levels of their client-base. Successful client nominees consistently manage professional service firm relationships in a forthright, high-integrity, intelligent and humane manner.
Last year, we had a blockbuster speaker – Paul Voss – Managing Partner of Ethikos and Georgia State professor who spoke about ethics in the relationship between clients and their advisors. This year our key note speaker is Alan Deutschman – Alan is a business journalist and a regular contributor to publications such as Fortune Magazine, Fast Company and Vanity Fair. Check out www.alandeutschman.com He’s the author of three best-selling business books including one of my favorites – Change or Die – how’s that for a direct title? And, his fourth book, Walk the Walk, is due out this Fall and is about the number 1 rule that leaders need to know to be truly effective. He’s going to talk at the Client Advisor Awards about where leadership and professional services intersect. If you want to know what the rule is, join us for the event.
Rainmaker Radio: Professional Atlanta
Because Creative Growth Group focuses solely on serving professional services firms in their efforts to grow revenue and client relationships, we’ve launched a 30-minute, weekly online radio program co-hosted by Business Radio X and Creative Growth Group, and featuring news and interviews about Atlanta’s professional services ecosystem and the centers of influence that make it thrive. The show is in conjunction with a blog by the same name www.professionalatlanta.com and you can go there to listen to our first show featuring an interview about cultivating business relationships with Randy Hain, Managing Partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search.
Cut the Cord: How Mobile Technology Empowers Rainmaking
Most professionals are equipped with a smartphone - those mobile phone devices offering advanced capabilities…we each carry a wallop of wireless computing and communication power in the palms of our hands…most of which may go untapped. Please click here and complete this quick study about how you and your firm use wireless devices for client development purposes and in next month’s issue of Growing Professional Services we’ll share the results along with insights, commentary and simple, viable new ideas on how your smartphone can help you attract more clients.
Ready-Made Referral Network
The Rainmaker Council is a dynamic, ready-made network of like-minded professional services providers from across all professional disciplines that come together regularly online and in-person to support each other’s client development success. Creative Growth Group now offers several tiers of membership benefits geared to individuals, practice groups to firm-level needs. Benefits range from monthly client development special interest sessions that combine learning and connecting to quarterly networking events, from systematized content to guide client development efforts to facilitated monthly peer sharing and networking groups of six to ten professionals to one-on-one client development coaching and more. Because the quality of the participants is a key benefit of the program, The Rainmaker Council does have strict guidelines for admission…but participants will wholeheartedly vouch for the value of making it in to the club. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact info@creativegrowthgroup.com
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