By David Ryan
They filmed the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray in Woodstock, Ill. The premise of the story was simple: Murray relives the same day over and over, doing the same things each time, forcing him (and us) to ask the question: "What would I do differently if I had the chance?"
I was reminded of that movie when my family and I ventured to Woodstock from our urban Chicago environs to house sit for a friend. That trip helped me crystallize a thought I've often wrestled with—most professional services firms are reliving their own version of Groundhog Day.
The Groundhog Day Rerun
How so? In good or difficult times, professional services firms, regardless of their "technical" specialty (operations management, IT, tax, audit, HR, health care, finance, etc.), relive many of the same challenges every day when it comes to their business and client development efforts: commoditization of services; how to differentiate themselves; rate pressure; securing client loyalty; scalable lead generation; account management/coverage models, and managing cost of sales. To combat these challenges, firms apply very similar approaches toward business/client development including recruiting rainmakers with proven books of business, hiring sales teams, developing marketing programs (special events, advertising, e-newsletters, thought leadership, entertainment, etc.), and instituting branding campaigns (new logo, industry aligned Web site, case studies, testimonials, etc.).
While these tried-and-true client development programs do bear fruit, they often fail to address the common challenges I discussed earlier. For example:
• Hiring rainmakers may make sense, but can you find and afford them? Also, this approach doesn't easily scale while negatively impacting cost of sales.
• Deploying a dedicated sales team is an option, addressing the scale and coverage issues. However, ramping these resources takes time, and actual deal flow even longer. Then there's the expensive trial-and-error process of finding quality sales people who make the grade.
• Marketing and branding programs have their benefits, but most firms execute similar initiatives and the results drive
minimal differentiation or enhanced client loyalty.
In the end, most firms face the same challenges, apply the same client development approaches, and relive the same results over and over: the professional services version of Groundhog Day !
Try "Activating" Your Delivery Professionals
There is another way to support client and relationship development—a way that breaks this cycle of "reruns"—while supplementing those "Groundhog Day" business development activities in a cost effective and scalable manner. The approach leverages an often untapped resource… your technical delivery professionals.
Consider the fact that consultants are the biggest asset of a services firm, spend significant time client-facing, are credible in the clients' eyes, and they are everywhere. What if you could "activate" this group to help support your firm's relationship development and opportunity identification efforts? What if you could "move the needle" a few percentage points per person, for a critical mass of delivery professionals, who spend the majority of their time client-facing? That's called leverage and the potential impact to client relationships and revenue is extraordinary. Imagine producing one, three, ten incremental "at bats"
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