Part 5 (2/2)

In How Clients Buy: 2009 Bench from the Client Perspective,20 40 percent of 200 buyers of consulting and professional services encountered service providers that did not understand their needs; and 32 percent said that the service providers did not convince them of the value they would receive from the service provider

You have to convince the buyer of the value your services wil bring to the table, regardless of how you stack up with some competitor So worry less about who your competitor is, and worry more about the value you offer to the client You'l win more deals in the process and beat your coht

”The conore the iic planning, coe, they overlook the record of a surprisingly large nuorously practice a different religion These coic plans with an obsessive preoccupation on rivalry They concentrate on operating details and doing things well Hustle is their style and their strategy They ht”

-Ay,” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 1986

When Co to yourself, ”You're right We should focus on our value and our ability to position that value to theso much time on the competition” However, we understand that soainst the sa firms find the four accounting fir of Grant Thornton, UHY Advisors, and other large accounting fir on the situation)

When it coainst the competition, remember the first three outco can deliver for you: 1 Help you create conversations with potential buyers when they have a need Firy services from Firm X, and ere never even part of the conversation!” You don't want that to happen

2 Ease winning of client engage the prospect's perception of your fireenerate premiuh about the competition to be able to say (1) who they are and (2) what they're doing at their own firms to move any of these three objectives forward

This may require some competitive research Indeed, between 33 percent and 52 percent of professional service firms conduct for and how their co their services21 Stil, the question beco to do about it?” The answersand may affect overal business direction

However, as much as firms make y perspective, it's notout where they stand in theout what to do about it

7

The ”Get It Done” Culture There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza

A hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole

-Harry Belafonte Question: On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being ”always” and 5 being ”never,” how often do you stick to project schedules and keep co that ive yourself a 1 (or a 2) Of course, you make commitments and keep them What kind of professional would you be if you didn't?

Next question: On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being ”not chalenging at al” and 5 being ”extre is it for you to ieneration plans that you put in place at your own coree on the plan?

At the Welesley Hils Group and RainTodaycom, we asked 731 marketers and leaders at professional services businesses the sa in Lead Generation Of the respondents, 76 percent said they found ieneration plans ”so,” even when they agree internal y on the plans Since service businesses fancy the on commitments they make to clients, we believe service providers should be able to execute thecommitments they , lead generation, and business development, they consistently let the and seling commitments is usualy due to three factors: (1) lack of performance readiness, (2) disconnect with reality, (3) and lack of wil

Challenge 1: Lack of Perfor a culture ofstarts with the first step If you're looking to create this culture of passion, energy, enthusias sure the bucket doesn't have any holes before you start to fil it up-or it won't hold water

We see fire of what they need to do to help the professionals in the firm market and develop business-but rarely 100 percent If you're doing only 70 percent of what you need to do, you don't get 70 percent results; you geta leak in the bottom of a bucket, if you don't patch it 100 percent, it stil leaks

If your fir to create a culture of business developeive yourself a fighting chance of success If you don't, you90 percent of the effort-aloals

Building a Performance Culture There are six areas you should address in order to build a rainanization, and three are brought to the table by individuals (but can be influenced by the firure 71 The Six Boxes Source: Binder Riha associates Used with peranizational Influences 1 Expectations and Feedback 2 Tools and Resources 3 Consequences and Incentives Individual Influences 4 Skil s and Knowledge 5 Selection and assignment 6 Motives and Preferences (Attitude) Expectations and feedback According to Dr Ji's Chief Scientist of Workplace Manage, Gal up has asked over 125 mil ion people: ”Do I knohat is expected of e, just over half answer the question ”strongly agree” In other words, just under half are not so sure of what's expected of them at work Dr Harter further told us, ”Workplace performance suffers draree”'

When it co and business development, in our experience, many professionals don't knohat they're supposed to do at any given time, and they also don't knohat they are supposed to produce Some know they are ”expected to network,” ”expected to make cal s,”

”expected to 'build the brand,”' or ”expected to spend 15 percent of their time on business development”; but rarely do they knohat they need to do at 9 AM, 11 AM, or al day Tuesday

”Taking the leap from 'successful lawyer' to 'rainmaker' is more likely to be successful when the laorks with others Marketing professionals, for exaths and weaknesses, interpersonal skills, and networks that lead to new business”

-Kevin McMurdo, Chief Marketing Officer, Perkins Coie What happens without clear expectations and feedback? Inconsistency (See Figure 72)Inconsistent business development activities across al professionals with business development responsibilities

Inconsistent business development effort levels

Inconsistent persistence

Inconsistent i)

Inconsistent results

Inconsistent irams

Inconsistent implementation intensity

Tools and resources Marketers and rainht resources to help them impleet for generating publicity, sometimes just an expense account Perhaps they know that they're supposed to be et profile or list of likely prospects

Figure 72 What Won't Happen It is possible a rain or sales col ateral materials to help theet, or support to build the a technical guru along to represent a specific expertise of the firuru can't afford to lose the bil able tiht level of resources in order to find and win new clients

What happens without the right resource levels? Frustration

Ready to cal , but doesn't have the names

Ready to present, but doesn't have materials

Ready to visit the client, but don't have the budget or tin, but can't get the firet a subject et a copywriter to et a business developer or professional to fol ow up on inquiries

Ready to kick off a new Web project, but can't get final approval from various stakeholders to e; some service firm leaders rush to add incentive compensation to inspire professionals to sel , while others vehemently resist compensation adjustnificantly influence rainmakers to find more new clients

However, incentive compensation, while necessary, is not sufficient Even those service firm leaders that do institute incentive compensation plans rarely state (or if they do state, act on) any negative consequences of not hitting client developoals