Part 8 (2/2)

Increase the skil and performance of people, particularly the sales force, since the industry has been changing sointense focus on developing high-potential leaders

Contain benefits costs, as they're rising out of control

Support, prolobal and dispersed workforce

Your objective is to explore each area for specific details, learn what success looks like in each area, and discover which areas are perceived as most important to solve and why

Question 5: What value do clients and decision et if they could solve certain proble on right now or ht not perceive as priorities?

Professors Ian MacMilan and Larry Selden argue in their Harvard Business Review article ”The Incuet attacked when they focus on products and geographic locations rather than on what coet- unmet custoy Services For years, sy industry veteran Michael Cooch saw deep frustration at s technology problems and issues internal y at businesses too sy support teaet in touch with their ”y provider when they needed to, and inconsistent levels of service quality with said man

Mike also confir the benefits that technology could provide thee of as possible and lacked knowledge of technology successes at other sy Services to offer the market solutions to these problems and frustrations

SOLUTIONS TO BUSINESS NEEDS OFFERED BY EVERON

Did it work? The firazine's list of the fastest-growing companies in the United States

Not al un in a new or novel business er accounting firets Theyover 150,000 in annual revenue for us and targets that could generate the same are our priority We wil continue to service our sy that we serve our larger clients” What happens when firy on one client base versus another? Satisfaction drops across the stepchild client base

If you find this trend and if your accounting fire, you could tailor yourto capture business with fir served as wel as they could be

Question 6: What different options do clients and decisiondifferent categories of cooals?

Let's assun firm and you help clients build and iies When it co, what types of companies do decision n firm or a Web develop prile, as e-, or as online public relations (PR)?

Many a branding guru has said so to the effect that if you can create a new ory and if you can be perceived as the first player in that market, you can dominate the eneral y not particularly sound advice for most service firy process with unnecessary complexity It is, however, quite useful to knohat buyers perceive as the different categories of firet different services

Question 7: What different options do clients and decisionspecific companies that can help them solve problems?

It's a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental effect on your ability to compete for business First, do clients and the market perceive your firm as a company that can help them solve particular problems? Second, whether they consider you an option or not, what other firms do clients and the market perceive are available to solve particular proble lists of companies in their files or in their ht have Even if buyers can reories, they typical y have a handful or fehich they associate the ability to solve particular problee off na Group (BCG), PRTM, Accenture, BearingPoint, Monitor Group, and the list goes on Ask us if any of them can solve a particular problem for us, and the answer is: We don't think so If ere at a bil ion-dol ar corporation, al of these firh we couldn't tel you right ahat specifical y that would be (In their defense, these fir to market to our firhtly, as too seet value froht be able to help us looks much different, and it's very smal

Question 8: What different options do clients and decisionspecific services available to help them solve problems?

A CEO may say to himself, ”I believe there are hidden sources of profit here at ured out yet how to find or tackle the firms would say that they could analyze my company and find the profit But the only company that I know that has a specific service dedicated to finding profit is Bain & Coh its Profit Hunt service”

Bain describes a profit hunt in itsmaterials as folows: A profit hunt is a 6- to 12- a co and achieving quick-hit profit improvements Typical y, more than half the profit uplift co both internal costs and supplier costs

A buyer ht then think, ”I know that not only can Bain help me find sources of profit, but the results are quick hit (I need fast returns!), and they're revenue focused as wel as cost focused (I need to drive the top line!), and they're not just going to give !) I knoho Bain is (who doesn't?), and I read right here on the Bain web site a client success story where they back up their claiives me reason to believe them)”

If buyers of Bain services know about Profit Hunt, Bain has a leg up Let's say the buyer is interested in i his profit and knows of Bain and Profit Hunt He expresses his interest in Profit Hunt to Bain by fil ing out a contact form on Bain's web site He also contacts two otherfirms and expresses his need If the other fired, wel -described, wel -supported services in the area, even if they've ”done it a e If the other fir services aiae

Additionaly, inside the Profit Hunt exa value proposition And this is just e can see on the web site

BAIN'S ADVANTAGE Remember, al of the questions outlined in this chapter are meant to help you define the key elements of your value proposition and deliver that value proposition to the market in the most effective ways

Companies often confuse the concept of value proposition with their firm's elevator pitch, a brand promise statement, or some other short sentence that describes the essence of the firm These state Bain include Profit Hunt?

Probably not-it would be too granular However, is Profit Hunt a part of Bain's value to the e or its value through an elevator pitch about Bain in general

Question 9: What different options do clients and decisionother options available to help them solve problems, such as internal staff?

Quick, who is your competition for your services? Did you think of other firms? It's a natural instinct to do so Yet the competition a professional service business faces is not always other firms

A core service of the Welesley Hils Group is Services in Dee (a la Profit Hunt) focused on lead generation and business development While we so our business development process, more often than not we're faced with two other co If internal staff is a th of your value proposition depends not on hoel you position your services against the other firms, but on hoel you position the services vis-a-vis the co the capabilities in-house with its own staff For your particular service, perhaps:It's i, versus only one person

The client needs to be able to calibrate the level of service up and down depending on business conditions

The client would need to build a technology and ement infrastructure in-house that you already have in place

Your team has already proven its success; whereas, if the client hired internaly, it would need several years to discover whether tea enough to even have the chance)

Comparison is part and parcel of the concept of differentiation Many firainst other firms For example, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance workfirms that deliver services here ainst each other If, as it is in many cases, your competition is internal staff, then you need to be able to position your value against that option

You can do this only if you understand the nature of the other option

Consider also that your competition is often the choice of your client or prospect to ”do nothing at this time” or ”postpone until the third quarter”

Services firm leaders in this position express to us, ”Wel , our clients either pick us or do nothing” In these situations, there is no other service provider under consideration When your competition is the decisionforward, your chal enge is less in the area of differentiation and more in the area of resonance or substantiation If they don't see the value (resonance), they won't take the plunge Perhaps they see the value in your et it to work for thereat and don't take the plunge

Brand Attributes: The Building Blocks of Brand Messaging The answers to the nine questions wil yield a veritable cornucopia of data points about you from your market and clients These data points are the planks you can use to build your brand e platform It's in this area, however, thatconsultants) reat information about their firms, their competition, their services, and their value to the es

To translate the data you've colected into useful orize the data and then apply the data the right way

Essentialy, the data breaks down into three major areas: (1) attributes of siure 102) Figure 102 Value Proposition Research and Strength Brand research yields a portfolio of attributes that you can sort into two buckets: things that s that make you distinct from other available options