hi everyone and welcome to another
podcast about building aka growing a
consulting firm or consulting practice
in today's episode I want to talk about
new clients but before I do that I also
want to mention that this entire series
is based on obviously the experiences we
have had helping numerous boutique firms
and even the offices of large firms and
based on our personal experiences as
well
now inside us our loyalty members there
is going to be an insider version of
this program that is probably already
launched by now and what we do in that
program is a little bit different while
we cover the same concepts in that
program we are going to case study one
fairly large depending on what you call
large but a firm with about a two
million dollars of revenue and how we
help them to significantly increase that
revenue change their client mix and so
on so in the insider version of this
program we're going to discuss one firm
and show you each of the tools and
techniques we used and how we took them
through each step and of course if you
are listening to this on itunes remember
there is a youtube version of this with
graphics right so you can go to our
YouTube channel so let's just talk about
clients aren't quite important we know
sales is important you can't do much
without revenue aka sales coming in you
can have the best plans you can have the
most noble intentions you can want to
change the world you want to maybe do
things that are important to the
well-being of your country but unless
you have revenue coming in all of that
is just an aspiration that will never
see the light of day so one of the first
things I always tell clients who run
with it's a firm way of eyes just one of
them or a group of people or even an
office of a large firm is you need to
find clients and do it in a way that
closes the sale fast and you have to
avoid what I call the layman's view of
the way McKinsey BCG and so on death
sales because the way they actually do
sales is very different but I'm not just
yet to talk you through how McKinsey
closes sales because a lot of the things
McKenzie o BCG does you cannot do as a
boutique firm so I'm going to talk you
through the things we've done with that
client in the insider program
similar clients that are suitable for
smaller organizations organizations
consulting organizations that are
different from the larger firms so as a
starting point right if you stick to the
basics finding clients is a not
difficult but you must follow the plan
of not acting like a large firm so what
I mean by this I'll tell you a little
bit of an anecdote yeah many years ago
when I was a partner I was sent into the
Latin American officers to help
stabilize one of the offices and I was
working with quite a few of the others
as a resource partner I had skills that
clients that this office could serve
would want and I remember arriving there
came off a long flight lost my clothing
so I went to the office the next day
wearing the same clothing from my long
flight which was about 17 hours not
feeling so good
and I'd met everyone and the partners
were talking me through an analysis that
they'd been working on for a fairly long
time led by some EMS and associates on
clients they should target sectors they
could target to rebuild the practice my
feedback to them is that we already have
a strategy it's called an MX card and
what I meant by that is that I'm not
interested in sectors we should target
industries we should targets clients we
need to get into because let's focus on
the claims we know take them out for
drinks and dinner and focus on those
clients that's a common mistake I see
most firms making and people trying to
build a consulting firm they focus too
much in clients they think they should
be serving and ignore potential clients
they have access to so in that situation
there was no market analysis and they
almost is no never a market analysis
I've never seen a market analysis ever
done with partners what we do is we work
on the relationships we have and we
start a vid so if you're thinking whoom
should i target which sectors which
industries you asking the wrong question
the correct question is whom are the
clients I know and whom are the clients
I can get a meeting with those are the
clients you target even if it's in a
sector that you don't want to sell in
fact there's no such thing as a sector
you don't want to sell every sector
matter what sector it is in the world is
gonna have some segment of clients
that's going to be attractive to you
you worry about clients the first part
is go for clients you can access go for
clients you know meet them in another
story when I was serving this is my
first major client and if you follow
rebuilding a consulting practice
partnership meant I talk about this
client a lot it's the client that made
me and around the most important
engagement at that client but anyway
they're officers they had a very very
simple office and they believed in it in
a low overhead structure small head
office anyway the head office a
resources client was in this luxurious
high-end building complex with these
fancy Italian and French restaurants on
the lower level so I would go and have a
meeting with usually it was the chief
financial officer of the chief operating
officer sometimes the CEO was involved
remember I was just starting out I was
still only an engagement manager at this
stage so I didn't have the excess I had
later on in my career but anyway I would
meet these guys 30-minute one-hour
meeting and then I would go to the Asian
restaurant on the ground floor so that
every time people from the client were
leaving they'd have to pass the
restaurant and they would see us I'd be
sitting there with another Engagement
Manager was running studies for me
and we'd be having a four hour lunch and
drinks I mean people from the office
would see me it didn't matter because
what would happen then is every time an
employee of the resources client would
leave that I wanted to meet I would
invite them along say hey you know it's
a Friday evening why don't you join us
for drinks and that's basically how I
did sales there was no I mean there was
some thinking involved and so on but
there was no powerpoints an analysis of
issues and so on because as someone
who's serving that client I know the
issues it's not as if I'm serving a
client I know nothing about and I gotta
do research I know the issues I've been
working with them on operation strategy
for good few months I've been being
exposed to their financial strategy
issues and all kinds of things so when I
see an employee I know when an employee
I want to meet I just pull them or say I
won't you have a drink with us it's
Friday evening I mean and someone say
well I gotta go home I promised my kids
I say just one drink we'll have one
drink and of course it turns in like 10
drinks but the end of that I can't walk
so I gotta sit there for another three
hours might have coffee and you know get
to the point where I can drive home but
my point is that
forgetting how you meet clients the most
important thing is meet clients you can
serve forget about everyone else
now this thing about offering to
demonstrate your skills for four days a
k3 is something we used as well you know
if you follow rebuilding and consulting
practice I moved to a badly performing
emerging markets office and had a chance
to go to London had a chance to go to
Boston I turned them all down and I went
to a pretty terrible office and I
remember that the associate principal
who groomed me to become a partner what
he would do is would call up people he
knew in the executive offices of
resources clients clients he wanted to
serve they were not here at our clients
they were clients of the firm but not
that this particular branch of that
client was not being served that office
so it called them up and sometimes it
was the head office as well because
there's a lot of resources companies in
the area and say you know what we know
it's Christmas time why don't we send
one of our top people to work with you
think through issues and you know see
what happened it's free but he would
never say that you'd quite a second
mentor whatever he wants you know
because we're trying to work with
clients and see what could happen and I
would be deployed and later when I
became more senior and become a partner
I would do that resolve my top people
the point is that it's basically five
days continuous access to clients you're
doing work for free but what is the
alternative sit in an office and send
them emails send them proposals no so at
the end of this I've never been in a
situation where it never led to some
work maybe the work came immediately
sometimes the work came three months
later sometimes it led to a significant
improvement in the relationship but it
always led to us doing work and what we
were doing those four or five weeks we
would do one of two things we're gonna
sketch out an issue that's required us
to do an analysis or we'd identify an
issue and say you know what we think we
know what we need to do to fix this but
why don't we do a short two-week pilot
with just two people obviously it's paid
and then that would lead to billable
work and then that would lead to
implementation so whenever I look at
firms and they talk with how they're
gonna do the studies and this analysis
that's what clients you do not know
never clients you do not know easiest
thing in the world is to do a survey of
supply chain issues in their SEC to
anything do a study right firms invest
in intellectual property do some kind
study for this of the sector do an
analysis doers and a summary develop a
new approach do some benchmarks or
whatever it is and then use it as an
opportunity to meet an executive to talk
about what you find in the sector that's
how you meet clients you do not know all
of this can be done cheaply and quickly
yes interesting thing in the insider
version of the program we're going to
talk about that one client we work with
which is representative of other clients
as well but the interesting thing for
them is that this area of work generated
eventually over 50 percent of their
revenues when we were done with them
because we wanted them to diversify away
from revenue that was purely generated
from billable hours it was difficult
because quite a few them X McKinsey and
so on so they had this view that
consulting is pio it must only be
billable hours so focus on clients you
know that's the most important thing
right now if you watching this video
listening to us on iTunes and you want
to see some of the more advanced stuff
we do go to firmsconsulting comm fi our
MSC o NS ult ing comm and if you
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into the opt-in to pop up we will send
you sample videos of some of the
advanced stuff we do now as you go
through this program remember this right
it's all about going after the clients
you have access to even if you've sent
them from a long time notice what I
always tell firms serve larger clients
because if you finish one engagement to
them there's always a chance something
else will be coming up if you serve a
smaller client the odds are they're
going to be doing less consulting work
and there's less for you to move on to
so how are you approaching your current
clients how many meetings have you
arranged how will you lower resistance
what are you going to do to get them to
speak to you and then the other category
which is for later down the line but you
got to start pursuing now is how do you
get to clients you do not have access to
but you want to know so let's do a bit
of a wrap-up here right so let's tie
this together and some of the lessons
now it's applies to new young small
consulting office small offices but it
also applies to large offices these are
techniques I used when I was at the firm
and I had to go after big multi-billion
dollar clients when here to turnaround
offices with 70 people 120 people
first thing is that you should not spend
your days and weeks developing a
strategy for how you're going to serve
client and how you're gonna grow the
firm because you just don't know enough
about the market and you cannot afford
to burn so much hours on something
that's really an expense you gotta go
out there meet clients and as you talk
to them you will find out what the
issues are having two associates
Sigyn offers a reading annual reports to
find out the company's issues is really
a hit and miss if you sit with a client
for an hour you're gonna find out more
than anything anyone could ever do in
the office to prepare you for that
meeting don't get bogged down with
complex sales presentations this is
something that people tend to forget
about the major firms we don't really
didn't have complex presentations
because of our reputation we get to put
together very simple presentations and
get the work but because you usually
don't have a reputation as a younger
smaller office and smaller firm you
should position yourself as someone who
can get bankable results don't talk
about implementation it's such a cliche
don't talk about implementation
implementation is not the same as
bankable results you can implement
something and not get the results you
promised bankable result says you hire
us you will get this but if you talk
about implementation it doesn't mean you
can get bankable results a lot of
implementation fails folks and the
clients you know offer to you know
basically even if they don't agree to
free work go to them four days five days
in a row and talk to them help them
develop issues I've been in situations
where I remember the CEO of a very
important client lady wanted to work
with us don't really like the firm so
much but she liked me and she would call
me and I would go every damage to see
her for something like a week
I obviously didn't bully for anything I
would sit in her office she had a nice
lounge and I do work for her help her
things through issues when meetings came
up should go for the meeting should come
back we talk about things that led to a
incredibly important mandate for the
firm to work for a client that we really
wanted to work for because it was a very
prestigious client that is the same
thing as working for free but you can
see you can be creative in the way you
do it
meetings five days in a row were you
thinking through issues providing
updates and that's free work but we
don't talk about it we don't
call it free if you want to meet new
clients and you have a great reputation
it's gonna be easy but if you don't have
a great reputation then do some kind of
free work analyzing the section present
the results and finally the goal is
always to create sustainable revenue
streams and not follow traditional
consulting models I may talk about this
more but in the insider version we
definitely talk more about breaking the
revenue streams because it's just tiring
and demoralizing to go through these
sales lumps whereby you don't have
revenue coming in for billable work
right and of course you've got to ask
yourself how you're spending your day
because it should be in front of coins
so if you have any questions or comments
post a response on iTunes or YouTube as
always I look forward to seeing you in
the next episode