As a fan of zombie movies, you can probably guess that The Walking Dead is one of my favorite shows. If you’ve never watched it before, it’s a series that follows a group of survivors as they learn to adapt in a world overrun by zombies. Now, I’m going to let you in on a secret – don’t become attached to any of the main characters, because they are more than likely going to die. It’s the unfortunate reality for any zombie themed flick. Although your firm isn’t facing a zombie apocalypse, they do face several threats that can affect profit margins on fixed fee projects. Let’s find out if any of these classic zombie types are lurking in your fixed fee projects.

The Runner Zombie

Runner zombies are always sprinting after survivors, and often only injure the victim as they frantically run to attack another survivor. You can probably identify these frightening zombies and know how hard it is to avoid them.

These are clients with awesome project opportunities, but they rush to send out multiple request for proposals (RFPs) in a relatively short amount of time. As a result, each RFP contains incomplete plans and poorly explained specifications that go unnoticed until the project has launched. These overlooked mistakes often result in change orders and unpaid work time as these zombies take bites out of your profit.

The Surprise Zombie

The surprise zombies hide in the shadows and pop out periodically throughout the movie or show for quick surprise attacks on the survivors. They appear randomly in order to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. In a project management scenario, this zombie type may sound like subcontractors who love to surprise you and keep you on the edge of your seat.

The fact is, your firm develops project proposals and budgets based on the estimates provided by the subcontractors. But far too often, these estimates contain errors due to omissions and incorrect assumptions. Now the overlooked permit fee or low estimate on a materials allowance increases the budget and eats away at your profit.

The Exploding Zombie

All of a sudden, boom! It’s the loud explosion of a zombie exploding, or was that the cost of the materials pricing for your project skyrocketing? The cost of materials changes and we all understand this, however the supplier is supposed to be the expert.

Some RFPs are for projects that start right away and in other cases, some RFPs are for projects that won’t start for over a year. Even more, project durations can be as short as a month to multiple years. Knowing what the materials are going to cost at the time of the project and throughout the project lifecycle is essential to making a profit. Not being able to predict these changes can cause your materials costs to explode.

The Crawler Zombie

Crawler zombies are more of a nuisance and like to cause disruptions to the survivors as they escape to safety. These zombies are the slow movers and the problem with them is they lurk everywhere, from within your own firm to the subcontracted help.

Every project plan is susceptible to these slow movers who can’t complete a task within the designated time period. Consequently, another task can’t start until the crawler zombie finally completes their task. This sets off a chain reaction of delays that eventually affects the entire project timeline.

The Spitter Zombie

This is a total different type of zombie than the others. What makes them unique is their ability to attack from medium to long range with their toxic spit. Since they attack their unsuspecting victims from afar, the survivors must rely on their reflexes to survive. You might not see the spitter zombie often and that’s with good reason. The spitter zombie in your project is the micro-managing client who doesn’t have a pulse on the project since they are not on site.

These clients present two types of threats to the project. Firstly, these types of clients might be slow to respond to approvals and requests since they are not on site and easy to find. Secondly, they inject slight modifications to the plan without understanding the real effects of those changes. Working with off-site clients isn’t always horrifying, as long you’re able to react fast to minimize the damage to your profit, and keep an open and effective line of communication with the client.

Protecting Your Profit

Like the survivors in The Walking Dead, you can never let your guard down when taking on a fixed fee project. Protecting your profit starts during the proposal process and doesn’t end until the project is complete. Every project faces several threats to the bottom line, but learning to adapt to changes can increase your firm’s survival chances if you should ever encounter an apocalypse or in your case, a daunting project.

Are you responsible for handling client complaints? As an Owner of a firm, I know that figuring out a way to proactively identify issues before they become bigger is a key concern for most executives. The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) conducted research on this topic and found that the average business never hears from 96% of unhappy clients. Businesses dedicate money to attracting new clients each year, yet a key area that is overlooked is developing a client retention plan.

How Do You Calculate Client Retention Rates?

It seems like almost every firm I speak with in the AEC industry states their client retention rate is 80%. However, is that a good or bad rate? Let’s breakdown some definitions:

Attrition rate is the percentage of clients you have lost over a given period
Retention rate is the percentage of clients you have retained over a given period

So if your client retention rate is 80% then that means your attrition rate is 20%, no matter how many new clients you obtain. Here is how to calculate client retention rates:

Client Retention Rate = ((CE-CN)/CS)) x 100

Clients End (CE) = Number of clients at END of period

Clients New (CN) = Number of NEW clients acquired during period

Clients Start (CS) = Number of clients at START of period

Client Retention Impacts Profits

When you take into account that SMPS reports it takes six to seven times more effort to obtain a new client than retain an existing client. It would seem that focusing on client retention would be a no brainer. Yet does your firm even have a plan for client retention and do you track it?

A study by Bain & Company shows that even a five percent increase in client retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent. Let’s do the math. Envision the following is true for your firm:

Your firm makes $2M a year
Has a profit of 10% or $200,000 at the end of the year
Has 50 clients at the beginning of the year
Has a 80% client retention rate (kept 40 clients) at the end of the year

So, let’s say that our goal is to increase client retention to 85%. By increasing your client retention by 5% you could increase your profits to $250,000 (13%) or $390,000 (20%). Have you connected the dots? Profits increase because you are spending less time trying to win new clients and more time making sure you are managing the expectations of your existing clients.

Why Clients Leave and How to Prevent It

So now that we know why it’s important, let’s understand more about why clients leave. SMPS found that 68% of clients leave firms because of an attitude of indifference toward the client by some employee and only 9% leave for competitive reasons, which most firms think is the cause. Yet as previously pointed out most firms don’t even know there is an issue.

The obvious answer to resolve this challenge is talk to the client and obtain feedback periodically, yet few firms do it and fewer do it consistently well. Understanding what motivates clients and how to make your services relevant to them is fundamental to building strong client relationships. Obtaining feedback is important for executives and marketing to monitor, but the key way to ensure the relationship is strong is to provide a systematic way, like the Client Feedback Tool, for Project Managers to know when to reach out throughout the lifecycle of the project. Not just at the end.

Benefits of Feedback

Successful companies know the critical importance of reaching out to their clients for feedback and service firms that ARE monitoring client feedback are:

Differentiating themselves
Gaining great insight to better serve their clients
Discovering what clients find of value
Identifying clients that will pay a premium for their services
Increasing profits
Improving staff retention
and much more

Reach out to us today to find out more about monitoring feedback and developing a client retention plan for your firm.

Client Focused All too often, certain words and catchphrases are overused in business meetings to the point they have become trite and serve little to no real purpose. These words and phrases are used in business blogs, articles, websites, and day-to-day business emails. One such term, "client-focused", is thrown around as a marketing gimmick for professional services firms, but what does it really mean to be client-focused?

Before we get too far, here’s what you need to know:

There is a difference between saying you’re a client-focused firm and actually being client-focused.
Your firm’s culture dictates the level of service your clients receive.
If your firm isn’t using technology to support your client relationships, you’re already behind.

The Firm-Focused vs. Client-Focused Professional Services Firm

Being truly client-focused depends on how your firm sees their clients. Sure, it is easy to talk the talk, but putting words into action is where things tend to get difficult.

When a firm places an enormous emphasis on the needs of their clients, they are firm-focused. A firm-focused business makes decisions based on the benefits to themselves and not with their client’s best interest in mind.

On the contrary, truly "client-focused" firms make decisions that are determined by their client’s needs, as they are at the center of all such business decisions. They understand exactly what their clients need which helps to promote a symbiotic relationship between the firm and the clients.

Through the delivery of top-notch service aimed directly at the needs of their clients, a company will see a simultaneous rise in business performance. After all, the services provided were determined with the client and their needs in mind.

Living the Firm’s Culture

Who are your clients? The answer might surprise you, but in the business world, there are two types: internal and external clients.

Internal clients are members of your organization that rely on the help of other members to perform their job. These individuals can fall anywhere on the spectrum of your chain of command, from coworkers to upper management and executives.

On the other hand, external clients are clients in the traditional sense of the term. They are the buyer of the services your firm provides.

Do you feel you receive great service from the other internal customers within your firm? If you’re not receiving great service from within your own organization, imagine the service your external clients are receiving. Your firm’s culture is a reflected by the employees, and your clients can see if you live by the values you market.

If you’re not satisfied with your internal customer service, start communicating and living the values that define your firm. Your clients will notice the difference.

How Technology is Changing Playing Field

Keep up with the Joneses - In order to be competitive and effective within an industry, your firm needs to ensure it is using innovative technology that helps promote success. Failing to innovate hinders a firms’ ability to adapt and grow while the "Joneses," aka your competitors, employ the use of industry leading technology enabling them to leave you in the dust.

With a Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, you can take your company to the next level by keeping the functions of your company in a centralized system. This helps promote a conducive work environment in which the sales and marketing teams, and administration and finance teams can better work together to achieve client-focused results. To learn more about the basics to Deltek Vision CRM, click here.

An additional benefit of using innovative technology and software is that it enables you to access your work on-the-go. Today we have access to everything on our smartphone devices. From banking to entertainment, email to ordering pizza and everything in between, we can do incredible things with just one, single device. Having mobile access to your CRM allows you to -update client information on-the-go and enables other members of your organization access to the most up-to-date information about your clients.

The Takeaway

The importance of understanding what it means to be "client-focused" cannot be overstated. Your firm should define itself by its actions and not by catchphrases.

The goal of being client-focused is to nurture client relationships to retain clients and win more work. Remember, your existing clients are the lifeblood of your organization. According to Bain & Company, it cost 6 to 7 time more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one. It seems smart to try to keep the clients you already have.

client feedback, profits Ultimately, when push comes to shove, there are really only 3 ways to increase profits: Sell more, improve margins or decrease overhead costs. While these principals may sound simple on paper they are often difficult to execute in the real world. But have you ever thought about the role client feedback plays in your firm profits? Perception is reality and understanding how your clients perceive you can uniquely position your firm to fuel the bottom line and increase profits.

The Breakdown: 3 Ways for Increase Profits

Sell More | Simply put, there are only two ways to sell more: Add new customers and increase sales to existing customers. In my experience, sales discussions tend to focus on adding new customers. But research has shown that it costs at least 8 times more to sell to a new customer versus an existing client. Ideally we want to ensure long term stability with existing relationship and leverage those relationships to win new work.

Tip for selling more:

Avoid losing your least expensive prospects – existing customers. The best way to ensure long and meaningful relationships with clients is to (gasp!) create real relationships. Developing a client feedback process allows your firm to build trust between you and your clients, continuously strengthening your relationships and building client loyalty.

Improving Margins | The Pareto Principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Consequently, many businesses have glaring opportunities for improvements to their bottom line by simply eliminating or refocusing areas of their business that do not fit company goals. Regardless of the area of business you target, strong client relationships are proven to make a positive impact to your bottom line.

Tip for improving margins:

All opportunities are not created equal. It’s a dog eat dog world and as clients are receiving more proposals than ever, identifying strategies to increase your win rate becomes increasingly important. Successful professional services firms are implementing tools and processes to create an RFP feedback strategy.

Decrease Overhead Costs | While expense management is an important element to every successful business, it is imperative to understand where to cut costs in your business. Is re-work eating away at your profit margins? Are your project managers delivering more than the scope of work in the contract to try and ensure their clients are satisfied? By using client feedback to guide these decisions we are able to cut fat from our budget – without cutting bone!

Tip for decreasing overhead costs:

Develop a corporate culture that embraces automation. Although automating processes and procedures sounds like something only for Fortune 500 companies, automation is actually perfectly suited for small- to medium-sized businesses where the focus is on being lean and mean. Start decreasing your overhead costs by focusing automation on processes and tasks that are menial and time intensive. Doing so will free up your employees to focus on tasks and assignments better suited for humans such as responding, tweaking, evaluating and navigating complex social issues.

So Where’s the Magic Template?

Ultimately there is no golden brush for improving profits. Your firm needs to make decisions based on your own set of criteria. However, as you look to continue to set yourself apart and differentiate from your competition, consider the value of keeping your clients at the center of everything you do. Many firms claim to be client-centric, but do words often meet reality? The Client Feedback Tool can help you integrate a proven process into your project delivery system to keep your clients at the center of your business and give your firm the winning hand.

Deadly Sins, Consulting Firm The other day I was having a discussion with a client about the challenges of owning a consulting firm. It’s funny how these types of conversations force you to reflect on your own experiences. I quickly realized I made some mistakes along the way as all business owners do when they first start out. I’ve also been witness to mistakes by other consulting firms that have reached out to us for help. From these past experiences, I have identified 9 deadly sins owners of consulting firms should avoid.

Not Staying True to the Purpose – When you started the firm you had a purpose, your mission, vision and principles. Don’t lose sight of how you became a successful consulting firm, even through the tough times. It’s important to diversify and be innovative, but it must always fit what you stand for. When you leave your core business, you also lose your core loyal clients.
Failing to Innovate – When firms fail to see the changing tealeaves and adapt to their client demands and the competitive landscape, the business can become stagnant and may even die out. Innovation opens your firm up to the next big success. Ideas may fail, but continually innovating and adapting will keep a consulting firm growing.
Not Planning for Growth – Alan Lakein said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” This couldn’t be more true when it comes to thinking about how you will grow your firm. The demise of any consulting firm is hoping to stay where it is and not planning for future growth. Change is constant and you can rest assure that your competitors are looking at ways to grow their staff, revenue and client base.
Misunderstanding Profitability – You would think this would be a no brainer for consulting firms, but you would be surprised at the excuses made by Project Managers and Owners about why the profit number is declining. Most consulting firms watch profitability for the company, but are you watching the profit on each project? Even worse is when you make the same mistake with the next project. It’s important to take those lessons learned and circle them back to the proposal process.
Not Tracking Cash Flow – Firms that do understand profit often forget that it is only half the problem. Clients that do not pay can derail the best profit and growth program and impact cash flow. Having a consistent feedback program with clients can decrease payment issues. By constantly collecting client perceptions about the service delivery, firms can quickly resolve issues and reduce the firm’s payment issues.
Misguided or Lacking Process Improvement – Processes deteriorate over time for all kinds of reasons, including addition of new technology, employee turnover, and cutting expenses or resources. Periodically reviewing your processes - whether technological or how staff approach clients or issues - keep staff trained and technology up-to-date. Technology that allows for automatic workflows is an easy way to improve efficiency, decrease redundancy and create consistency. Keep in mind that pursuing too many process improvements at one-time can also be detrimental to the goal. Process improvement must be clearly defined, have an internal champion and sometimes done in stages.
Treating BD as a Part-Time Lover – For smaller firms especially, business development can be a challenge to juggle getting the business and doing the work. However, if your firm isn’t constantly selling to existing and new clients, your sales pipeline will eventually run dry. Setting goals and monitoring those goals through a CRM system, for example, can provide visibility to ensure business development is consistent.
Ineffective Risk Assessment – The moment we start a business we run into unpredictability and risks every day. Sometimes leaders don’t even know there is a risk issue. Understanding the risks facing your company – from professional liability issues to growing into a new market – allows you to minimize the risk while still being able to “take a chance”.
Improper Planning of Disasters - Failure Happens! However, many firms don’t realize until it’s too late that they don’t have an effective backup and recovery solution for their database, email, and network. Even if your firm has a back-up method in place, many times it can’t be deployed quickly. The scary stat is that 60% of all firms that lose their data will close in 6 months. Instituting a Disaster Recovery System that allows for redundant offsite storage and system restoration within a 36-hour period can greatly reduce the chances of complete loss.

Ask yourself, if your consulting firm is committing any of these deadly sins? If so, what can you do about it? Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It would be insane to keep repeating any of these deadly sins.

Successful professional services business development professionals often view themselves as hunters. Much like the cavemen or nomads, this group of professionals is responsible for learning how to navigate the dangers of the world to bring food back to the pack. This overly simplified analogy challenges us to view business development tools and efforts on a visceral level.

However, today’s competitive business environment requires business developers to be both hunters and farmers. Technology has drastically changed the way that relationships are cultivated. Our world is now more connected than ever before, therefore the ‘entry for admission’ to being a known entity is significantly higher than it has ever been before.

So what are the most essential hunter-farmer business development tools? Let’s take a look!

The Business Development Tools for Success

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | CRM tools make it possible for everyone in your organization to work together to meet your clients’ needs by putting your clients at the center of your business. Real-time, holistic, competitive intelligence can provide you with everything needed to gain the competitive edge, win more business and increase customer satisfaction.
Mobile Technology | For years BD professionals went out in to the field, gathered information, and brought the newly found information back to their firm. In today’s competitive business market we cannot afford the lag-time from collecting business intelligence, to acting upon it. Mobile technology has bridged this gap and allows professionals the full functionality of working from the office via a remote or mobile device.
Social Collaboration Platform | Businesses that have more collaborative and engaged employees experience a higher rate of success. Social collaboration spaces are the virtual equivalent of an open office environment for your organization. Connect your out-of-office and internal staff through a platform that encourages employees to stay connected and share ideas more freely. Simplify file sharing, keep the entire project team informed and engage staff.
Engagement Through Feedback | We are all familiar with the saying ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask.’ This concept is often overlooked in the business world. Don’t be afraid to ask clients if the processes you are using works for them. Utilize feedback to validate successes and identify areas of improvement. Foster long and meaningful relationships by asking, listening and responding to feedback.

Operate Like the Company You Desire to Be

As mentioned earlier, these business development tools are really the basics for being competitive in today’s market. Ultimately what differentiates your firm in the eyes of the client is how you utilize these technologies. Perception is often reality -- Clarissa the Client doesn’t know the intimate details about your firm, but she is aware of the image your firm presents. Firms that effectively deploy and manage the above tools are able to establish a brand within their market as top tier business partner.

Our modern day culture is often obsessed with perfection. Magazine covers are graced by photoshopped professional models and our TV screens are filled with successful eclectics whose wealth is their biggest problem.

Fortunately, perfection is not an attainable goal; the real goal is the path we follow as we strive for peak performance which is the essence of a 'perfect employee'.

It was Vince Lombardi that said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Considering that the NFL Super Bowl trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, you could say he knew a thing or two about peak performance…

So, what qualities help us along this path to being the ‘perfect employee’?

What are the 11 P's of Peak Performance?

If obtaining peak performance is our professional goal, then, what exactly are the attributes that we need to be the 'perfect employee'? Following is the list of benchmark qualities you should strive for on your path:

1. Proficient. Sure, you can’t have all the answers but you know how to dive in or connect with the right people to figure them out. You come to the table with suggestions - not more problems. You are constantly looking at how to improve the process.

2. Proud. You are proud of your work because your efforts are always well thought out, tested and reviewed. You don't rely on others to finish your assignments but ask others to quality check your work to make sure it is always correct.

3. Persistent. We all know to learn from mistakes, but the 'perfect employee' personifies this concept. You admit when you are wrong sooner than later. If you don't know how to do something, you find out how … with no excuses.

4. Passionate. You LOVE what you do and radiate emotion when you talk about your work! You learn on your own, offer improvements, and share with others what you know.

5. Productive. Your willingness to push up your sleeves and work overtime while not jeopardizing other commitments is renowned. While we all have parts of our jobs that are not favorable, 'perfect employees' realize the goal of those less desirable tasks and get them done.

6. Positive. You exemplify “Can Do!” by accepting that you can always improve, you see challenges as opportunities, and you think about how things can be done instead of complaining about what you can't change (including the past).

7. Professional. You understand that while comradery is important with co-workers and clients, there is a fine line between “fun” and unprofessional “fooling around.” You make sure your work is top notch and your comments will not ever be construed as childish or offensive.

8. Able to keep Promises. You are always thinking about priorities and when the job will be completed in order to deliver in order to keep your promise. You communicate when a conflict arises but still look to deliver on time. You are faithful about deadlines and rarely provide excuses.

9. Punctual. You understand the value of time, yours as well as others. People think “punctual” is your middle name.

10. Able to Promote … others and yourself. You promote great deeds and great work regardless of who completed it. You are always thinking and talking about ways to make the workplace a better environment for your colleagues and services better for clients.

11. Purposeful. Each day has a purpose. You take each day and every action seriously; constantly thinking about what needs to be accomplished and how to generate purposeful results.

HOW to be “perfect” (or close)?

Providing professional services, by nature, means that we are tasked to serve our clients. We often measure billings, schedule delivery and quality of deliverables, yet fail to objectively measure the real goal - driving client delight. Strive to be the 'perfect employee' to your clients by evaluating how to obtain your peak performance and implementing continuous improvement with feedback!

clientmind To thrive in the professional services industry, client satisfaction must always remain a top concern. All successful project-based firms have the resources and ability to deliver high quality projects. This ability does not separate truly successful firms – it is the bare minimum needed to enter the conversation.

What truly separates one professional services firm from another is the capability to understand how they are perceived by their clients and utilize this information to build more meaningful relationships. How many people reading this blog can truly say that they know how their clients perceive them? I’d guess not many of us could answer that question.

Unfortunately most firms fail to recognize the impact that the client experience throughout the lifespan of the project plays on the overall perception of the firm in the clients mind. This failure to leverage feedback and ensure a positive project experience equates to a failure in your brand.

Utilize feedback to dig in to the client mind

So – how DO we utilize feedback to establish our brand in the clients mind, and differentiate ourselves from our competition? Let’s examine three key factors:

Open the lines of communications between your clients and your project managers – The experience your clients have with your firm is based on communication. Provide the means for clear, honest and timely communication.

Put your clients mind at ease - Improve your bottom line knowing your clients expectations. Avoid dissatisfied clients that can too often become “former clients”.

Go above and beyond the standard - Strengthen project delivery by focusing on specific client expectations that can only be identified through open communication channels. Know your deliverables.

Improved communication between your project managers and your client is crucial to the ongoing profitability and viability of your firm – coincidentally, it just so happens to be a key factor to establishing your brand in the mind of the client and winning new business. So, how do we continue to develop our brand, and improve the lines of communications with our clients? Register for this free webinar on March 4^th to find out:

Have you ever had a moment in your life that stands out as a teaching moment that has made you who you are today? My moment transformed and prepared me as a Project Manager and Owner to tackle difficult conversations. Let’s face it, whether personal or in the workplace, we are constantly faced with resolving conflict. At the same time, I have learned (or found) that not everyone is comfortable with expressing what needs to be said. So, it really resonated with me when a couple years ago I discovered a tool that has made conflict resolution easier. More about that in a minute.

My Story

My teaching moment was when I was in sixth grade. I had a teacher I felt was not being fair. I expressed to my mother my frustration to see if she could help. She told me that she could go to this teacher and have a conversation, but that the teacher would probably respond better if I addressed the issue head on. She coached me on how to have the conversation so I had the tools to handle the conversation on my own.

I was nervous as I entered her classroom. I asked the teacher if she had a moment that we could step outside of the class and talk. I told her how I felt and wanted to bring it to her attention to see how we could resolve the issue. The teacher was impressed and happy that I brought it to her attention. We came up with a solution and each day after I felt that I was respected and developed a better relationship with that teacher. Each day I look back at that experience, I realize that was the moment I learned to speak up about concerns and not fear the hard conversation to resolve conflict.

Resolving Conflict

By no means am I an expert at resolving conflict. However, I have learned that avoiding the subject and hoping it goes away rarely works. Additionally, conflict doesn’t have to be looked at as negative. Sometimes opportunities flourish from conflict. The other person might be feeling the same way and because you took the time to say something your relationship improved. A great resource for learning more about conflict resolution is Mindtools. Below are some tips I have learned throughout the years to help resolve client issues:

Perception is Reality - The definition of conflict is to be incompatible. So in order to resolve conflict, the first step is to listen and understand the other person’s or group’s point of view. We all come from different experiences that influence us and can lead us to make assumptions. So it’s important to understand that someone else’s views may have nothing to do with you, but be based on their past experience. So with that, we must also realize that perception is the truth no matter if you think it’s true or not. Once you put your mind around that fact you can begin to focus on what can be done to resolve the issue.
Managing Expectations – Managing expectations with a client requires being proactive vs. reactive. Once a client is frustrated with multiple things that have built up over time, it takes a lot more work to resolve the issue and sometimes is too late. For professional services firms that need to manage clients, a great tool to help with this is the Client Feedback Tool. The only way you can really know what a client is thinking is to ask. This tool allows a firm to check-in with their clients using two minute surveys throughout the project. When you do this, you uncover things your firm has done that your clients love (so you can continue to do more of the same) as well as things that your client would like you to change if only slightly. This doesn’t remove the need for picking up the phone and calling, but it is great for letting you know there is an issue before it gets unmanageable. And, it is very comfortable for clients to let you know things you might not think to ask on the phone and that they might feel were perhaps not worth mentioning on a project call. However, knowing allows you to adjust your service delivery and make you even more valuable to them.
Take Action – When a person does speak up about an issue, it’s important to follow-up, follow-up, follow-up and take action! Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that you go against best practices or things you know are not in the best interest of the client or your firm. The feedback just brings out in the open something that matters to your client. It gives everybody a moment to collect their thoughts and then have a discussion. When you do, it’s important to communicate concerns you have and any consequences after fully understanding the client. At the end of the discussion and meetings, a recap of action items, who is responsible and due dates can help you get back on track.

So the next time you encounter an issue with a client, I hope my story and tips help you think about ways you can deal with conflict resolution. Be sure to share your conflict resolution tips or stories. Should you want to provide your employees a way to manage expectations, we invite you to take a tour of the Client Feedback Tool.

What does CRM Mean? CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a solution that enables your firm to cultivate relationships and gain valuable insight in to marketing efforts. An integrated CRM solution brings together data from all data sources within an organization to provide a holistic real-time view of each customer or campaign. This real-time knowledge provides your team with the metrics and data needed to make informed decisions in a quick, yet calculated manner.

What Does CRM Mean for My Firm

A CRM system is truly something that each member of your team can benefit from. Examples of the benefits a CRM solution provides include:

Track client contact information | No need for the use of virtual cards or digging through outlook to find email signatures, a CRM allows your entire firm to store valuable customer information in one location.
Monitor marketing campaigns and efforts | What good are your marketing efforts if you cannot track the results? Track the effectiveness of your efforts and campaigns to help better refine your message and target audience.
Review past engagements | Utilize dashboards to easily track which messages, campaigns, and leads resulted in the highest wins.
Access customer (or lead!) information, on the go | Never get left out in the cold again! Gain access to your customer information on the go! Readily available intelligence allows your business development staff to go out and produce, and track, results.

What does CRM mean for your SMB, and how can you use it to grow stronger? The answer is simple; a CRM solution means that as your business grows, and the associated contacts and connections grow with it, you have the ability to manage a myriad of relationships across your entire firm. Clients are the lifeblood of any professional services firm, and without a proper CRM solution in place, you are essentially ignoring an open wound. So how can your firm use CRM to manage an opportunity from concept to completion? Simple:

Pipeline and Cash-flow forecasting | Avoid rough patches and dry spouts by becoming intimately familiar with your pipeline of potential new business, and the value of your current projects.
Track progress on current sales opportunities, review historical information on past opportunities | When speaking to a client or prospect, easily log details about the conversation for later follow-up. Tracking detailed information about interactions can allow you to win future work, based on often overlooked past experiences.
Create milestones for each step of the project, and specify a target completion date | Tasks can be created and associated with each milestone within the project, so you have more granular control of what needs to be done, by whom, when.
Comprehensive reporting allows deeper insight | Setup your marketing goals within your CRM and track status and progress quickly and easily.

It is important to not only track valuable customer data, but to do so in a way that promotes sharing amongst your team. Promote growth and sharing and consider taking your customer data in to the cloud with an all-in-one CRM solution that consolidates all of your information in to an easy to access system. Stop wasting valuable customer insights and information, and start impressing customers with your deep firm-wide knowledge about each relationship.

So next time someone asks you ‘what does CRM mean’, you can tell them, “CRM means winning more work!”

Full Sail Partners Blog | Client Relationships (3)

Posts about Client Relationships (3):