Dave Ryan Discusses Rx & Social Media w/ Social Syntax

Here is a brief video clip from the blog of Social Syntax. Todd Nilson, a social media expert, interviews Dave about the applicablity of social media with the constituents Gray Matters serves...consultants within professional services firms.

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Where I Come From

I really enjoyed my work at IBM...the IBM world of sales at that time was completely about focusing on the client, going “wide and deep” and providing clients with value. The most important learning I came away with was: NEVER TAKE CUSTOMERS FOR GRANTED!

When I left IBM to join the management team at an IT professional services firm, I received a rude awakening. Where was the rigor and discipline, and most important, the focus on building great customer relationships? I quickly discovered that the key to successful revenue growth was to provide value by making the customer the focal point.

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Doing It Better...Sets the Tone

I have seen the following countless times...three partners from three different practices in the same firm call the same client executive in the same week. Help me understand that...

And if I am that client executive, I'm thinking: "Didn't I just talk to you guys and don't you talk to each other?"

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I Just Need Them on Special Teams

One of the clients who encouraged me to get into this profession was a leader of a regional tax practice for a large public account firm. He already had a dedicated sales team and so called "rainmakers" (a small % of his delivery staff) doing a decent job of driving revenue. But he was concerned that the majority of his consultants did little, if anything to deepen client relationships and help identify revenue opportunities with clients.

As an ex-college football player, he described his concerns using a football analogy. He said Dave...

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Shifting the Burden From the Few to the Many...

Traditionally within professional services firms, the people who own and carry the revenue burden of the organization are a small subset of the entire staff.

There may be dedicated sales people and/or business developers who are responsible for opening doors, creating opportunities, and bringing in the “subject matter expert” for a deeper dialog. What about another constituency that's on for revenue generation? Let's call them the "Rainmakers"- a small percentage of the service delivery organization, perhaps 5-10% of the billable staff of a firm...

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