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 in professional services was to provide value by making the customer the focal point.

Most professional companies love being technical. They assume that technical competence will carry the day relationally with the client. If you do great work, the assumption is that it guarantees you will get more work.

That philosophy was appropriate back in the day when there were fewer players in the market, but today consulting services have absolutely exploded and there are a lot of players. Those players that have survived this most recent economic downturn are probably pretty good from a delivery standpoint. I submit that they are all very good and have similar capabilities in terms of technical competence. And so, at the end of the day, technical competence has become commoditized.

The question now is, how does one differentiate oneself in the commoditized world of professional services? And that is the crux of the matter.  

I believe firms can no longer differentiate themselves based on service delivery. I believe the opportunity for differentiation has shifted from the back end world of service delivery to the front end client development side of the house. It's managing client touches; the overall client experience; how you bring value to the relationship every day; how you manage the business development lifecycle and client development initiatives within our firm. If you execute that function in a more streamlined, profitable and high value way, I believe that's the opportunity to create separation.

The reality is...most professional services companies trip over themselves when it comes to executing the client development function.  So here is the great news my friends...if you can execute the front end, client development/experience part of your business a little bit better than the next guy who is selling the same stuff, who do you think your client would prefer to do business with? 

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