The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
Your firm’s ability to capture value is dependent on its ability to effectively communicate it. Most professionals devote boundless energy to developing a superior work product but invest precious little time learning how to showcase its true value. Brilliant work doesn’t always sell itself …
If and when it feels you’re competing in a buyer’s market, it’s only because you’ve chosen to be there, if not by design then by default. It’s true that many professional buyers view their job as running apples-to-apples comparisons. But you, the seller, have a job as well — to be an orange …
Who determined the price of the car you drive, the mobile phone you use, or the software systems you use? Which internal function inside these companies made the decision about what to charge for their products or services? The answer, surprising as it might be to professional services executives, is NOT the finance department …
In business as in war, the surest way to lose a battle is to send your troops marching in multiple directions. Military leaders know that battles are won by concentrating their forces on a clear objective.
Surveys show that client organizations are unfortunately critical of agencies’ willingness and ability to deliver proactive thinking. They praise agencies for being responsive (reactive) but give them failing grades for being proactive. We can lay much of the blame at the feet of the hourly rate …
Have you ever had the frustrating experience of trying to execute a “multi-pronged strategy?” It never goes well for the simple reason that a strategy with multiple prongs isn’t a strategy at all — it’s just a wish list. By definition, you can’t have multiple priorities. You can’t win a battle if you send your army off marching in multiple directions, and you can’t have a winning positioning strategy if it is constructed like a Swiss army knife …
In the agency business, your most valuable product is innovative ideas that solve business problems. Yet countless agencies give these concepts away at a price of $0. In new business situations, most firms present game-changing, category-creating programs, campaigns and concepts capable of creating immense value for their clients and extract no value in return …
While these unstable times make it infernally difficult to forecast your fiscal year revenue, there is a set of attributes and behaviors that can help foretell your firm’s long-term success. These are leading indicators, meaning they are predictive and diagnostic — the actions and attitudes that produce outsized financial and reputational capital for your firm …
Unless your firm has a business strategy that is crystal clear to every single associate, you are likely wasting valuable resources supporting multiple competing directions. Agencies that work in many different business segments not only lack deep expertise in any one of them, they are also obliged to devote talent and money in many dissimilar directions . . .
The most troublesome and contentious questions about billing are almost always around the question of agency hours. “Why did this take so many hours?” or “Can’t this be done in less time by fewer people?” The solution here isn’t to train your people to be better prepared for answering questions about hours, but to change the conversation you’re having in the first place …
Do you know what proportion of serious new business prospects visits your website? 100%. They all do. Because all prospective buyers of your services want to know what exactly what it is you’re selling. And although different marketers might want to know different things about your firm, they’re all ultimately looking to find one thing: expertise …
It’s been said that new business is a numbers game, but the most successful agencies focus their talents in areas where they have a clear advantage and pass on everything else. Agencies who have chosen a clear area of focus don’t have to “sell” much at all. They’re so well positioned that prospects actively seek them out. …
Why do formerly successful agencies experience stall-out? It’s almost always because they are busy solving yesterday's problems instead of exploring today’s opportunities. In today’s agency environment, clients submit the equivalent of a work order and agencies dutifully respond. This cadence of activity generates income in the present, but it doesn’t lay the foundation future for revenue streams …
Like food on grocery store shelves, the services offered by professional service firms have a “sell by” date. There’s no law compelling you to disclose outdated offerings, but if there were, the menu of competencies in many firms might be significantly reduced. In an era of exponential change, capabilities can abruptly outlive their usefulness …
In business as in life, words matter. Relationships can rise and fall based on the language we use with family, friends, and colleagues. So too, the terminology we employ when talking with clients and prospects can produce powerful effects, especially when it comes to pricing and compensation. Instead of using the language of cost, we should be applying the language of value …
