Data Dome Resources – Success Stories: Big 6 Company Sell and Service

What it Takes for a Big Six Client to Make Sales and to Provide Service

What does it take to get 55 managing partners to define and agree upon the process required to sell and service their clients? As Jim Collins famously observed it is not just a matter of getting the right people on the bus, but also getting them into the right seats.

Problem:

The Managing Partners of a Big Six consulting firm needed to define their processes for selling to and servicing their clients.

Participants:

55 Managing Partners at their Corporate Retreat

Background:

Out with the old, in with the new.

Traditionally, each partner was responsible for bringing in his or her own clients, primarily through client referrals, networking, and socializing.

Not only would they be responsible for winning business, but they would also then be responsible for analyzing, strategizing and assigning all work associated with servicing the client. Only basic maintenance work was delegated.

Results:

After a fun session spent focused on understanding the behavioral styles of ourselves and others, we spent the next session defining exactly what it took to effectively sell their services and to then provide the service to their clients. This resulted in defining a five stage cycle.

Each stage was then analyzed to determine which behaviors were most appropriate for that segment of the selling-servicing cycle.

Using Behavioral Job Analysis, five different roles were defined and analyzed to create templates for the optimal behaviors associated with each role's designated tasks. These were then compared to the actual preferred behavioral styles of the managing partners, thus facilitating an understanding of their current personal competencies and strengths.

The partners learned through the process that people with different styles were required to make up a good functioning team, and that such a well-defined team would be their key to exemplary sales and service.

We ended the sessions with a wonderfully spirited game of "Super Bowl", where each partner's behavioral style was displayed next to a number on a jersey instead of using names. The eight groups were to individually determine the composition of what they thought was the best team to "go all the way."

After the requisite lottery to determine selection order, a draft was held. Each group tried to compose the draft picks for their ideal team. A trading period then commenced. Following that, each team made their case as to why they believed they had assembled the ideal team. The other teams would then have a chance to point out the weaknesses they observed in the grouping. The competition was intense, spirits were high and everyone developed a strong understanding of how to best balance their teams to be successful at both the selling and servicing of clients.

Bottom Line:

Every participant walked away with an enlightened perspective on themselves: Each now had their own redefined role in the process of selling and servicing their client base, and a knowledge-based understanding of how best to define their own teams, both now and in the future.