OUR BLOG
LEADERSHIP
When Service Firm Leaders Perfect Deliberation, They Reignite Growth
Five Reasons Service Firm Leaders Should Score Their Business Monthly
What Should You Expect From Your Service Firm Leadership Team?
Do You Have A Leadership Team Or A Leadership Council?
Ten Traits Of Organizationally Healthy Professional Service Firms
To Grow Your Professional Service Firm, Prize Culture Over Strategy
TP35: The One Tipping Point Mid-Size Service Firms Must Address To Keep Growing
Seven Reasons Most Mid-Size Service Firms Don’t Grow Very Much
Five Reasons Mid-Size Service Firms Need A New Leadership Operating Model
How Leaders Can Address The Growth Tipping Point For Mid-Sized Service Firms
Five Reasons Professional Service Leaders Should Prize EQ Over IQ
Why Mid-Size Service Firm Leadership Teams Need Collective Objectives To Grow
How To Grow Your Mid-Sized Service Firm: Jealously Protect Your Focused Energy
Why Professional Service Firms Should Consider Circle Of Seven Mentoring Networks
How A Leader’s Energy Field Impacts Team Productivity
Don’t Trade Misery For Money: How Professional Service Firms Can Leverage The Great Resignation
Strong Personality Vs. Strong Person: The Makeup Of A Leadership Council
Custer Or Marshall: Why Mid-Size Service Firms Must Choose Their Leadership Model
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Define And Defend Your Values
If You Want To Grow Your Mid-Size Service Firm, Establish A Formal Leadership Council
Want To Grow Your Professional Service Firm? Focus On The One
If You Want To Grow Your Midsize Professional Service Firm, Align Your Leaders
Why Midsize Service Firm Leaders Must Think Like Entrepreneurs To Grow
How To Grow A Mid-Size Professional Service Firm Today
Why It's Important For Great Leaders To Tell Great Stories
How Great Leaders Persuade Using Word-Pictures
How The Say-Do Ratio Influences Trusted Advisor Status And Profits
Why Service Firm Leaders Should Nurture The Entrepreneurial Instincts Of Their Top People
STRATEGY
How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Ten Reasons To Adopt Managed Services
Hard Money. Fair Money. Easy Money
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Can You Hack Service Firm Growth?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
SALES
Five Strategies For Midsize Service Firms To Break Through Revenue Plateaus
How Pro Service Firms Can Fix The ‘Drop Everything — Chase Money’ Problem
Prospect, Originate, Navigate: How To Fill Your Professional Service Pipeline
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Think Carefully About Your Promise
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 7
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 6
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 5
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 4
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 3
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 2
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 1
How Mid-Size Service Firms Can Acquire Great New Clients On LinkedIn
Five Ways The Consultative Sale Improves Profits
How To Win The Complex Service Sale Consistently
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
MARKETING
How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Why Service Firms Need A Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Does Your Website Attract Ideal Clients?
Why Service Firms Need The Ultimate Digital Marketing Stack
The Myth Of The Time-Starved Service Buyer
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
Why You Need A Generous Brand
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
Are You Measuring Your Time Funnel?
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Five Digital Marketing KPIs
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Is Your Website Open For Business
How To Build A Great Digital Marketing Plan
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
The Value Of An Idea Driven Website
Who Benefits From Your Content?
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
How To Get The Greatest Value From Content Marketing
Why You Should Absolutely Give Away Your Best Ideas
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
How To Nurture Ideal Prospects
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BIG IDEAS FOR LEADERS OF MID-SIZE SERVICE FIRMS
INSIGHTS YOU NEED TO REACH YOUR NEXT LEVEL
HOW TO GROW A MID-SIZE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM
Growing a mid-size professional service firm can be incredibly challenging, but also very rewarding. Mid-size firms, those with 25-100 employees, are often subject to growth stall-outs. The business can grow year over year up to a point and then it hits a ceiling that leaders just can’t seem to break through. In our experience, the root cause of stall-outs is multifaceted, which means the solution also must be multifaceted. Our best ideas for growing a mid-size service firm have to do with upgrading your Leadership Operating Model.
LEADERSHIP OPERATING MODEL
A professional service firm’s Leadership Operating Model has to do with the set of practices and disciplines the leadership team engages in on a regular basis. It’s essentially how the leaders lead. Why is this so important? In our experience, how leaders lead can be the difference between breaking through to your next level or getting stuck in stall-out mode. Most mid-size service firms with 25-100 employees will need to upgrade their Leadership Operating Model to keep growing, especially once they surpass 35 employees.
LEADERSHIP TEAM VERSUS LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
A leadership team and a leadership council, for mid-size professional service firms, are not the same thing. A leadership team maintains the bus while a leadership council drives the bus. A leadership team is usually comprised of department heads who almost automatically ascended to the leadership team. A leadership council is an invitation-only group made up of people with a business growth-mindset. A leadership team spends much of their time reporting on departmental activities. A leadership council spends much of their time on ideas, strategies and activities that will grow the business.
WHAT A LEADERSHIP COUNCIL DOES
A leadership council drives a business forward by focusing on initiatives and strategies that are most likely to produce growth. They leverage Collective Objectives instead of annual strategic planning. They leverage Sword Sessions to address behavioral problems, rather than allowing bad behavior to persist. They make decisions by way of the Meat Grinder to strengthen good ideas and shed bad ideas. They leverage a monthly scorecard to document the health of the business and to identify problems that must be addressed. They hammer out alignment between them regarding a BHAG, values and the mission of the business.
LEADERSHIP ALIGNMENT
Leadership teams in many mid-size professional service firms (those with 25-100 staff) often operate with nominal alignment. Ask any five leaders to describe the future of the business and you might hear very different answers. However, alignment between leaders is a huge driver in mid-size service firms breaking through to their next level. An aligned leadership team will be unstoppable.
BHAG, MISSION, VALUES
BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), mission and values are three essential ideas for leaders of mid-size service firms, those with 25-100 employees. A BHAG is the big goal the firm is trying to achieve. The mission is why serving clients matters in the first place. Values are about what you prize and what you stand for and what you will not stand for. Keeping BHAG, mission and values in front of employees is an essential strategy for breaking through to your next level.
ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH
Organizational health is a concept that is not very well understood in the professional service space. At The Shattuck Group, we believe this is a huge opportunity to realize competitive advantage. Organizationally healthy firms are more stable, more enjoyable to work in and are typically more profitable than unhealthy firms. Organizational health is available to any service firm that will prize it, put in the work and nurture it over time.
SERVICE FIRM GROWTH TIPPING POINTS
There is one unavoidable tipping point that most mid-size professional service firms will encounter. We call it TP35. This has to do with changes to the business that come about shortly after service firms hire their 35th employee. In our experience, somewhere between employee 35 and 50, an almost imperceptible shift takes place and it becomes more debilitating with time. Left unaddressed, TP35 will lead to growth stall-outs.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Most mid-size professional service firms with 25-100 staff engage in annual strategic planning. But the problem is that it rarely produces consistent growth, year over year. A much better approach is to leverage Collective Objectives. In this model, a leadership team picks one meaningful goal that everyone can contribute to. They build and execute a plan to achieve the goal and don’t move on to other goals until it’s actually done. This approach moves service firms forward by achieving goals that impact growth.
MONTHLY OPERATING OBJECTIVES SCORECARD
A monthly operating objectives scorecard (or MOOS) is a tool that leadership teams use to document the current-state health of the business. In this approach, leaders of mid-size service firms identify 7-10 metrics that they’ll grade (red, yellow or green) every month. These metrics are about the business overall, not a single department. Metrics include revenue, expenses, growth, pipeline, client experience, operations, morale and others. Most importantly, there is only one score—the team’s score. This means leadership team members are asked, every month, to come to consensus about each of these vital metrics.
LEADERSHIP DECISION MAKING
Decision-making is an essential function for mid-size professional service firms (25-100 staff) to break through to their next level. The most effective leadership teams are risk-embracing, not risk averse. Yet, one of the hallmarks of a great leadership team is that they don’t make bad decisions. They know how to use the “meat grinder” to deliberate, strengthening good ideas and scrapping bad ideas. Most importantly, effective decision-making is a team sport where all leaders have a vote and practice a best-idea-wins mindset.
SWORD SESSIONS
Sword sessions are ad hoc leadership team meetings, called by any leader on the team, to quickly address situations that could have a materially negative impact on the business. Sword sessions address situations that might hurt morale, defocus staff, cause employees to lose confidence in leadership or lead to staff departures. These sessions are an effective means to quickly address bad behavior and limit long-term damage to the company. Sword sessions are crucial for growing mid-size service firms because bad behavior and attitudes, left unaddressed, will almost certainly lead to stall-outs. Sword sessions are also very important for maintaining psychological safety with employees.
EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION
Effective employee communication produces three important outcomes: clarity (knowing what the firm is trying to achieve) certainty (that leaders are really committed to achieving this) and confidence (that if you take action in line with these goals, you’ll be rewarded). But most leaders in mid-size service firms, in our experience, tend to underestimate the gap between what they know and what their employees know. This is why we recommend the free-flowing information model. This is about anticipating what staff need to know so they can take autonomous action in line with the goals of the business. It’s also about communicating these messages regularly to everyone in the company at the same time, typically on the same day, and giving them a chance to ask clarifying questions.
THE NEW 90-10 RULE
The new 90-10 rule holds that organic prospects want to make 90% of their in-bound journey before they have a conversation with anyone at your company. This has two important implications for your company. First, the sales conversation that used to start new business relationships has now moved to the end of that process. Second, if you are not giving prospects a reason to engage your ideas BEFORE a conversation, you are missing out on great new deals.
THE 95-5 RULE
The new 95-5 rule holds that 95% of the people you are marketing to at any given time are not ready to enter serious sales dialogue. They lack one or more of these crucial five criteria: budget, need, timeframe, reason to act or willingness to engage in serious sales dialogue. However, if you build content that matters to your audience and constantly provision it to them, over time, nearly all of them will encounter need, budget, timeline, reason and willingness to engage in dialogue. This is why lead nurturing is critical to your ultimate success.
THE NEW 80-20 RULE
The new 80-20 rule holds that no more than 20 percent of your webpages can be about your company, team, services or even testimonials. For websites to pull organic prospects into a business relationship, at least 80% of your webpages must be about ideas to help ideal prospects achieve their goals. Websites that follow the new 80-20 rule never lack for prospects, deals, revenue or profits.
CONSIDERATION – THE KEY TO GREAT NEW CLIENTS
The new digital sales funnel contains five distinct stages. Of these five, consideration is the most important stage for acquiring new organic clients. As prospects make their in-bound journey, they are considering your ideas, the clarity of your thinking, the applicability of your counsel and how you might help them. Service firms that stimulate a deep consideration phase pull organic prospects into meaningful sales conversations.
WHY FOCUS ON IDEAL CLIENTS?
Organizations who focus on ideal clients have higher profits, more satisfied clients and stronger loyalty from staff. There are 7 major qualities the make ideal clients ideal. There are also 7 major benefits that we have identified that service firms realize from focusing on ideal clients.
5 PREREQUISITES OF SALES-READY PROSPECTS
As prospects progress on the four stages of the in-bound journey, they go from not being willing to talk to a consultant to being entirely open to meaningful sales dialogue. But at what point should you talk to prospects? At what stage are they most open to dialogue? How can you know which prospects to engage and which to allow more time on their journey? The sales-ready prospect demonstrates 5 key characteristics.
OUR BLOG
LEADERSHIP
When Service Firm Leaders Perfect Deliberation, They Reignite Growth
Five Reasons Service Firm Leaders Should Score Their Business Monthly
What Should You Expect From Your Service Firm Leadership Team?
Do You Have A Leadership Team Or A Leadership Council?
Ten Traits Of Organizationally Healthy Professional Service Firms
To Grow Your Professional Service Firm, Prize Culture Over Strategy
TP35: The One Tipping Point Mid-Size Service Firms Must Address To Keep Growing
Seven Reasons Most Mid-Size Service Firms Don’t Grow Very Much
Five Reasons Mid-Size Service Firms Need A New Leadership Operating Model
How Leaders Can Address The Growth Tipping Point For Mid-Sized Service Firms
Five Reasons Professional Service Leaders Should Prize EQ Over IQ
Why Mid-Size Service Firm Leadership Teams Need Collective Objectives To Grow
How To Grow Your Mid-Sized Service Firm: Jealously Protect Your Focused Energy
Why Professional Service Firms Should Consider Circle Of Seven Mentoring Networks
How A Leader’s Energy Field Impacts Team Productivity
Don’t Trade Misery For Money: How Professional Service Firms Can Leverage The Great Resignation
Strong Personality Vs. Strong Person: The Makeup Of A Leadership Council
Custer Or Marshall: Why Mid-Size Service Firms Must Choose Their Leadership Model
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Define And Defend Your Values
If You Want To Grow Your Mid-Size Service Firm, Establish A Formal Leadership Council
Want To Grow Your Professional Service Firm? Focus On The One
If You Want To Grow Your Midsize Professional Service Firm, Align Your Leaders
Why Midsize Service Firm Leaders Must Think Like Entrepreneurs To Grow
How To Grow A Mid-Size Professional Service Firm Today
Why It's Important For Great Leaders To Tell Great Stories
How Great Leaders Persuade Using Word-Pictures
How The Say-Do Ratio Influences Trusted Advisor Status And Profits
Why Service Firm Leaders Should Nurture The Entrepreneurial Instincts Of Their Top People
STRATEGY
How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Ten Reasons To Adopt Managed Services
Hard Money. Fair Money. Easy Money
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Can You Hack Service Firm Growth?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
SALES
Five Strategies For Midsize Service Firms To Break Through Revenue Plateaus
How Pro Service Firms Can Fix The ‘Drop Everything — Chase Money’ Problem
Prospect, Originate, Navigate: How To Fill Your Professional Service Pipeline
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Think Carefully About Your Promise
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 7
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 6
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 5
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 4
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 3
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 2
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 1
How Mid-Size Service Firms Can Acquire Great New Clients On LinkedIn
Five Ways The Consultative Sale Improves Profits
How To Win The Complex Service Sale Consistently
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
MARKETING
How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Why Service Firms Need A Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Does Your Website Attract Ideal Clients?
Why Service Firms Need The Ultimate Digital Marketing Stack
The Myth Of The Time-Starved Service Buyer
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
Why You Need A Generous Brand
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
Are You Measuring Your Time Funnel?
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Five Digital Marketing KPIs
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Is Your Website Open For Business
How To Build A Great Digital Marketing Plan
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
The Value Of An Idea Driven Website
Who Benefits From Your Content?
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
How To Get The Greatest Value From Content Marketing
Why You Should Absolutely Give Away Your Best Ideas
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
How To Nurture Ideal Prospects