Solving channel concentration risk
~90% of the firm's revenue was coming from one referral partner. The partner was good to them, but it was a risk and it meant they weren't really in control of their growth. We took on the management of their outreach agency, rebuilt their proposal templates, and gave the founders a system for managing their client relationships. Three months in, they were invoicing twice what they had been and relied far less on the partner.
Professional services firm // Client story
2x
monthly invoiced revenue
Their third month with us, against their monthly average before we started.
3
record months in a row
Their best month ever came in our second month together, and they beat it in each of the next two.
1.8x
target, beaten twice
A quarterly target of 1.8x their old revenue, set above their own plan. They beat it two quarters running.
Where the work started.
Clients kept coming back and the founders had already hired an agency to cold call for them. The agency booked plenty of meetings, but many didn't show, and few of the rest turned into buyers. The founders still wrote most proposals themselves, and almost every new project came through the one partner.
//cold_calling
Improved targeting for cold calling
Their cold calling agency was working hard, but its targeting and messaging weren't quite right, so no-shows were high and few meetings led to qualified buyers. We stepped in the manage the agency relationship, rewrote every script and pointed the calls at procurement teams and manufacturers that matched the firm's best clients, as well as profiles we knew were more likely to answer. They didn't have to change agencies or spend more, and the no-shows dropped, and the meetings began turning into won projects.
//proposals
Freeing the founders from proposal writing
The founders wrote most proposals themselves, because they knew the work best. We rebuilt the template so it clearly communicated where the buyer was, where they wanted to go, what was blocking them, and what was being proposed to solve it. The result was immediate positive feedback from clients, team members, and the founders. Team members found the template easier to fill in, founders found the template easier to review, and buyers found the template easier to understand.
//client_relationships
Keeping every client relationship moving
The founders held most of the client relationships and fitted follow-up around delivery work. We built them a visual platform and background system, one place to see every current and prospective client, with the next step for each. We also added a habit to live projects: sketch the next piece of work a quarter of the way through, raise it at the halfway point and ask for the go-ahead at three quarters. The proactiveness and organization immediately began expanding their LTVs.
What the team was left with.
By the time we stepped back, leads had doubled, more of them were converting and contracts were larger. They kept the improved calling program, a proposal template the team runs without the founders, and one place to track every client relationship. Most of all, they left with a business that's in control of its own growth.