Managing clients
The number one rule of marketing is to do a great job for your existing clients. This is especially true in today's difficult economic climate where there are fewer new business opportunities. Satisfied clients will give your firm repeat business and recommend you to others.
One of the biggest issues facing professional services firms today is how to maximise the flow of work opportunities from across the firm's client base. As firms have grown larger, extending both the range of services that they offer and their geographical coverage, many have lost the ability to effectively manage and develop relationships with their most important clients.
This problem manifests itself in many ways, including:
- Greater focus on winning new clients than on developing existing ones
- Client ownership issues: "my client" vs. "the firm's client"
- Focus on today's transaction rather than building long term relationships
- Insufficient understanding of the client's business and the industry in which it operates
- Provision of a reactive rather than a proactive service
- Little financial incentive for partners to cross-sell
- Multiple points of client contact, leading to a lack of coordination in the delivery of services
- Little objective feedback on clients' satisfaction with the firm's services
How we can help
At Wheeler Associates, we provide a range of services to help firms to become more effective at managing their key clients, including:
- Client base analysis and segmentation
- Devising client relationship management (CRM) and key account management (KAM) programmes for firms
- Working with partners to understand their clients' needs, assemble client service teams, devise client service plans, and to monitor the effective implementation of these plans
- Undertaking client feedback, including independent client service reviews, post-transaction reviews and client satisfaction surveys
- Coaching partners to become effective Lead Partners
- Advising firms on the purchase and implementation of CRM systems