Professional Services Firms Face Many Hurdles Today. Offering C-Level Roundtables for Clients Will Help.

Executive Summary

Growing a professional services firm (PSF) is more challenging today than perhaps ever before, given the nature of consolidating competition, demand for talent, and changing client expectations. Recent attention placed on customer metrics has resulted not simply in providing adequate levels of service, or in an emphasis on retention, but on creating “raving fans.” (Ken Blanchard) Nothing is wrong with creating client advocates at all, but in some sectors, clients have come to expect so much more than adequate service. They anticipate unique experiences.

The most effective client experience in terms of return on investment for clients and the firm, is the Peer Advisory Council concept. Your staff is already overworked, task-saturated, and not entirely comfortable with or inexperienced in moderating. And chances are, your PSF could not easily scale up the Peer Advisory process internally. Therefore, you should consider working with a third-party expert, a professional moderator who would work with your clients under your own brand. The result will be more satisfied clients, that are making better growth decisions, needing more of your services, and ultimately, are more connected to your organization. Ultimately, your firm will grow more rapidly as a result.

Three Challenges Facing Professional Services Firms

1.??????Relationship-building challenges -- Professional service firms face significant business development and relationship-building tasks. After all, the nature of selling an intangible, a service, is based on trust, promise, acceptance of competence, the presumption of a future positive outcome, and ultimately, the hope for a mutually valuable relationship. And unlike manufacturers, who benefit from a relatively static set of products, customers and employees, professional service firms often have a dynamic and fluid set of offerings, customers, and professionals.

2.??????Employee loyalty concerns -- The nature of services work means clients develop trusted advisor relationships with individual employees of the PSF.?Retaining key professionals during the Great Resignation is difficult, and PSFs can no longer assume they will retain key personnel. Therefore, they must do more, proactively, to ensure they retain clients when individual employees leave the firm.

3.??????Service mix complexities -- To further complicate matters, the broad array of services that exist in today’s integrated professional services firms create another hurdle. The breadth of services is not always understood, deemed relevant and useful, and hence purchased, by all clients. Explaining their relevance and effectively cross-selling them takes time and requires trust and deeper relationships than may exist to convince a client to purchase only one type of service at a time.

Professional Services Firms Must Offer Clients Rich Experiences

While some clients represent long-term, lasting, integrated relationships, many others are far more ephemeral, project-based transactional connections in which the short-term desire is simply to work with the client again on another engagement when they have a need. Yet in the long run, PSFs want to provide ongoing experiences for clients that improve long-term relationships and enhance client success.

Some PSFs are investing in creating novel client experiences that make a trip to the golf course look like child’s play.?Events, often held in interesting venues, facilitate new ways of human connection and relationship building. But events are, by their definition, static, one-time, memories.

A better option for PSFs to consider is to host ongoing monthly roundtables comprised of C-level executives from your client and prospect pools to have actionable business impacts, to gain insights about client needs and interests and to facilitate mutual connections.

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Client-based Peer Advisory Councils Represent the Most Effective Client Experience

Numerous articles have been published about the benefits of member groups on business leaders (we refer to them as Peer Advisory Councils, and they are also known as roundtables, mastermind group, CEO Forums). More than 100,000 C-level executives participate in them, and they are more evident in larger organizations than in smaller ones. Retention rates tend to be quite high (exceeding 90 percent in some organizations), and evidence exists of their impact and members’ perceived return on involvement. The most-cited reason for C-level leaders hesitating about joining these groups involves not the expense, but the investment of time. Interestingly, those members who have been around long enough assert that joining a peer group saves time, by enabling difficult decisions to be made more effectively– and more efficiently.

Peer Advisory Councils are a diverse, yet like-minded, group of business executives who value learning and the exchange of ideas, information, wisdom, and solutions. Together, in a disciplined, dedicated, and intentional fashion, they ensure continuous member growth and development. More specifically, our groups serve as a mechanism to enable business leaders to solve problems and test hypotheses efficiently in a confidential, non-competitive environment. The result is a community of peers, who eventually become like family – a tribe of trusted confidantes.

PSFs should offer their clients the opportunity to join a peer advisory council comprised of current, recent, and prospective clients. The group should be branded in the name of the PSF and moderated by a third-party professional.

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?Here are the benefits of hosting peer advisory councils for your clients:

?Remain on the clients’ radar screen -- Hosting a monthly moderated roundtable discussion is an excellent way to remain top-of-mind, relevant, and in communication with past and prospective clients in the pipeline.

? ?Actionability -- By focusing the meetings on solving real business dilemmas (ideas, opportunities, challenges, risks, problems), rather than mere networking or education, then they serve to demonstrate value, and actionable results.

? ?Client intimacy - Over time, the net benefit is deeper, more intimate, and lasting personal connections with these clients, enhanced understanding of them as individuals, and of their needs, interests and wants.

? Benefit from performance insights on individual clients -- You would also gain unique perspectives and insights on your clients. Quarterly, you would receive reporting on the performance of each group member, relative to their stated goals and objectives. The moderator holds group members accountable, and you gain the performance reporting.

? ?Share your intellectual property -- In addition to listening and learning from your clients, you will have opportunities to speak, as well, both formally and informally. At the start of each meeting, you may socialize with members as they join the virtual discussion. And each month, 20-to-40 minutes is allocated to education – your lessons learned, best practices, insights and words of wisdom shared with a captive and interested audience. As a professional, you can showcase your expertise with the groups by leading roundtable discussions or briefly presenting a topic of interest to educate the group before the meeting. Clients learn about all the service offerings and benefits without being “sold.” Your ability to demonstrate expertise, in ways your clients may not naturally experience, is valuable.

? ?Learn about client needs and interests -- The insights gained from a year’s worth of observations shared by your clients, in intimate, intentional, candid conversations with their peers (also your clients) can be incredibly valuable for your firm in strategizing about how to serve client needs more effectively.

? Brand impact -- The overall impact on your relationships with these clients, your understanding of their needs, their affinity for your brand, are all significant. Ensure a holistic, comprehensive, and seamless client experience – and ensure that clients are exposed to all that your firm has to offer.

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?As a result, your Professional Services Firm will grow more rapidly

Service revenue increases -- ?Clients become comfortable with you, your firm, your broader mix of services. They understand the benefits of services that they did not previously recognize, and value you as a trusted advisor and expert across disciplines. Cross-selling becomes more prominent in your firm.

New or prospective relationships blossom -- Prospects become clients because you interact with them monthly – formally and informally - when the peer council meetings occur. You will see your prospects every month and begin to develop deeper, and more trusting relationships. And they become comfortable interacting in formal and informal capacities with your key clients.

Client retention rates Improve -- Clients participating in the meetings help you develop a deeper understanding of their needs, wants, wishes, as well as about their businesses. You may become a genuine trusted advisor and resource connector. The client sees and experiences additional value by being associated with you, you improve your ability to just that, by understanding them more fully.

Clients may grow more rapidly -- In addition, your clients grow as they are making better growth decisions (in part because of the peer councils) also begin to grow, and better decisions are made that directly lead to opportunities for more services.

Increase your firm’s value or worth -- The value of your firm increases because your metrics improve, revenue increases, and you have a recurring revenue stream of monthly membership fees that may help drive the value of your enterprise. It is a revenue model you will be able to count on, giving you peace of mind in having a stable, consistent income regardless of the state of the economy.

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Benefits for your clients

The primary benefits to your clients should be self-evident; as we all know, it can be very lonely at the top.?

1.??????Have an actionable impact – Clients will make better growth decisions because of being in the Peer Advisory Council. Clients solve dilemmas -- challenges, opportunities, problems, and ideas (we call them “cases”) -- each month. And they resolve these cases efficiently and more effectively than they would on their own because of the variety of inputs and the process we utilize to solve the cases.

2.??????Fresh perspective, insights and feedback. You can help your clients, not simply by providing your mix of professional services, but also by enabling them to come together formally and informally, as a dedicated, intentional support network for one another. They will be reminded of sound business practices and learn new ones from one another. They ask probing questions and then provide each other unbiased, unvarnished, candid advice. Clients establish meaningful connections – with peer C-level executives.

3.??????Intentional process, dedicated to mutual successes. A proven process is the critical ingredient in enabling a Peer Advisory Council to function effectively from the start, and to scale across your client base, and to ensure satisfaction and success.

4.??????Increase the speed of success - The top concern that business leaders express about joining a group is time commitment. Counterintuitively, those same executives eventually report that the single greatest benefit of being in a group is the ability to “save time” by solving business dilemmas more efficiently. Each month, members focus strategically “on” their businesses, rather than working myopically “in” their businesses. An intentional opportunity to focus on the big picture goals and strategies of the business improves executional effectiveness.

5.??????Receive professional feedback -- Be held accountable for goals and objectives with the opportunity for Quarterly Achievement Planning sessions.

6.??????Benefit from learning sessions from outside speakers -- Education, learning, best practices, case studies – al can come from the PSP or from the PSP and outside guests. Members will learn best practices and discover resources they were unaware of previously.

7.??????Intangibles – Members will reduce their stress levels and enhance their positive mindset by gaining fresh perspective, insight, and wisdom. Members are not judged or criticized; it is a safe harbor and meetings take place under strict adherence to a confidentiality policy.

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The Problem: Partner-level Professionals are Overworked; No One is Trained to be a Moderator; It is a Difficult and Complicated Role

In some firms, Partners may choose to serve as moderators for their own peer groups, but they are typically less effective than third-party experts. In other firms, the Partners may recommend a client to investigate well-known brands such as Vistage, YPO or TAB, where they may have a relationship – or be a member. However, when a client is sent off to a third-party peer group, the benefits to the firm of keeping the client close are completely lost (the ability to stay on clients’ radar screens, offer formal and informal insights, education, and communication, learn from clients about their needs (and more)).

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The Solution – A White Label Model and a Simple 3-Step Process

The ideal solution is for the PSF to bring in an expert, a professional peer advisory group moderator, under a white label service agreement. The moderator acts as a member of the PSF, and the brand relationship that clients maintain is with the PSF. To the clients, the third-party moderator is an employee of the PSF. Our simple Three-step Process involves the following:

1.??????A Simple Conversation: Schedule a discovery call in which we will ask about challenges and opportunities your firm faces, goals of a peer advisory council program, ?measures of success, benefits, and next steps.

2.??????The Development of the Peer Councils for your Clients: Group types, internal coordination, an administrative lead, marketing to clients, onboarding of clients and your staff.

3.??????The Feedback Loop for Your Firm: Client unmet needs, wants and wishes, requests for input and advice, suggestions for changes within your firm, client progress reports, feedback on the peer advisory council and potential pivots given their inputs, lessons learned.

Summary

Professional services firms should add the peer advisory council service offering for their clients. We help you do what you do best — concentrate on running your business – while offering your clients an ongoing and impactful experience. The benefits to your clients and to your PSF are substantial.

Strategic Growth Council (CEO Peer Groups - Strategic Growth Council) is intentional and focused, dedicated to solving business problems, and ideating on opportunities. We do this in two ways:

1.??????Peer Advisory Councils

2.??????Strategic Planning Facilitation

Strategic Growth Council is a LXCouncil Certified License Partner. To learn more, call 703.867.7269, text the same number or email [email protected].

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Or schedule a meeting here: Book Christopher "Kit" Lisle (bookme.name)