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Switching On the Growth Engine in Your Small Consulting Practice
The document outlines the journey of Explorics, a consulting practice, detailing the challenges faced in scaling the business and the strategies implemented to create a sustainable, repeatable model. Key focuses included defining success, delegating tasks, and understanding client needs, ultimately leading to improved operations and client satisfaction. It emphasizes the importance of building trust within the team and developing strong customer advocacy to drive growth.
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Switching On the Growth Engine in Your Small Consulting Practice
- 1. @explorics Switching On The GrowthEngine In Your Small Consulting Practice Our Personal Turnaround Story Webinar Series Marketing Tips for Consultants
- 2. @explorics who is thisguy? • CEO, Explorics B2B Advocate & Loyalty Marketing • 2-time entrepreneur • Lean Startup Challenge 2013 • Business Model Generation Meetup • Startup Coach – Quebec Tech Accelerator • Launched dozens of products • Stanford MBA • MIT Computer Science
- 3. August 2010 December 2012 March 2014 Open for business Stuck High Growth A Brief History
- 4. The Consultant’s Dilemma 1. You can’t sell and deliver at the same time 2. Sell when you are busiest 3. Successful projects – and happy clients – are your most important assets
- 5. @explorics Explorics Version 1 Aug’10! First two clients Jan ’11! Real office space Apr ‘11! First sub-contractor Oct ’11! First full-time employee Mar ‘12! Second full-time employee Jul ’12! Ready to scale… but…
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- 8. @explorics Time To GetTo Work Customers Talent Value Proposition Quality Financial Model Operations
- 9. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control What WeFound Anything we could get Getting harder I had all the knowledge Hard/expensive to delegate Unsustainable with growth
- 10. @explorics What We Wanted 1. Recurring revenue / repeat clients 2. Happy champions 3. Work that mattered 4. Projects set up for success
- 11. Start Treating The BusinessLike An Engine • Predictable • No single point of failure • Scalable • Trainable • Repeatable • Specialized
- 12. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control Our Engine:Q1 2013 The Objective: Simplify each function enough to capture it in a playbook – so someone else could do the job if and when we needed it.
- 13. Choosing Our Customers Pre-revenue startups <$1M Startupswith customers < $10M Growth-stage companies $10M-$100M Departments in enterprises $100M+ Entrepreneurs CEOs Marketing Executives Product Managers Content Managers Demand Gen Managers
- 14. Choosing Our Customers Pre-revenue startups <$1M Startupswith customers < $10M Growth-stage companies $10M-$100M Departments in enterprises $100M+ Entrepreneurs CEOs Marketing Executives Product Managers Content Managers Demand Gen Managers Meaningful objectives Regular, sizable budgets Clear definition of success Typically worked with 3rd parties
- 15. • Growing theteam • Expanding internationally • Scaling demand generation and breaking out to multiple segments Me: What are the top 4-5 marketing-related challenges you face?
- 16. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control Our Engine:Q2 2013 Customer ID’d! Target market! Top pain points!
- 17. Customers Challenges! • Growingthe team • Scaling demand generation and breaking out to multiple segments Our Strengths! • Understanding B2B customer demand • How customers think / why they buy • Creating ad-hoc communities of like- minded people Value
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- 19. Listen up! Social Prospecting AdvocateCommunities
- 20. …And We KnewWhy Advocates Matter Peers are the #1 influencer when buying B2B Advice from " a friend Search Engine Supplier Website Email Industrial Intermediary Sent by a friend Online display ad Social media Wider advic e Industry community Buyers are waiting before talking to sales reps 57% They are asking communities for help Searching within communities Vendor content Peer content Q&A 58% 31% 22% 20% “Our customers love us. Why aren’t they doing more for us?”
- 21. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control Our Engine:Q3 2013 Customer ID’d! Target market! Top pain points! Ideal projects! Price points!
- 22. Statement of Work Internal/External Kick-off Client Reporting Team Directive:" Remove Brian From The Equation
- 23. @explorics What Helped UsMost • Pre-define what success looks like as a team • Write down job descriptions for each project • Build client reporting structure in advance • Public activity board and schedule • Daily scrums
- 24. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control Our Engine:Q4 2013 Customer ID’d! Target market! Top pain points! Ideal projects! Price points! Transitions OK! Self-sufficiency!
- 26. The Best People, TheRight Roles Thought Leadership Showcase- Ready" Work
- 27. WHICH BRINGS USTO TODAY
- 28. Finding Projects Selling Projects Staffing & Launching Projects Doing the Work Quality Control Our Engine:Q1 2014 Customer ID’d! Target market! Top pain points! Ideal projects! Price points! Transitions OK! Self-sufficiency! Learning org! Self-optimizing! 90% in-house! Happy clients!
- 29. @explorics A Compelling StoryWe Can Deliver
- 30. @explorics Some Results FromThe Year 2010-2012 2013-2014
- 31. More Results: Pipeline (High-value) (Short-term) Contact Discussing Scoping Proposal Contact Discussing Scoping Proposal Q1 2013! Q1 2014!
- 32. One More: Margin 2012!2013! Average margin on typical project
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- 35. Work on the business, notin the business
- 36. Choose clients basedon how they fit with your desired income stream
- 37. Build mechanisms to transfertrust " to your staff
- 38. Design every projectto run without you
- 39. Train your staffto solve problems without you
- 40. THANK YOU! ANDTHANKS TO ZINTRO!" " BUT BEFORE WE GO…
- 41. @explorics Who Is AdvocatingFor Me? Are you asking yourself: “Our customers love us. How can we get them to do more for us?” Get an ! Advocate Assessment! A custom-built roadmap for measuring and increasing organic advocacy. explorics.com/aa Advocate Assessment Who are my advocates? What are they doing for me? What more can they do for me? Who else can I motivate? How can I measure their impact?
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