Managing the Professional Service Firm

FIGURE 19-1 Evaluation of the Practice Leader

More follow-up is needed to make the system work.

As soon as you know which prospects are going to attend, you should instruct your research staff (marketing directors, librarians, junior professionals, etc.) to conduct the most thorough research job possible on each company attending. Don’t be hesitant in investing money here.

Only increased fee levels or leverage move the firm forward. All else is hygiene. It is the nature of the work brought in, not just its volume, that contributes to profit health.

The central issue, I have learned, is that, in most firms, billable time is carefully monitored, but marketing time is considered “extra.” Marketing activities represent an investment, requiring nonbillable time to be spent with uncertain, long-term results, and few firms are well organized to manage their investment activities. Billable time has a

Who in the client organization should get the questionnaire? There is no reason not to send out multiple questionnaires.

Or, in another case, the professional may invest significant amounts of time and effort in dealing with unforeseen contingencies but, because the client did not expect the contingencies, he or she is irritated by the extra delay and expense rather than thankful for the abilities of the professional.

Since few professionals like to be told what to do, the manager must act through persuasion and cajoling, even where the manager sees the way clear. Living with the frustrations of building consensus and resisting the temptation to just act are a permanent struggle.

FIGURE 4–1 Rate Your Engagement Experience