Your Future Firm Starts Now: Success Strategies for Launching New Services – Part 3
We are taking a closer look at a process firms can use to evaluate and develop new services to meet clients’ needs and create new sources of revenue by building a more consulting-based practice. On Sept. 21st we introduced steps 1 and 2 – Research Market Needs and Evaluate and Prioritize. Oct. 3rd we examined steps 3 and 4 – Define the Scope and Go to Market with Your Service. This week we conclude with step 5 – Tracking Results and Measuring Success (including a downloadable guide for the whole process).
Step 5: Measure your results
What gets measured (and reported)…gets done. When you analyzed the costs of building this service capability in step 2, you likely got a feel for the level of revenue you need to reach profitability. Set a specific sales goal for the new service, allowing for ramp-up time to go to market appropriately. Services with high levels of opportunity within your existing client base will become profitable more quickly than those for which you must go outside of the existing client base to find opportunities. Develop a pipeline report to track opportunities associated with the new service – including the stage of the sales cycle, value of the opportunity and probability of closing.
It’s helpful to assign responsibility to an individual or team to be held accountable for reaching the goal, and measure their results regularly throughout the year. Hold regular meetings to evaluate results and discuss what, if anything, is getting in the way of success. As these success barriers are identified, discuss how to resolve or work around the issue and provide support to the service champion/team.
Establish accountability for sales results for your new service by incorporating the goal and results into the individual/team’s annual goal setting, evaluation and compensation discussions.
Conclusion
This series has discussed a 5-step process for successfully introducing new services:
- Research market needs
- Evaluate and prioritize new service ideas
- Define scope and communicate
- Go to market
- Measure results
Addressing each of these steps with the discussed approach will improve your ability to continue meeting your clients’ evolving needs, attract new clients, and sustain profitable growth for your firm.
We’ve summarized the approach described the past few weeks in our New Service Evaluation Checklist. To download the checklist click here.
If you are interested in learning more about how to implement these steps, or how new services fit into your firm’s overall approach to topline growth contact us at info@thewhetstonegroup.com or 319.447.6400 for a no-cost, no-obligation meeting.