Management Solution

Sweet Spot Firm

The Sweet Spot Firm is a special solutionWe use the word “solution” in alchemical terms — a special mixture with unique properties. designed for professional services firms that want to meet certain criteria that can be defined as a sweet spot in the marketplace.

It's about becoming the kind of firm that commands a price premium. Being choosy about the kind of work you do. The kind of clients you want to work with. Attracting better-fit talent. Having enough work yet enough time to recharge. Making enough money to invest in bulding a better practice.

Sweet-spot firms have better utilization rates, higher per employee earnings, higher profit margins, fuller lead gen pipeline, win more business and have a differentiated business strategy.

Strategic Management solution to position you firm as Crème de la crème.

This solution consists of five key parts: organizational structure, market positioning, client management, marketing activities, and project management. Each segment contains numerous workshops, discussions, surveys, and interviews. The orientation of each advisory service is tilted toward addressing a challenging task: how to make your firm reach the lucrative ranks of the best of the best.

Advisory services applied: Client Management suite, Marketing Content-Channels suite, Market Positions suite, Organizational Structure suite, and Project Management suite.

Management topics we’ll cover:

  • Eight primary service provider types
  • Positioning theory and practice
  • Current and next market positions
  • Competitive advantage
  • Buyer (client) types
  • Buyer-seller relationships
  • Buyer decision journey
  • Pitches, proposals (RFQs, RFPs)
  • Eight sales tactics during negotiations
  • Prospect qualification
  • Service offering design (SOD)
  • Client motivations
  • Value activities and elements
  • Best-fit client scorecards
  • Pricing strategy
  • Attainable marketing activities
  • Learning and creativity
  • Lead generation strategy
  • Roles to support all of the above
  • Latent capabilities at the firm today
  • Personality profiles’ mapping
  • Professionals’ natural strenghts
  • Professional motivations
  • Professional self-motivation on projects
  • Job satisfaction surveys
  • Outplacement & cross-pollination
  • Rewards and performance appraisal system
  • Staffing and roles
  • Managerial activities on projects
  • Latent capabilities at the firm today

Process

The typical process unfolds the following way:

Step 1: Fill in the contact form. We’ll get in touch within 1-2 business days.

Step 2: We’ll have a conversation with you over the phone or zoom. There will have to be a decision maker on your end. Otherwise we’ll have to schedule another call.

Step 3: If we agree to move forward, we will send you an invoice with signed NDA and contract.

Step 4: After receipt of payment in full, we will issue a list of materials to prepare, a survey, and set a date (typically within 1-2 weeks) for diagnostics session. Diagnostics typically runs for 2-3 hours. You will be informed about who should participate.

Step 5: After diagnostics, together, we will decide if we want / should / can move forward. If not, we’ll refund you the fee in full.

Step 6: We analyze the data received from you thus far, and make a hypothesis about the problem(s). It might turn out that this is not the solution your firm needs at the moment.

Step 7: We agree on the advisory services based on accepted hypothesis. We issue the next invoice.

Step 8: We schedule interviews, surveys, office visits, workshops, etc. All details will be discussed and agreed upon in advance.

Required participation

Decision makers: project managers, group / division heads, partners, principals, HR officers, CMO, marketing directors, client-facing partners, key rainmakers, BizDev directors, client account managers, CEO, managing partner.

See topics (above) to assess who at your firm will be in a better position to make these decisions.

Typical length

12-16 months

Availability

Typically available within 1-2 months.

Advance booking is possible. Please contact to inquire about a non-refundable booking fee.

Payments

Prepayment in full. No refunds (see exception below).

Refund Policy

We provide an unconditional satisfaction guarantee.
Refer to our refund policy page for more details.

Travel

Return flights from NYC, US.
Economy class. Upgrade on long-haul flights.
Additionally: per diem, transport, lodging, print-outs, presentation tools.

More about the Sweet Spot Firm solution

This is a program for professional services firms that want to create a future characterized by the following traits.

  • A comfortable size of the firm: enough clients, enough work, enough money.

  • Predictable workload without crazy rollercoasters. Steady upward pace.

  • More challenging, interesting, valuable, engaging kind of work.

  • Better paying clients.

  • Growing authority and expertise.

  • Ability to say no to clients you don’t want to work with.

This program will be built around something that people at your firm have no shortage of — competence. The bad news (for your firm) is that most of your competitors are in fact as competent as you are. The good news — a huge chunk of them (~50-70%) are neither positioned nor differentiated well-enough, and aren’t disciplined about their marketing either. On top of that, the quality of their own business decisions gets in their way.

Therefore, they can’t command a price premium, have trouble with hiring better talent, close less business, are stuck with bad-fit clients, and lack resources to invest in professional growth. Hence, can’t become more competent faster which affects profitability and eventually their sustainability. A negative feedback loop.

Our framework will allow us to conduct a rigorous assessment of your firm, and provide you with candid, spot-on recommendations. Even though you will find that your challenges aren’t unheard of, the composition of individual issues are likely to be unique. This will require a customized approach to your situation.

Twenty per cent of professional services firms worldwide can be characterized as sweet-spot firms. If they can do it, your firm can find its sweet spot too.

Questions & answers

The nature of our work requires full confidentiality. We will not risk sharing potentially sensitive data about our clients or their businesses.

The very fact of our engagement may reveal competitve information.

You are welcome to browse through this website and form an opinion about whether or not we are competent enough and trustworthy enough to work with you.

From multiple sources such as our work with clients, other experts’ insights, marketing theory, research data, published company reports, etc. We cross-reference these sources, analyze data, and put information under scrutiny.

The total scope of the project and overall investment might turn out to be less. But this revelation comes after paid diagnostics. We advise you to make sure you have the full amount prior to our engagement.

The prices are non-negotiable. The overall value always exceeds your investment.

We don’t provide such detailed lists. Occasionally, our initial hypotheses may prove to be wrong; this will prompt us to pivot, sometimes on the fly. Rubber-stamped lists preclude necessary alterations. Prediction of all possible scenarios is impossible as well as impractical.

We will analyze your current branding and website to assess whether they are OK for the size of your firm, your position in the marketplace, compared to your competition. It has to be done.

Focus on a very narrow opportunity. Attend to client needs differently but thoroughly. Don’t aim at growing the size of the firm but rather at its profitability. Come back to us when you have resources and a firm commitment to stay in business.

The one thing that has a signifficant impact on performance is the level of committment to the plan. Your firm will make a promise and will have to show up with no excuses.

We give priority to clients who choose to implement our existing packaged solutions. You might have to wait for a free spot for a few weeks (or months) in between individuals modules should you choose that option.

Occasionally there might be a limited time deal on an individual module for our existing clients who we’ve already worked with. This enables us to skip discovery and full-scale diagnostics sessions.

Once you begin to implement your plan, you should expect to see positive results within 12-18 months. But there are positive effects right after/during our engagement as well.

Fill in this contact form

If you would like to schedule a phone call to discuss the Sweet Spot Firm solution for your firm, please fill in this form.

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