Tag Archives: Scale

How Do You Balance Scalable Growth with Quality Service? Five Thoughts

Situation: A CEO wants to determine whether and to what extent his company’s service model is scalable. He wants to determine whether it is possible to add additional clients by adjusting the ratio of clients to staff. The tricky part is determining whether the company can increase the client to staff ratio while minimizing the impact on client service. This is critical because client service is the company’s “secret sauce”. How do you balance scalable growth with quality service?

  • Start by profiling the current client base from high to low maintenance. For example, set up a grid with axes of sophistication and frequency of desired contact as follows:
    • A – unsophisticated and desire frequent contact
    • B – sophisticated and desire frequent contact
    • C – unsophisticated and desire infrequent contact
    • D – sophisticated and desire infrequent contact
  • Analyze the client base and assign each current or new client to category A, B, C or D.
  • Distribute client relationships so that no member of the team has too many A’s. This may make it possible to assign more clients to each staff member.
  • Also consider matching staff to client type. Some staff may be better working with unsophisticated clients, while others are more adept with sophisticated clients.
  • As this model is developed and built, try different alternatives for matching staff to clients. This can help to identify additional alternatives for achieving the company’s objective.

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How Do You Simplify a Firm-wide Software Roll-out? Five Ideas

Situation: A company plans to implement a new CRM system. They have a project road map and have assigned a manager for the implementation. However, the CEO has concerns because this is the most significant software roll-out that the company has ever attempted. She wants to assure that the roll-out proceeds smoothly, and that and that sales, marketing and customer service functions are not hampered. How do you simplify a firm-wide software roll-out?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on company business objectives as you plan and implement the roll-out. Optimize the system to company business objectives, not just what the team wants.
  • Scope this out as a project management exercise.
    • Identify objectives.
    • Build and test.
    • Roll the system out to preliminary production and collect feedback on functionality.
    • Rebuild and test.
    • Plan and conduct system orientation training.
    • Set a date for the roll-out.
  • Don’t immediately roll the new system out company-wide. Conduct an initial implementation with a small scale test team. Make sure that everything works as planned and that day-to-day function is not compromised. From the information that you gather during initial implementation, tweak orientation training so that everyone is comfortable with the new system.
  • During initial planning sessions to set system objectives, meet first with managers whose teams will be impacted by the roll-out. Managers may not speak freely if their support staff are present.
  • Have a roll-out celebration and be generous complimenting personnel who have been involved in planning and roll-out.

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How Do You Reset Pricing When The Game Changes? Five Parameters

Situation: The Company sells customized products and pricing has been per product/per customer. A large client has proposed to purchase product rights across a number of products and uses. The technology is early in its expected 5-year life span. How should the Company set pricing to this customer?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Start with a series of questions:
    • What is the value of your technology to the customer?
    • How much competition do you face?
    • What other solutions are available to the customer?
  • Based on this framework, ask contacts within the customer company open-ended questions that will reveal what is important to them including:
    • Licensing objectives,
    • Planned use of the technology, and
    • Any protections that they seek.
    • You need to understand these before you can make decisions on pricing.
  • There are several pricing scenarios:
    • Set up a scale with a declining pricing driven by volume.
    • A large lump sum payment now, non-transferable if the customer is acquired by another company.
    • A large annual fee to cover a preset number of uses and volumes, with small increments for additional purchases.
    • The final arrangement will depend on the priorities of the customer.
  • Find out what the customer is willing to pay, but you set the terms.
  • Ask what guarantees they desire to protect their position. This includes:
    • The customer’s key risk factors.
    • Whether they want exclusive or usage rights. Exclusive is worth more.

Key Words: Pricing, Custom, Technology, Life-span, Value, Competition, Licensing, Objectives, Protection, Scenario, Scale, Lump-sum, Annual Fee, Guarantee, Exclusive, Usage  [like]