Positioning Professional Service Firms

Written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan


Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gaverepparttar first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets inrepparttar 104616 world.

So, how does this relate to service firms? About a century after Claude Hopkins wrote his marketing masterpiece, Scientific Advertising, only a handful of professional firms understand and practise proper positioning.

So, to helprepparttar 104617 situation a little bit, let us discuss in a few words how service businesses scan better position themselves for higher demand, recognition and compensation.

In terms of market positioning professional service businesses fall into one of three distinct categories.

* Commodity type volume work

* Commercialised "one size fits all" approach

* Highly personalised premium work

COMMODITY VOLUME WORK

The mantra of this kind of business is tactically out-brawnrepparttar 104618 competition with backbreaking hard work and bottomachingly low prices, earning a living through sheer brute drudgery. This is basicallyrepparttar 104619 Wal-Mart approach of providing professional services.

This type of firms deal with a preponderance of customers (definitely no clients), employing an army of trade barbarians (people with great technical skills but as total lack of other necessary skills) and churning out high volume of low margin deliverables, such as workshops, websites, etc.

The typical examples of these businesses are web site developers and seminar companies. These firms have rigid policies and procedures to follow, andrepparttar 104620 idea is that they can hire low-skilled underpaid "labourers" who have enough skills to followrepparttar 104621 procedure manual even with their eyes shut and standing on their heads.

In these firms we cannot talk about careers. They offer jobs for their people for short-term survival. Usually people take these jobs as stop-gap measures, but do their best to move on as quickly as humanly possible.

These firms specialise on solving very specific problems in very specific ways. For example: You have a computer problem, so we install a new IBM server. The solution to every problem is an IBM server.

When you are an IBM partner and receive a kickback on your sales from IBM, thenrepparttar 104622 solution to everything happens to berepparttar 104623 most expensive IBM "box".

"In your specific case you need good old mercury filling" - says your dentist, who also happens to be a shareholder inrepparttar 104624 local mercury mine.

Fee sensitivity is very high in these firms and they are willing to drop their prices in order to land any business. Rememberrepparttar 104625 motto is high volume work whatever it takes.

To compensate for low price though, these firms employ armies of junior staff on their projects, and they can make up for their low fees in asking for a low hourly rate for an army of people.

One ofrepparttar 104626 problems these firms are facing is that tomorrow someone else may be willing to dorepparttar 104627 same work cheaper, sorepparttar 104628 commodity firm goes down is history as a perfect loser.

Commodity firms run on very high overheads, and often one way of cutting overheads is cutting corners.

Since these firms operate like manufacturing plants, it is vitally important to implement quality assurance and productivity measurement processes. The value-added components of these firms are their processes, procedures and internal operating methods.

Most of these firms are operated and managed like large corporations, and operate more as contractors than as consultants. The personal touch is almost non-existent andrepparttar 104629 emphasis is on churning outrepparttar 104630 next piece of work and moving on.

COMMERCIALISED "OUR UNIQUE APPROACH" TYPE WORK

These firms have extensive institutional experience at solving certain types of problems. Individual talents are largely ignored because everyone is expected to feedrepparttar 104631 firm’s institutional competency.

These firms' engagements have less diagnosis and more implementation of predictable, off-the-shelf solution. At this level there is some collaboration with clients, butrepparttar 104632 work is largely based onrepparttar 104633 "doing it for you" approach.

There is quite a bit of leverage. The senior “consultant” (consultant? Gag me with a spoon!). The senior peddler just enough grey onrepparttar 104634 temples comes and closesrepparttar 104635 deal, and then an army of junior staff descends onrepparttar 104636 poor client to implementrepparttar 104637 project and bump up billable time.

THE RETURNING RESERVIST DILEMMA

Written by Sharon Winston


Inrepparttar past year and a half, hundreds of thousands of military reservists from all branches ofrepparttar 104615 service were called to active duty, sending their employers scrambling to manage around their absences. Soon, many of these brave men and women will begin returning home to resume their lives and professions, which creates a new challenge for management teams acrossrepparttar 104616 country, who must reintegrate these employees back intorepparttar 104617 work flow. Lee Hecht Harrison was faced with these very issues when a valued senior consultant, who also happened to be a public affairs officer inrepparttar 104618 Navy reserves, was deployed to a post in Italy after September 11th. While Lee Hecht Harrison regularly works with organizations to manage change, we know that many companies have never experienced losing an employee temporarily to military service and may be unsure about how to handlerepparttar 104619 situation. First, it’s important to remember that reservists are protected byrepparttar 104620 Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA). Employers play a role in maintaining a strong national defense and, as part of that role, must protectrepparttar 104621 jobs of reservists by makingrepparttar 104622 original, or an equal, position available onrepparttar 104623 reservists’ return, whether they are gone for six months, a year, or longer. Employers can learn more by visitingrepparttar 104624 Employer Support ofrepparttar 104625 Guard and Reserve website at www.esgr.org. Prepare a reintegration strategy as soon as possible. Returning reservists often face mixed feelings from colleagues, particularly those who took on additional roles that will need to be relinquished. It’s important to ensure that all members of your team understandrepparttar 104626 roles they will play moving forward and to updaterepparttar 104627 reservist about who stepped up torepparttar 104628 plate during his or her absence. You may also need to reassurerepparttar 104629 reservist that he or she is positioned correctly inrepparttar 104630 company, sincerepparttar 104631 transition fromrepparttar 104632 high pressure position he or she held previously might seem abrupt. Coping withrepparttar 104633 sudden departure of a military reservist can be a complicated issue. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions for effectively managingrepparttar 104634 reservist dilemma: Develop a contingency plan. If possible, develop a strategy for redistributingrepparttar 104635 workload beforerepparttar 104636 reservist is called, cross-training other employees as needed. Can your existing team handlerepparttar 104637 additional responsibilities or will you need to hire contractors? Be sure to gain buy-in forrepparttar 104638 plan at all levels of management. Remember that a reservist’s immediate supervisor may change duringrepparttar 104639 time he or she is away, so any transition policies must be firmly established. Communicate, communicate, communicate. During times of stress, it’s important to maintain a precise and constant flow of communication. Tell everyone involved what is happening and what you expect of them. And take time to communicate to your teamrepparttar 104640 importance ofrepparttar 104641 workrepparttar 104642 reservist has been called to do and how much you appreciate their extra work duringrepparttar 104643 reservist’s absence. Motivate your team. You may need to "reframe"repparttar 104644 situation, in order to help your remaining staff view their additional responsibilities in a positive light. Persuade them that this is an opportunity to stretch and grow into new roles. They may find that they learn new skills duringrepparttar 104645 process, which could eventually lead to a promotion. It’s not enough to simply tell people what to do, you need to inspire them to buy intorepparttar 104646 entire process.

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