The Five Drivers of Revenue Growth for Professional Services: Opportunities Are All Around
by Mike Schultz, John Doerr, and Bob Croston
The following is an excerpt from Wellesley Hills Group's complimentary "Five Drivers of Revenue Growth for Professional Services" white paper. Download the entire white paper for free here.
It’s no secret that growing a professional services firm is tougher than it ever was. In years past, firms could focus on working hard and delivering excellent client service through high quality teams, and this was enough to grow the top line through repeat business and referrals.
Not anymore. Clients are more sophisticated and demanding. Competition is more numerous and more ferocious. And these changes are happening to our industries and firms faster than ever, requiring us to change or suffer the consequences. Service firm leaders are often overwhelmed with the sheer number of items on their to-do lists, and the number of possible revenue growth avenues to pursue.
Yes, the world of professional services has changed…but this is good. It’s good for the firms that are ready to take on the new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.
Opportunities? Yes, they’re all around. We at the Wellesley Hills Group have the good fortune of being privy to the growth strategies and results at hundreds of professional services firms. We’ve analyzed scores of firms in great detail and have observed first-hand what the best firms do to increase their revenue. Many firms are quietly growing their revenue and increasing their profit, even in the midst of a challenging business environment.
We’ve also seen mistakes—thousands of them—from the strategic to the tactical.
We’ve taken all of our data—of successes and mistakes alike—and looked for patterns amidst the chaos. The questions we sought answers to were:
- Do the best firms do similar things to grow their revenue?
- Does excellence in certain areas of the business affect revenue growth whereas excellence in other areas doesn’t?
- Can you predict that the same mistakes and dysfunctions will hinder growth?
The answers are yes, yes, and yes. As a result, we’ve pinpointed 75 factors that affect revenue growth at services firms. Depending on the situation, if any one of the factors improves at a firm revenue is likely to go up, and if any one of them deteriorates revenue is likely to suffer.
We already know from research like How Clients Buy that repeat business (a.k.a. loyalty) for services firms follows client satisfaction. And other well-established research tells us that satisfaction is driven by the value the client perceives they receive from the service provider.
Good to know, but that we possess this knowledge, and that we know what we can do about it, are two separate things. Like a pilot at the controls, you know you need to take off, fly, and land safely, but that doesn’t help you know what buttons to push and levers to pull.
We’ve written this white paper to serve as a guide and foundation to help you push the right buttons and pull the right levers. We at Wellesley Hills Group use the same frameworks to help us perform our Revenue Growth Benchmark Assessment and Plan service for our clients. Now, for the first time, we’re sharing this framework publicly.
The 75 factors that affect revenue growth can be boiled down into 5 categories, the Five Drivers of Revenue Growth:
1. Core Business Strength
2. Rainmaking Strength
3. Performance Environment Strength
4. Marketing Strength
5. Leadership and Management Strength
Like a balanced scorecard, each of these Five Drivers must be attended to for firms to reach their full growth potential. Weakness in any area can hamstring a firm. We’ll cover each in the pages that follow.
