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ClientGrowth – Guidance
ClientGrowth – Snapshot
Client teams that plan, prioritise and focus on areas to expand their revenue and relationships drive consistent growth in their client relationships. Central to this is maintaining a focus on the objectives of the client: what can we do to help them to unlock their potential for growth? Where are our strengths? How can we add value? ClientGrowth is a framework to support teams in creating strategic plans for developing client relationships. It is designed to be run as a workshop, guiding client teams through the critical questions they need to answer when developing a growth plan. This process can be followed whether or not you have an existing key client programme in your firm.
What is ClientGrowth?
When seeking opportunities for growth, one of the most important places to start is with your existing clients. Competition and client sophistication mean that few services we offer are truly differentiated. If we are not broadening our footprint and influence with our clients, our relationship will shrink and we risk losing it entirely. Strong, enduring client relationships are the lifeblood of our organisation. It is by connecting what we do to our client’s broader business issues and by identifying new solutions that we can expand our share of wallet into new parts of our client’s business. It is how we will grow in our local markets. It is also how we will grow together globally as Grant Thornton.
Supporting you through effective planning
The planning workshop for client teams
ClientGrowth
CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
© 2017 Grant Thornton International Ltd. All rights reserved. 'Grant Thornton' refers to the brand under which the Grant Thornton member firms provide assurance, tax and advisory services to their clients and/or refers to one or more member firms, as the context requires. Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. GTIL and each member firm is a separate legal entity. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL does not provide services to clients. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another’s acts or omissions.
Client plan & Team commitment
Team objectives
Investing for success
Relationship map
Opportunity landscape & Pipeline
Client strategy & Industry drivers
GT experience
Pre-work
Select a key stage to explore
In developing a strategic client plan, we need to know: where we are starting from, the challenges we face and the client’s priorities. This means gathering information, from both internal and external sources, and sharing them with the team in advance of the ClientGrowth workshop.
Introduction
Outcome
Understand the current situation
Any recent ClientVoice or proposal debrief reports.
Information on your existing relationships, revenue and pipeline opportunities.
Activities
Collate and share the following
Information on your account’s strategic business priorities.
Any third-party reports or analyses that provide insight into the dynamics of the account’s industry, competitive pressures, and key leaders.
Organisational charts.
Things to consider
Do other member firms have relationships with this client, which we need to capture and involve?
What additional resources or contacts can we engage with to expand our knowledge of the client?
Have you told the client what you are planning and asked for their input?
Tools & Resources
Industry insights
ClientGrowth - Relationships tracker template
ClientGrowth - Opportunities pipeline template
ClientGrowth - Billings template
Back: Select a key stage
Next stage: GT experience
Client Voice
ClientGrowth - Sample account team agreed protocols
ClientGrowth - Team roles and responsibilities
Agree how the team will engage with the client on active engagements, e.g. initial scope signoff, how changes in scope will be managed and communicated, any standard templates to be used, mandatory elements for reports, how invoicing and fee discussions will be managed.
Agree how the team will engage with the client at a relationship level, e.g. preferred communication channels, corporate invitations and gathering of client feedback.
Decide how and when the team will engage and share information.
Agree who is in the core and wider teams.
Define roles so everyone knows why they are on the team and what their contribution is expected to be.
Agree team mission.
Establishing the right team to deliver an exceptional client experience
Have we incorporated any relevant client feedback in the structure of the client team or shared what has gone well and what has not gone well?
Have we done a recent client feedback interview to see how well we meet their expectations?
Does everyone understand their role in the development of this client relationship?
Do we have the right skill sets in the team to deliver what the client needs?
As a team, you need to decide how you will demonstrate to the client that you understand what is important to them and have made it important to you. Being clear on what you know of their expectations or preferences will help you to decide how you organise and interact with the client. This is both how you will work at a relationship level and on active engagements.
Next stage: Client strategy & Industry drivers
The team should discuss and challenge the information shared in the pre-work
Internal: their knowledge and relationship with client; overview of any previous client account plans and revenues; review of any client feedback reports (ClientVoice or Proposal debrief).
External: the client's market positioning, competitive challenges, industry & business drivers, organisation charts.
Understand what is on the client’s agenda
Have we reached out to the network to understand the full relationship?
Is there an industry expert you should have in the room for this discussion?
To be truly on their agenda, what else do we need to know about the client and the industry in which they operate?
Being on the client’s agenda is critical. We will only be successful in developing our client relationships if our approach aligns to their priorities and goals. There are three levels you need to consider i) the overall corporate agenda, ii) the agenda for the main business units, departments or regions and iii) the agenda of the individual corporate executives. How these might be affected by industry – or macro economic – trends is also important.
Next stage: Opportunity landscape & pipeline
6 box model
ClientGrowth - Opportunity landscape and pipeline
Opportunity landscape & pipeline
Map and prioritise the opportunity landscape
Prioritise opportunities according to existing capability; (profitable) revenue potential; relationship with decision makers; urgency of client need.
Identify where Grant Thornton is currently generating revenue; where our competitors are currently generating revenue; where new opportunities may exist.
Is there capability across the network we can leverage?
Can we be profitable with each of these opportunities?
Do we have the time and appetite to penetrate those opportunities?
Have we truly got the capability to pursue this opportunity? Or are we willing to invest?
How well positioned are we to pursue and win these opportunities?
It is important to focus on the opportunities that show the most promise in helping us to deepen and grow our client relationships. First, you need to map the opportunity landscape. As part of this, you need to consider our capabilities, our capacity and the competitor landscape, but also reflect back on the outputs from the previous stage. Where is the client focusing? Can we add value to their priorities?
Next stage: Relationship map
The Grant Thornton Client Journey
ClientGrowth - Relationship mapping
Clarity around our relationships with key decision makers
Develop an action plan (and clear accountability) for maintaining, developing or starting our relationships with the key stakeholders.
Complete a matrix of our relationships with key stakeholders at the client; mapping the individuals according to their perceived levels of influence and their support for Grant Thornton.
Who else can we use to enhance our relationships?
How can we use our "raving fans" to drive growth?
How can we best manage any "detractors" to move them to "passive" (or better)?
Have we asked the client how they view us?
We can only execute our client development strategy if we have the right relationships with the client. Using the relationship matrix, you will identify and explore the strength of the relationships the team has with key executives – as well as their level of influence in decision making – that will be key for the opportunities you have prioritised. Once the matrix is created, you will need to develop engagement plans for converting contacts and enlisting greater support from contacts.
Next stage: Investing for success
Client experience
Link to The Grant Thornton Client Journey
An agreed approach to our engagement with the client
What feedback has the team shared on what has gone well and what hasn't?
Agree how the team will engage with the client at a relationship level as well as on active engagements.
Next stage: Barriers to success
ClientGrowth - Account vulnerability assessment
Identify what investments we need to make to grow the client relationship
Identify any additional needs the client may have that we should consider investing in (e.g. thought leadership, innovation workshop, peer-group networking).
Develop solutions or actions to address/mitigate these risks.
Articulate the critical risks that could impact on the development of our relationship with this client (e.g. capability gaps, team performance, competitor activity, team commitment, investment requirement, stakeholder changes).
Can we use other resources across the network?
What are the "game changers" that will affect this client relationship?
How much are we willing to invest in this relationship?
By this stage, you will have identified the client’s priorities, where they might value insights or expertise and where we might not yet have capability to meet their needs. For a strategic plan to be successful in the longer term, you will need to consider the most critical issues that could affect our ability to meet the needs of the client. By identifying these potential barriers to success, you will be able to prioritise an investment plan to mitigate the risk of leaving opportunities open for our competitors.
Next stage: Team objectives
ClientGrowth - Suggested KPIs
Set strategic, financial and relationship objectives for the next 1-3 years
Agree objectives for the team as a whole and for each individual. These can be both quantitative and qualitative.
Does everyone agree to the objectives and are invested in achieving them?
Are these objectives stretching us, but achievable?
Based on the client’s business issues and key initiatives that you have identified during the ClientGrowth workshop, in this module you will need to set your overall objectives for the client over the next 1-3 years, as well as individual objectives for your area of responsibility i.e. service line, country, region etc
Next stage: Client plan & team commitment
ClientGrowth - Account plan template
Client plan & team commitment
An agreed strategy, a plan of action, and clear accountability
Recap on the ambition for this client relationship – the objectives, pipeline, opportunity landscape and relationship matrix – and create a 100-day action plan.
How often do we communicate and make sure actions are followed?
How are we going to report on progress?
Who is going to do what and by when?
You have completed chartering your team, you have reviewed your account situation, analysed and prioritised growth opportunities and developed your team’s relationship map and connection plan. Now using this information, you can complete your 100-day action plan.
