Is it ever right to leave consulting revenue on the table?
I get excited when I see a business already working in a way that makes Facets less revenue. Remember, I set up to help businesses grow commercially. When I see people doing some (or all) of it already I love it.
A new client of ours has a PR consultant, SEO consultant, content plan already in place, does his own talent acquisition regularly, has inhouse designers and runs his own paid activity across search and social to drive demand. What that leaves Facets with is Sales (as they have no juniors, Academy is out too) – but I loved it.
I don’t care who’s doing different areas of the commercial and people puzzle, as long as someone is.
When a founder / CEO reaches out to me I usually look at the team structure and their recent content around growth. How many commercial people, experience of those people, time in the business, etc. My head is buzzing and usually can guess where their business is up to / what the current commercial situation is.
Boutique companies don’t usually have senior sales, partnerships, marketing, client development or talent people in the business. And, when I see they do – I’m unsure if that divisional ‘lead’ is painting pretty strategy pictures every week or doing the do.
If the founder is a commercial person that takes a business in one direction with Facets or another. If they are then that founder could be the puppet master for the juniors they have in their team…brilliant, they want us to take over that role and supercharge the work already being done. If they’re from a technology background it’s likely those junior commercial people are shooting around in the dark a little and we have a bigger job to do or the founder is looking to replace them, which I would advise against, let the Facets Sales Academy take them on.
I met a business owner this week who doesn’t have a commercial team (outside a junior marketeer) but had just hired a head of talent. I saw he posted it (another great sign he’s active on LinkedIn) the week before and I couldn’t wait to meet him.
I thought YES. I love this guy. He gets it. How many 12 people businesses have a head of talent? (no stats to back this up so I have to be vague) not many. Yet a workforce plan with a commercial plan has to be the most important aspects of any business.
After speaking to him, his marketing team can be led by ours, his sales team doesn’t exist and his new talent lead can run their workforce planning with added confidence a commercial plan is being executed.
As I said, we have other clients like this; they have some pieces of the commercial puzzle and we want to bring them together to get the whole band (back) together.