Meeting Guide and Agenda by Course

Transcription

1 Meeting Guide and Agenda by Course Kickoff Meeting 1. Introduction of all attendees. 2. Go over the purpose of the program. Explain why the firm has chosen to invest in the program and how the program will help the firm grow. 3. Overview of the current issues that caused management to implement this training program, and the current financial metrics that need to be improved. 4. Discuss the impact of a 1% to 3% increase in the firm s future growth. 5. Discuss why this particular group has been selected to participate in the program and go over what is in it for them as well as how this training is expected to affect their job and career growth. 6. Go over in detail the expectations for outcomes and how progress and success of the program will be measured. 7. Review the courses that will be taken. 8. Go into Training program and demonstrate the format of the platform. -Menu -Course Objectives -Glossary -Workbooks -Pre- and Post-Assessments -Videos, exercise, and games -Forum -Take Action -Continuing Education 9. Discuss Progress Review Meetings and the schedule to follow. 10. Emphasize expected behavior changes and their role in documenting results.

2 Course 1: Culture Traps Go over each trap individually as follows: Trap 1: Quality is everything -Are our budgets lower than the desired level of quality or do we over-deliver on quality? -Do we have like-minded clients that are willing and able to afford our services? -Are we adequately setting realistic expectations with our clients from the beginning? Trap 2: Keep the client happy at all costs -Have there been times that we have tried to keep our clients happy, which ended up threatening our profitability? -How does this show up on a daily basis? Trap 3: In slow times, it s OK to take projects we know will lose money -Do we ever take loss leaders in order to break into a new market or get a new client? -Is this a successful strategy? -Do we have any clients that we consistently lose money with due to bidding too low from the start of the relationship? Trap 4: All clients are good clients -What qualities would define our ideal client? -Do we intentionally focus on our best clients and do specific activities to retain them? Trap 5: You can t lose money on a Time and Materials (T&M) contract -Are we making our expected profit margins on T&M contracts? -Is rework a common issue? -Do we have a lot of write-offs or put time on hold for a long time?

3 Trap 6: We do not share financial data with managers and employees -Do we give Project Managers the data they need to successfully manage projects? -Could they benefit from being given more information than we already provide? Trap 7: Our client does not want us to make a profit -Do we automatically lower our fees to compete? -Do we understand and communicate the value we bring to our clients and sell on value instead of just price? -Do we go after clients or projects that we should not? How can we stop doing that? Trap 8: We can t make our employees follow our policies -Does our firm do the very best job it can enforcing compliance with our policies? -Could we implement better timesheet practices? -Do our employees understand why we have the policies we have? Trap 9: Times are tough, so we can t spend money -Are we continuously investing in the firm s ability to grow? -How are we making the best investments to pursue growth in hiring the best employees we can? Trap 10: This is how we ve always done it -Are we still doing things the same way we were doing them years ago? -Are we constantly looking at improving and taking advantage of new technology that is available to the firm? What are some things that we could update or do more efficiently in order to stay current and maximize our potential?

4 Course 2: Nine Areas Where Firms Lose Money 1. Opening Discussion Go around the room and discuss which of the 9 areas each person feels has the biggest impact on the firm s profitability. 2. Go over each of the nine areas as follows: 1) Cost of Lost Opportunities What is our company s win rate? What does our firm s Go/No-Go process consist of? Is everyone following it? What steps can we take to instill a good client relationship management (CRM) system in order to help manage and control many of these processes? 2) Lost Revenue from a Cumbersome Proposal Process Do we tend to reinvent the wheel every time we have to create a new proposal? Are there any ways we could improve upon our database to ensure that accurate data is being used to optimize the proposal process? How can we improve the management of our qualifications data so that it can be managed effectively resulting in proposals that can be built quickly and efficiently? 3) Lost Revenue due to a Flawed Estimating Process How often are our estimates in line with the outcome of the project scope? Could we improve upon the accuracy of our estimates? Does our estimating process include consistency between our groups and offices? What can we do to improve our estimating process? 4) Lost Revenue and Excess Costs from Scope Creep or Extra Services Not Recovered Do our contracts explicitly state how we handle extra services requests? What internal processes do we have in place to set appropriate client expectations? How can we improve these processes? Can we better train our Project Managers to have conversations with their clients when they request services that are not included in the scope? 5) Cost of Low Utilization and Poor Resource Scheduling How do we set target utilization rates for each of our employees? Are we actively monitoring these target utilization rates against their actual performance? Is low utilization causing us to miss out on project profitability? What specific steps do we need to take to improve our resource management, along with a tight time management process?

5 6) Cost of Poor Project Management What percent of our projects go over budget, and by what percent on average? Could we lower this percentage by improving project management? Do we have an effective budgeting system that enables our PM s to plan each project and see the actual costs against the budget in real-time? What are some common issues our PM s come across when maintaining and monitoring project budgets? What steps can we take to eliminate/improve upon these issues? 7) Cost of a Long Invoice Cycle and Poor Cash Flow How long is our invoice cycle? Is this longer than it needs to be? Do we have clients that do not pay on time? What can we do to make our collections process more efficient? How could our management practices be improved overall in order to shorten our invoice cycle and avoid financing our client s projects? How effectively do we enforce the timesheet policies we have? What steps do we need to take to strengthen these policies so that we can improve our firm s cash flow? 8) Cost of Multiple Silos of Redundant Data Where are some areas that we could implement newer technology/make more automated, in order to free up our employees and allow them to be more productive? Do we have a number of separate systems that do not integrate well with one another? Could a substantial amount of wasted employee time be saved by not needing to look for information and enter data into multiple systems? What investments should we consider making in order to improve proposal processes, project management and faster and more accurate billing by fully integrating our systems and data? 9) Cost of Losing a (Good) Client Who are our good clients? Since it costs six times more to sell something to a new prospect than it does to sell that same thing to an existing client, could we refocus some of our time and energy into retaining our good clients, rather than looking for new business? How can we better document client correspondence to ensure our staff is keeping all promises to our clients? In order to understand what services our clients truly value, what process can we implement to receive helpful client feedback?

6 Course 3: Effective Company Financial Management 1. Go over questions and/or insights related to: Strategic Planning Cash and Accrual Accounting Managing Overhead Budgeting Reporting 2. If it makes sense, discuss the firm s key strategic short and long-term objectives. 3. Discuss each KPI to understand how it is being calculated and whether anything needs to be done differently. It may be a good idea to share some of the firm s financial statements from the previous fiscal year at this point. -Overhead, Utilization and Profitability -Budgeting Processes / Forecasting -Key Performance Indicators -Financial Reporting 4. If things do need to be done differently, go over what specific actions need to be taken to improve.

7 Course 4: Marketing, Business Development and Sales Effectiveness 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn? 2. Discuss the recommendations from this chapter to categorize the following: -What we do well -What needs improvement -What we don t do at all and should start doing 3. Google your company for everyone to see and understand how the firm is listed in the search engine as well as the firm s primary services. 4. Discuss the following: Google - how does our firm show up? What is our social media presence? How are we using LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.? Our web site - what are the strengths and weaknesses? Do we offer any thought leadership content like a blog? What is our firm s reputation? Who are our competitors and where do we excel or need work to compete? Do we have a Go / No-Go process and if so, are we using it effectively? Can we easily calculate our win-rate and is it correlated with our Go/No-Go score? Is there a score which we should never compete on? Business Development - what is working and not working? Do we have a CRM? If we do, is it working and are employees keeping it updated? If not, should we implement one? Do we get adequate pipeline reporting? Do we get referrals from clients and business partners? How can we increase them? How are we managing qualifications data for projects and resumes? Is there consistency between offices and groups? What are the bottlenecks slowing down our proposal process? How are seller-doers trained to manage opportunities and use the CRM? Should we consider sales training? What else can we do to improve seller-doer success? Do we have a sales process? If not, do we need to work on developing a sales process?

8 Course 5: Contract Types, Project Costs and Estimating 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn? 2. Go over the following regarding the different types of contracts: What type of contract do you think is the most profitable? What contract type does our firm use most frequently? Which type is the worst? What lessons learned would you share related to contract type? Lump Sum versus Time and Materials Should we continue to do T&M with a NTE limit? 3. Discuss Project Costs: What rates are we using and are they updated regularly? How do we calculate them and is there enough profit included? 4. Discuss Project Estimating How are we doing? What do we need to do to improve our fee estimating as a firm? Do we do bottom up and top down? Is there enough detail in the scope? Do we include a percentage for contingencies? Do we have templates and where are they? Who is using which templates? Do we account for all the meetings and drawing revisions and specify how many are included? Do we have an estimating software and are we using it? Do we discount too much? Do we give clients quotes too quickly need to slow down? Do we use historical data to ensure our estimates are adequate? Do we have an estimating checklist? Do our estimators need training?

9 Course 6: Project Budgeting, Monitoring and Resource Management 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn from this course? 2. Go over the following regarding Project Budgeting: How are we planning our projects? Is there enough detail? Do we use standard Work Breakdown for the Phases and Tasks? Is our project planning automated? 3. Discuss Budget Monitoring Do we have timely reporting of actual costs against the budget? Are PMs looking at who is charging to their jobs each week? Are employees coached weekly about their job assignments and how many hours each task should take? Do we have the capability to get project alerts? Are we using them? 4. Discuss Resource Management How do we schedule resources? How frequently should we update the schedule? How far ahead do we plan resource allocations? Do we have / use an automated scheduling system? Do employees know their target utilization rates? Can we see who is not fully scheduled and make adjustments quickly? 5. Lessons Learned Discussion: What real life experiences have you had that could be a lesson for others in how to better manage project budgets?

10 Course 7: Scope Creep 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn from this course? 2. Discuss Client Requirements: Do we have a process for interviewing prospective clients about their expectations, goals and requirements for each project? Are we documenting their requirements and using them to develop the scope and proposal language? 3. Go over Client Communication: Have we reviewed the proposal and scope with the client to ensure we have it right? Have we discussed our process for managing extra services requests and getting approval? Do we know how to discuss scope changes with the client? Suggested Exercise: Have individuals get into pairs and role play to practice getting more comfortable having this type of discussion with a client. 4. Discuss Proposal Language: Do we have language for extra services approval processes? Do we clearly spell out what is included and what is not? 5. Discuss the importance of Kickoff Meetings Do we have kickoff meetings? If so, who is included? What is discussed? Do we have a kickoff meeting agenda? 6. Discuss the firm s Extra Services Process Do we have a written process for management of extra services requests including any forms or approval both internally and from client? Do we start work before having a signed contract? 7. Explain Tracking Extras How do we track and bill extras? Are PMs looking for Scope Creep on time charges? 8. Go over Quality Does the level of quality promised match the scope and budget? Are we over-delivering on quality / detail of reports?

11 Course 8: Time is Money 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn from this course? 2. Go over the firm s timesheet policies: Do we have documented policies? Are employees held accountable for following policies? How do we onboard new staff? 3. Daily time entry: How often are our time sheets being entered and submitted? Should we implement a daily time sheet process if we do not have one already? How will we enforce our new policies? 4. Approvals: How often are supervisors approving time sheets? What else should they be doing? 5. Time Reporting: Are project charges posted to jobs in a timely manner so PMs can see project charges and get alerts when projects are going to go over budget? 6. What specific things do we need to do to improve our timesheet practices?

12 Course 9: Cash is King 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn from this course? 2. Contract Language: Do we include payment terms? Do we / can we charge interest on late payments? 3. Timesheets - Accuracy: Are our timesheets accurate? How many corrections need to be made at the end of the month? 4. Billing Cycle: How long does it take to get bills out and what can we do to get invoices out faster? What is keeping us from getting our bills out faster? 5. Client Contacts: Do we know the clients accounting staff? What are their expectations and requirements for invoices? What could we do to ensure we get the billing right the first time? 6. Collections What are our days sales outstanding (metric)? What can we do to ensure our client has the invoice and is planning to pay it on time (no issues?) Do PMs get timely information about late paying clients? Do we have processes in place for dealing with severe delinquencies? Do we have dedicated resources for calling clients? If PMs are expected to call are they and do they know what to say? Suggestion - Have individuals partner up and role play to practice these scenarios.

13 Course 10: Managing Client Relationships 1. Opening Discussion - What new things did each team member learn from this course? 2. Take the time to categorize your clients. Do we know who our best clients are? How well do you know your clients? Were you able to answer all the questions in the Presidential Briefing Exercise? (See Workbook Page 5) 3. Client Relationships: Do we treat all clients the same? Do we ever stop working on an A client s work when a C client calls? All clients are not equal: Are there any clients that we need to consider walking away from? Why? How can we collect better information about our clients and use it to our advantage? 4. Client Retention: How well are we doing with client retention? What actions would make us more effective Do we have intentional programs for retaining our best clients? What does our retention plan include? 5. Client Feedback: Do we survey our clients? If we don t, should we come up with a survey program so that we can better improve? Do we get client testimonials when we get good feedback? What great things do our clients say about us that we need to share with our team? 6. Selling on Value: Do our employees undervalue our services? Do we offer commodity services (low fees)? Where do we have a competitive advantage? Do we have strategies to upsell and cross sell our services? What can we do to sell on value rather than price? Have a brainstorming session.