We Have Other Practice Areas?

It happens all the time in organizations, people get so busy doing their own work they stop hearing what other people in the company are working on. Although understandable to some extent, there are two really big issues that can arise because of it – both of which affect your clients.

We are all trying to get more revenue out of the clients we already have. Unfortunately we know that too many people only focus on the work they do for a client and we fail to learn as much as we can about the client. This has been discussed over and over again and at its plainest position, we need to do a better job asking questions.

The other – which may be more alarming – is we fail to learn enough about our own firm’s capabilities. Recently I heard about a firm that was outsourcing work because the primary people involved did not know that their firm had the capabilities in-house. The worst part about it was they had been doing it for years until someone finally noticed.

When a firm brings in a new practice or branches out to a new service area, it is simply not enough to tell staff once. A single communication announcing a major change doesn’t work. Regular on-going dialogue in multiple formats is essential to establishing understanding on the new area and how to market that new area internally and externally. If you don’t, you may end up in the situation where you are throwing away revenue by sending work out of your firm.