Causey

As a mission-driven strategy consultant, the pursuit of revenue growth is often intertwined with your commitment to serving causes and clients effectively. Whether you work with nonprofits, libraries, public health departments, associations, chambers of commerce, or other organizations, you have a lot on your plate, and you and your consulting team need to find ways to continually add revenue and serve your clients better. Each year brings new challenges, but it is important to pause and explore innovative approaches to increase revenue while maintaining your dedication to serving your clients.

Here are four strategies to consider to maximize your revenue: Don’t miss the Customer Lifecycle Roadmap below!

Saves Time in Engagements Engagements

Your time is a precious commodity, especially when juggling multiple clients who are in different phases of an engagement. Embracing software tools can streamline certain tasks, allowing you to focus more on client engagements. By leveraging time-saving technologies, you can effectively multiply your capacity, taking on more projects without sacrificing quality.

With Causey, our strategic planning execution software, consultants can efficiently craft and manage strategic plans, communications, and project goals, ultimately leading to increased revenue opportunities. No more jumping around to different spreadsheets, searching for related documents from the engagement or spending time sending email reminders.

Using Causey has saved our consulting firm, Mission Met, enough time that we can double the number of engagements we complete in a year. More contracts = more revenue.

Transform into a Fractional Director of Strategy

Most strategic planning consultants help organizations in assessing the organization, facilitating conversations, and creating the plan. The execution of the plan is often left to the organizations to handle themselves.

This is understandable because the execution phase is often filled with tedious tasks for a consultant that we usually categorize as “implementation,” and it’s getting “too much into the weeds.”  These tasks often include sending reminder messages to the team to remember the goals of the plan and to make sure they are tracking progress regularly.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen plans fail during this phase too many times. Having a consultant check in or “babysit” the organization regularly during the execution phase can keep plans from failing due to the gentle nudges to keep making progress on the goals.

Adding the ability to track progress on a plan is a way you can elevate your value proposition. This hands-on approach fosters deeper connections and trust, positioning consultants as indispensable partners rather than mere service providers. Transforming this work into a structured service makes you a fractional director of strategy. It not only enhances client satisfaction and goal achievement but also opens doors to additional revenue streams through premium offerings.

While this is a significant value add to your clients, the time required to meet with the team, track the plan, and unlock roadblocks could easily take less than 5 hours per month or 10 hours per quarter. How you structure the engagement is up to you, but Causey, our strategic planning execution software, can provide the features to help you structure the check-in and provide reports to the organizations to streamline the process.

Causey will also allow your clients to take the helm when they are ready. With the ability to assign tasks, team members receive automated email reminders to update the status of their goals. A goal progress tracker makes it easy to document important notes. Reporting features help leaders with a high-level overview of the status so they can easily communicate with the board and key stakeholders.

Expand Service Offerings: Diversify and Supplement

Innovation is key to sustained growth. Take the time to assess your current service offerings and identify areas for expansion. Whether developing new consulting packages, introducing training programs, or offering supplementary services, diversifying your portfolio can attract new clients and unlock untapped revenue streams.

We recommend offering a service that moves you from a one-to-one engagement to a one-to-many engagement. For example, consider creating a course that showcases your knowledge about one or many aspects of your work. A course can help you in many ways, both with existing and potential customers:

• You can give away the course to potential customers as a form of “proof of knowledge.” If they like the content, they may be more likely to sign a contract with you. Ever heard of a lead magnet? This is a lead magnet on steroids.
• You can provide the course to all signed contracts as a way to prepare for your engagement. This way, they enter with a baseline level of knowledge and saves you time from having to catch them up to speed.
• Build your community by including features that foster collaboration among learners. Nonprofit consultants can create forums, discussion boards, or Q&A sessions to facilitate knowledge sharing, networking, and peer support among course participants.

Mission Met created a nonprofit strategic planning course, called START, currently hosted in a “Toolbox” (a simplified learning management system) in Causey.  If that would be valuable to your team, we’d be happy to discuss how we can collaborate with you to host your course, save you time, and provide your clients value.

Nurture Client Relationships for Repeat Business

Retaining and nurturing existing ones is perhaps the most important function for your long-term success as a strategy consultant or firm owner. Implementing a structured customer lifecycle process can guide you in delivering exceptional service at every touchpoint. From a signed contract and initial engagement to post-project follow-ups, prioritizing client satisfaction fosters loyalty and encourages repeat business.

Satisfied clients are more likely to become advocates, refer new business opportunities, and amplify revenue potential. Pause for a moment, re-read that last sentence, and let it sink in.

We’ve adapted our customer lifecycle for others to use and are happy to share it with you today. Get the Customer Lifecycle Roadmap.

This lifecycle will help you communicate with customers and streamline your operations through multiple phases of an engagement, including the following:

• Onboarding (kickoff and early engagement phases): Establish clear communication channels, set expectations, and gather the necessary information to kickstart the engagement.
• Engagement (early and mid-engagement phases): Execute the consulting project with diligence, professionalism, and a focus on delivering value.
• Feedback (mid, late, to post-engagement phases): Solicit feedback from clients to assess satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement.
• Follow-up (late to post-engagement phases): Stay connected with clients offering continued support, resources, and additional services as needed.
• Referral (post-engagement phase): Encourage satisfied clients to refer new business opportunities, expanding your client base organically.

We’ve also included templates for email and social media communications. Edit them as you see fit!

This template is a roadmap to guide your interactions with clients, ensuring a seamless and rewarding experience throughout the customer lifecycle.

Get the Customer Lifecycle Roadmap.

In conclusion, this year presents ample opportunities for you to elevate your revenue streams through innovation, collaboration, and client-centricity. By embracing tools like Causey, offering personalized services, diversifying service offerings, and nurturing relationships, you can navigate the evolving landscape with confidence and drive sustainable growth. Success lies not only in maximizing revenue but also in making a meaningful impact in the communities we serve.