The incremental value of PS teams in a tough economy

Those businesses involved in the practice of providing professional services (PS) to their client base have not been immune to the current economic downturn. It is hard to believe that only twelve months ago, business leaders were facing the most challenging hiring environment in years – the challenge: how to find and attract great people to the business. Twelve months later, these same leaders are looking for ways to ensure that they can pay and retain the staff they spent all that time looking for.

The metrics in a professional services environment are very easy to understand, but very difficult to master. Three key metrics often discussed include utilization, pricing models and overhead management. Many businesses will make the mistake of only looking at the metric of utilization when making staffing decisions regarding net new hires or determining adequate resource levels. With everybody so focused on running hard the last couple of years chasing new clients, the existing client base was left in the position of fighting for scarce resources, getting little attention from those companies that worked so hard to gain their trust in the first place. The result is that it was often only the professional services team that carried the ball on behalf of the organization through this period and have since established deep relationships with the company's key clients. As a result, when companies decide to downsize the professional services team in a stagnant economy, they may ultimately need to ask themselves a second question – “Are we losing clients with these personnel decisions as well?”

Times like these represent a great opportunity to reengage with your key clients through a combination of focused business development efforts along with creative initiatives from your professional services team. If you are in a position to provide solutions through your professional services team that promote cost efficiencies, you may be able to provide significant value to your clients while helping your own organization weather the storm at the same time.