Methodical Approach | Our Engagement Model | Best-Practices | Getting Started
Our Defined Engagement Model
Exploring The Best Path To Mutual Success
Our approach to exploring successful new business relationships is comprised of five distinct stages:
- Marketing health check-up
- Discovery
- Requirements definition
- Scope of services
- Engagement
Marketing Health Checkup
In the marketing health check-up, we meet with a senior executive from a PS firm for about an hour. Usually this meeting is via phone. This complimentary meeting is high-level and exploratory. We ask 10 key questions and encourage the executive to tell us about the results they want to realize from engaging with a marketing firm. We describe our process and answer any questions about our services and deliverables. At the end of the meeting we mutually assess if it would be appropriate to move to the next stage – the discovery process.
If we both agree to move to next steps, we ask prospective clients to sign a small agreement for $5,000. This payment ensures that everyone fully commits to this process, which is so critical to the success of a long-term relationship. It is our expectation that every new client we engage will remain a client for not less than three years.
If a prospective client signs a larger agreement at the end of this process, the $5000 will be credited back to their account. If they choose not to sign a larger agreement, they will have gained insights and an objective analysis of their firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that is worth far more than they paid.
Discovery
During the discovery process, we meet with up to five people, typically by phone. We utilize a comprehensive questionnaire that delves into these key areas:
- Stakeholders’ vision for the firm
- Growth objectives and five-year plan
- Business development goals
- Organizational structure for the sales, marketing, and operations functions
- Current strategies for positioning, branding, and marketing
- A comprehensive analysis of each service you offer
- Competitors’ strengths & weaknesses
- Business culture
- Marketing goals and budgets
- Expectations of a marketing partner
Each meeting requires about two hours as we ask more than 60 questions on these topics. At the end of the discovery process, we have a strong sense of who the prospective client is, what they want to accomplish, what they’ve done in the past, and the results they want to see from marketing initiatives.
Requirements Definition
In the requirements definition phase, we review the data collected during discovery meetings. We analyze stated goals and existing plans and compare these against our experiences with other fast-growing PS firms. We also compare against published case studies and our proprietary qualitative and quantitative market research.
Our analysis culminates in a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) presentation. We also identify ten key strategies that will empower our client to cross the chasm from where they are now to where they want to be in the future. We meet with senior executives to share our findings and always welcome alternative strategies and suggestions from our clients.
Scope Of Services
Once we’ve reached consensus on the requirements, we compare them against our ten core services to decipher where we can deliver the greatest impact. We outline a detailed scope that includes goals and objectives, timelines, our responsibilities, our clients’ responsibilities, check-in points, and milestones tied to payments. We also include project management plans using Gantt charts for the first few initiatives.
Engagement
Once the scope of services is complete, we move to engagement. In this phase, we ask our clients not only to authorize the agreement, but also to celebrate a great decision. The Shattuck Group is very selective when choosing clients. To make it to this last phase is a real accomplishment for both firms and an indicator that a long and healthy relationship, with rich rewards
for everyone, lies just ahead.
