The part of your process that’s costing you time (and growth)

I’ve sat down with quite a few professional services firms over the years, and the conversation often starts the same way. We’ll begin talking about systems, follow-up or how enquiries move through the business, and within a few minutes someone will say, “We’ve already got a CRM.” It’s usually said with a bit of confidence because they made the sensible decision at some point to invest in one. Maybe it’s something like HubSpot or a free system that just manages emails; either way, the software is there, the login works and the team technically has a place to put information. Box ticked! When we get into the nitty gritty on how the business actually runs day to day, it becomes pretty clear the CRM isn’t really doing much at all. I can’t say I blame them! I’m not here to have a go, when you’re busy doing the work the last thing you want to do is log into a system and track the call you just had with a prospect or add an email to your mailing list.

What tends to happen instead is the business still runs on memory and good intentions. An enquiry comes through the website and lands in someone’s inbox. Someone replies when they get a chance. If the prospect doesn’t respond straight away, the follow-up sits on a mental to-do list that competes with client work, meetings and everything else that fills a day. Notes live in emails or spreadsheets or someone’s head. The CRM might hold some of the information, but it isn’t really driving the process. I see this a lot with accountants, advisory firms etc. – smart people who care about their clients and have built strong businesses through reputation and relationships. More and more we’re seeing in these referral based businesses that referrals are not enough anymore. So the pressure is on to get clients when people don’t realise sometimes the answer is not in doing more but in doing less… stick with me here

Software on its own doesn’t create structure. Someone has to design the workflow that sits behind it, and that’s too much for business leaders to do on top of everything they are responsible for already!

One of the things I’ve learnt working closely with service businesses is that growth rarely comes from adding more tools or chasing the next shiny platform. It tends to come from fixing one small part of the process that quietly controls everything else. When you find the step where things slow down, or rely too heavily on someone remembering what to do next, that’s usually where the opportunity sits.

Here’s an example:

A few years ago I worked with an accounting firm that had already invested in a solid CRM. The platform itself was good and connected to most of the other tools they were using, so from the outside it looked like the systems were in place.

Inside the business though, the partners still felt like they were chasing things constantly. New enquiries would come through the website and sit in someone’s inbox until they had time to respond. Sometimes that was quick, sometimes it was the next day, and occasionally it slipped entirely. When a prospect went quiet, the assumption was that the lead probably wasn’t serious.

What we uncovered was that the issue wasn’t the leads. It was the way the first interaction was handled. So we rebuilt that first step in the process. Instead of every enquiry relying on someone noticing the email and replying when they had time, the system triggered a structured first response straight away. The right questions were asked up front, the information landed in the CRM in a way the team could actually use: a meeting with the prospect booked and locked in the calendar. Ta da! The next step was clear for both the firm and the prospect.

Fast forward to now (about a year later) enquiries now move through qualifying calls, scheduled conversations, reminders and clear onboarding steps that guide the client through the process without the team chasing every detail. The result has been interesting to watch. They convert more leads, and the experience for new clients is strong enough that referrals have increased as well.

So now, when they do scale their business, they know they are going to see the full fruit of that effort.

That’s usually how these things unfold I’ve found. The first improvement often looks small from the outside, but once the system starts working properly the next opportunities become obvious. Instead of a collection of tools, the business begins to run on a connected process that supports the team and creates a better experience for clients at the same time.

Here’s the hard part though…

It’s very hard to see those gaps when you’re inside your own business! When you live and breathe the work every day, the process feels normal even when it’s inefficient.

That’s one of the things I enjoy most about working with professional services firms. Coming in with fresh eyes makes it easier to spot the small adjustments that can have a big impact. Sometimes it’s removing unnecessary software or fees that have built up over time. Sometimes it’s improving the way enquiries are handled or how clients book time in the calendar.

I make it my goal to have a dramatic impact on the business in the first few weeks and if they work with me I generally do.

Most of these things can be handled by a well-designed system, but the real work isn’t the software itself; I could tell you 20 different platforms that fill the gap sufficiently but the value comes from translating what makes your business unique into a workflow that actually supports it. Once that translation happens properly, the system starts doing its job in the background while the team focuses on the work that matters.

And more often than not, the change that unlocks that shift begins with a single fix in the right place. Would you like me to hold a magnifying glass up to your business - let me know and we’ll have a chat.