How to Increase the Revenue Value of Non-Revenue Generating Roles

Part 2

Career Management Series

By Laura Lee Rose

Small business owners have several budget constraints. One of the most prevalent is staffing. And small businesses wish to reduce or eliminate “non-billable” positions or positions that don’t directly bring in revenue.

In the How to Increase the Revenue Value of Non-Revenue Generating Roles – Part 1, we introduced the idea of creating mission statements that actually elevates non-revenue generating roles into revenue-generation positions.

This article continues where that article left off with additional roles and responsibilities. To illustrate these steps, I use a marketing agency and the account manager in these examples. But you can substitute your industry/product/service and non-revenue generating role.

Additional roles and responsibilities

Including client relationship ownership and up-sale responsibilities will increase the value of any position. Below are some examples of up-sale opportunities that benefit both the client and company.

· Meet, maintain and enhance the client relationship

· Friday Huddle – Prepare weekly Top 3 for each account to the production team

o Production team uses the Friday Huddle Top three to prep for the following week’s to-do items

o Team reports any obstacles to delivery of those items

o Eliminates any accounts falling through the cracks

· Keep focus on Up-Sale opportunities (Sales folks don’t have time to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities on current clients – and it’s not the production team’s role to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities).

· Keep eye on original contract items

o If feature creep – use opportunity to up-sale

o Continually review Change Requests to validate in original contract deliverables

o If not – price the change request

· Weekly meet with client on account progress

o Understand the social media, website hits, brand monitoring and various other reports per client. Be able to explain the metrics, what they mean to the clients’ business and what the data suggests the next steps should be.

o Continually remind clients that they need to go through account manager for requests (even if they think the request is included in the original contract)

o Continually be the liaison between Sales/Production Team/Client

o If the Account Manager becomes valuable to the client (understands, explains, and guides toward next steps – the client will want to work through the account manager and not around them).

· Monthly meeting with client to review up-sale opportunities

o Determine how long a client should stay at “base/platinum” level before moving to next level

o Help guide “qualified clients” to their next level of growth with possible discount or “free month” at next level

§ Use the data gathered in the past weeks/months to help determine the next steps

§ Redefine reports, metrics or educational materials to help clients achieve their goals

o Revisit Referral opportunities every month in the monthly meeting

§ Who does client want to do business with in the future to get them to their next level

§ Who can client refer to you company

§ What type of industry does client want to be associated with (via cross-promotions, at events, shared interview/tv/radio spots etc)

· Meet weekly with other Account Managers in the company for synergy

o Possibly use Weekly Friday Huddle to do this…..

o Which clients that are complementary and can benefit from cross-promotions

o Which clients would benefit in being introduced to each other by your company

o Any common tasks that can be combined for efficiency

o Any solutions that can be shared – based on common issues

· Maintain and continually promoting the client working relationship

o Regularly send Anniversary, Birthday, Sympathy, holiday and gratitude notes/calls

o Use CRM and project management tool to track Account Manager’s workflow and client relationships

Conclusion

In general, most positions can be structured to add more value to your organization.

I know your unique situation is different. If interested, please setup a complimentary one-on-one discovery call, so that I can learn more about your circumstances and supply a more customized recommendation.

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ