Your Nine Keys result

You keep winning projects.
You keep losing clients.

Loading Clients is your weakest Key. The work is good and the clients say so, yet each engagement ends and the next one has to be sold from scratch. The global consultancies do not run that way, and neither should you.

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150+ IT services founders coached. 6 exits worth a combined $230M.

Weakest Key

Loading Clients

Client retention, account management and the relationship depth that turns one project into a program

  1. Loading Growth
  2. Loading Sales
  3. Loading Clients
  4. Loading Rates
  5. Loading Services
  6. Growing IP
  7. Growing A Team
  8. Growing Leaders
  9. Growing Market
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What is likely going on

You have probably said this after a project closed well: "They loved it. They will call us when the next phase comes up." Sometimes they do. More often the next phase goes to whoever was in the building when the budget was set.

In IT services, retaining a client is as valuable as selling to one, and far cheaper. For most firms 80 percent of revenue comes from 20 percent of clients, yet those clients get no more structured attention than the rest. Client management is treated as a burden that gets in the way of sales targets, when it is the most reliable source of sales there is.

When Loading Clients scores lowest, it usually means nobody senior owns retention, there is no way of telling a strategic client from a convenient one, and your people are not in the client's corridors between projects.

The fix is not a CRM, although you will want one later. It is three habits, and they start this week.

The three levers to pull first

These come from the Loading Clients Key of the Loading Growth Wheel. Each one has an action you can complete this week.

Lever 20

Invest in your strategic clients

You invest time, energy and expertise in every client, so invest most in the ones who will grow the firm. A scoring rubric built on what makes a client strategic lets you prioritise active and prospective clients alike, and the strategic ones are also the ones who refer you.

This week: score every active client out of ten on three things: rate they pay, size of engagements they can fund, and how much easier they make the work. Rank the list. The top five get a named senior owner by Friday.

Lever 24

Write account management plans for your top clients

Eighty percent of sales come from twenty percent of clients. An account management plan makes sure you and your consultants give those clients the attention their value deserves, through a methodical, repeatable rhythm rather than good intentions.

This week: for your top three clients, write a one page plan: their goals this year, who the decision makers are, what you will propose next, and the dates of the next two conversations. Put those dates in the calendar.

Lever 25

Walk the client's corridors

Visit your clients, be seen, walk their corridors before your competitor does. Regular visits build rapport, surface needs before they are voiced, and put you in the room when budgets are being shaped rather than after they are spent.

This week: book one in person visit with a top five client that is not tied to a current project. No agenda beyond asking what is getting in their way this quarter. Then do it again next month.

Levers 21 (securing senior sponsorship), 23 (understanding the client's budget cycle) and 28 (choosing a CRM that fits) come next.

Five signs this Key is costing you

Tick the ones that are true of your firm this quarter. The count tells you how much future revenue is leaking out between projects.

Nothing you tick here is stored or sent anywhere. It stays in your browser.

  • Signs you recognise0 of 5

Guides for this Key

Read every guide on Loading Clients

Your Everest fit

Loading Clients is where most firms find their fastest margin gain, because the clients are already won.

Up to 10 staff

Everest Basecamp

Set up the client scoring rubric, the first account plans and the sales process, alongside the Nine Keys basics.

$150 per month, capped at 100 firms

Talk to Ian about Basecamp

10 to 40 staff

Everest Ascent

Regular group sessions and one to one time with Ian on account management, senior sponsorship and the shift from project seller to trusted adviser, inside the 90 Day Sprint.

Pricing on the call

Talk to Ian about Ascent
Ian Markram, founder of Loading Growth

Who is telling you this

I am Ian Markram. I built and sold an IT services firm, and for the last decade I have coached founders of IT services and systems integrator firms who compete with the global consultancies every week.

  • 150+ IT services founders coached
  • 28 years in IT professional services
  • 6 founder exits guided
  • $230M combined exit value
He helped us grow our business by looking for the right clients, shifting our mindset and focusing on the right things.
Benjamin Chambersthen COO, Mojo Soup
He and his team help drive continuous improvements in my business in practical steps of a manageable size. His advice has been invaluable in helping me mature as a business leader.
James BeresfordCEO, Talos

Get the Loading Clients playbook by email

Five short emails over two weeks: the three levers with a seven day action each, what they looked like for one founder, and a 45 minute call with Ian if you want to work through them together. Then take the six minute scorecard for your scores across all nine Keys.

Questions founders ask at this point

Our consultants are billable. Who has time for account management?
Account management is billable work's best friend. One hour a month per top client, owned by a senior person, is the cheapest pipeline you will ever build. The alternative is paying full sales cost to win back a client you already had.
Should we buy a CRM first?
No. Decide what you are managing before you buy the tool. The scoring rubric and three account plans fit on paper. Once they are running, a CRM makes them repeatable. Lever 28 covers how to choose one.
Walking corridors feels like selling.
It is the opposite. You are there to listen, not to pitch. Clients tell the people who show up what they are worried about, and that is where the next engagement comes from.
We are a systems integrator, not an MSP. Does this apply?
Yes. This is built for IT professional services and SI firms that sell project and advisory work against the global consultancies. We do not coach MSPs. If your revenue is mostly managed services contracts, this is not the right program for you.
What happens on the strategy call?
Forty five minutes with Ian. You bring your result and your rough numbers. You leave with the one lever to pull first and a view on whether Basecamp or Ascent fits. No pitch deck.

Find out which lever to pull first

Bring your Loading Clients result to a 45 minute strategy call with Ian.

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