Your Nine Keys result
Loading Sales is your weakest Key. Most EBIT problems in IT services firms are utilisation and rate problems in disguise, and they can be fixed in 90 days.
150+ IT services founders coached. 6 exits worth a combined $230M.
Weakest Key
Loading Sales
EBIT, gross margin, rates, utilisation and sales pipeline
You have probably said a version of this in a board meeting: "If we land the next two deals, the team will be fully utilised and profit will follow." It rarely does.
Top line goes up. Everyone is busy. The margin stays where it was. That is because EBIT in an IT services firm is not decided by how much work you win. It is decided by five inputs you already control: your charge out rates, your consultant salaries, your contractor costs, your utilisation and your overheads.
When Loading Sales scores lowest, it usually means one of those five is quietly leaking. The most common leaks we see inside Everest are the wrong people sitting on the bench, contractors earning more than half the client rate, and rates that have not moved since the firm was half its size.
The fix is upstream of sales. It is a measurement problem first, then a decision problem. The three levers below are where to start.
These come from the Loading Sales Key of the Loading Growth Wheel. Each one has an action you can complete this week.
Lever 11
EBIT shows whether your core operation earns enough to fund growth. The variables that move it most are charge out rates, salaries, consultant costs, utilisation and overheads.
This week: pull EBIT per engagement, not per year. Rank your top ten engagements by margin. The bottom three tell you where the leak is.
Lever 16
Utilisation is billable hours over standard hours. Under utilised consultants take revenue away. Over utilised consultants burn out. Both cost you.
This week: list everyone under 60% billable for the last quarter. For each one, decide: redeploy, retrain or release. Do not leave the list blank.
Lever 15
In IT services, price is a perception of value, not a fixed number. If you have paid your dues in experience and results, your rates should say so.
This week: identify the three clients who have had the same rate for more than 18 months. Draft the rate letter. Send the first one.
Levers 14 (gross margin per engagement) and 18 (contractor day rates under 50% of the client fee rate) come next.
Most founders look at EBIT once a year when the accountant sends the pack. The EBIT Dial turns it into something you can move every quarter. Enter your own numbers and watch which input shifts the result most.
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Loading Sales
The EBIT metric your accountant is not trackingMost EBIT problems in IT services firms are utilisation problems in disguise.
Loading Sales
How to raise IT services prices without losing clientsPrice outcomes, not hours, so you can raise rates without client resistance.
Loading Growth
IT services firm valuation: what buyers actually buyBuyers do not pay for revenue. They pay for reduced founder dependency.
Loading Sales is the first Key we work on in both stages, because a margin problem starves every other fix.
Up to 10 staff
Set up the lead generation system, the sales process and the Nine Keys basics, including your first EBIT Dial review.
$150 per month, capped at 100 firms
Talk to Ian about Basecamp10 to 40 staff
Regular group sessions and one to one time with Ian, working the EBIT Dial, the Role Reset Framework and the 90 Day Sprint across your leadership team.
Pricing on the call
Talk to Ian about Ascent
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.
Ian has coached our executive team for the past 18 months and has helped us transition from our roles as technical leads within the business to acting as business owners to focus on growth. This has helped us to exceed our growth and profitability targets.
He helped us grow our business by looking for the right clients, shifting our mindset and focusing on the right things.
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.
Bring your Loading Sales result to a 45 minute strategy call with Ian.
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