I recently wrapped up two private training engagements. One with an agency of 65 consultants. One with a team of 4.
Different sizes, same gap. Both told me the area they needed most work on was influence. Specifically, running effective client meetings.
It keeps coming up. And I think so many agencies are looking at the wrong things. The art of influence is quietly being lost.
The problem
I can't tell you how many times agencies have shared their client meeting to job conversion rate with me. It's often surprisingly low. And it almost always comes down to two things.
The opportunity cost
Here's what I'd be looking at as an agency owner. How many client meetings happened in the last 12 months. How many of those clients gave you a job. What's your average fill rate. What's your average fee.
From there, you can work out the opportunity cost of not getting meetings right. Let me show you two real examples.
Example 1
If those consultants upskilled on client meetings alone and converted just 25% more of those 168 meetings, that's 42 extra clients giving them work.
At a 75% fill rate and an average fee of $17,430, that's an extra $557,760 in revenue for the year.
From one skill. Client meetings.
Example 2
Convert just 25% more of those 288 meetings, and that's 72 extra clients giving them work.
At a 75% fill rate and an average fee of $17,430, that's an extra $941,220 in revenue for the year.
From one skill. Client meetings.
What to do about it
Pull your data from the last 12 months and work through these four questions:
How many client meetings did your team run?
Total across all consultants for the past 12 months.
How many of those gave you a job to work on?
This is your client meeting to job conversion rate.
What's your average fill rate and average fee?
These two numbers tell you what each extra client is worth to your business.
Now work out your opportunity cost
Even a 15–25% improvement in conversion can translate to hundreds of thousands in additional revenue.
This is what great BD training does. It doesn't just improve confidence. It directly impacts your bottom line.
We run private training on influence and client meetings for agencies of all sizes. Let's have a chat about what your team needs.
Always happy to have a chat,
Ez
