Know The Competition - Know Yourself

• Rely on the successes of significant numbers of previous employees from past decades to make current win rate claims
• Rely on 30 years of accumulated wins which recent losses simply cannot impact when making win rate claims
• Rely on relatively minor contributions, weighting them the same as significant roles and impact - or worse, not understanding the difference  
• Rely on including wins when the credit for winning belongs to the client company . . . and the client won despite the consultant!

Be sure to ask these questions when talking with the consulting company which promotes their win rate:

• Please show me the data which supports your win rate claim (just like you tell me to show data and substantiation in a proposal)
• Please show me the names of the individuals who won the jobs making up this win rate
• Where exactly are these individuals employed now?
• Please show me where you counted losses in the same manner as wins (for example, are initial awards used for wins as well as losses, provide the source of the data, is it a multiple award IDIQ, Task Order under limited competitive conditions, etc.)

If these questions are too much bother to be answered, then ask that win rate be removed from the discussion.

We know the quality of each Accelerator working on your project - the win record and the relative impact made by each Accelerator. In addition to your Accelerate Trusted Advisor, each Accelerator and A-TEAM is supported by Senior Executive oversight, QA, and our famous buddy system.

Q2: What is the effect of the size of the employee base?
A2:    The size of your resource pool can matter – yet the most important factor is having the right resource(s) available to respond to your needs. Resource planning for Accelerate is dominated with our approach to deliver the best of the best Accelerators and A-TEAMs to you.

As with win rate figures, the claim about the size of a consulting company often becomes irrelevant since 90% of a consulting company’s employees must be actively billing a(nother) client, leaving 10% in reserve (guess which 10%). The next in-line will typically become your consultant.

Consulting companies are also distracted by employee dis-satisfaction, management turnover, boardroom intrigue, business diversification and acquisition. Resource planning for these consulting companies is dominated by recruiting, training, and integrating new employees continually into their system, and rotating their employee stock.

In contrast, we hire from the graduates - with an active resource pool of over 3,000 industry experts. Accelerators are selected specifically to deliver the best for you - matching your specific needs - how, where, and when you want service delivered. Factors in our consideration include individual record of accomplishment and relative role/impact, experience, prior positions, lessons learned as we work with each individual, lessons learned from similar client circumstances, availability, avoiding conflict of interest, and education.

A distinguishing feature of Accelerate is that we strive to work efficiently within our clients' internal organizations, delivering select experts who possess the experience base from which to make a positive impact in diverse situations.

Q3: Is it true that turnover is nearly unmanageable in consulting companies?
A3:    Yes, turnover is a major factor, although this perspective is typically not volunteered by consulting companies (unlike win rates) because it is enormous - typically 30% per year.

Training becomes pre-eminent because they place themselves in a position of having to continuously train everyone according to their process – processes which may have been built by a prestigious partner, or developed by the founder (and with the founder went the heart and soul of the company).

At Accelerate, we will experience some turnover also, but we chose another path. We select from the best of the best and demonstrate honesty and mutual respect, engendering goodwill and minimizing turnover.

Q4: What are the biggest impacts on recruiting and training in consulting companies?
A4:    There are two primary factors - entry-level pay and time-in-grade.

Q5: Do you scale to my situation and the opportunity?
A5:    Accelerate has expertise with processes across industry. As a result of this insight, we start with your processes – we align, scale, and tailor to meet your requirements and the demands of the situation, augmenting with industry best practices as appropriate to meet the specific needs of the situation. In contrast, consulting companies' training reinforces the need to use the company / proprietary process, based on the assumption of process superiority, which is unfortunately often confused with the company's sales pitch.

Q6: Can I have an advisor I trust instead of a salesperson talk to me?
A6:    Yes! Your trusted Accelerator has walked in your shoes, operated under similar constraints, developed business, and worked proposals and programs 1st-hand.

In contrast, there’s not much that is more annoying than professional sales reps whose industry experience is a quota! On the bright side, they typically possess strong communication skills and are often good golfers. Their motivation is to fill their sales quotas, and you represent their best chance to get their boss off their back; they have little / no control over resources, and increasingly lack relevant experience.

Q7: Who at corporate headquarters has actually walked in my shoes?
A7:    Consulting companies are often distinguished by another prominent feature – their office staff. They are good at many things, including palace intrigue, coups, etc. Schedulers become unreasonably important in a consultant’s life because their next assignment depends on this person, working in the corporate office environment, to rotate them into the next assignment. Expectations placed on sales staff and consultants are often orthogonal to clients' interests and needs. Noticeably missing at consulting companies also are experienced senior reviewers – proven experts who know that the client is #1, and know what it takes, how to deliver, and can deliver the goods when requested.

Accelerate prides itself on the fact that every one of our Accelerators is expert in their field and can (and do) deliver expert consulting services on an ongoing basis. Accelerate's industry leaders are available for counsel. In addition, we also practice the buddy rule - even experts / consultants benefit from 2nd opinions.

Yes, even our President, CEO, Executive Vice Presidents, etc., are nationally-respected, individual contributors.

Q8: How does your price compare?
A8:    Accelerate delivers top talent at fair market price.

Without revealing all our secrets . . . we do this in our two-pronged approach: We pay fair market value for top tier expert consultants. We built a company based on fair margin which allows us to continue to deliver top talent, develop new solutions, maneuver with agility among shifting business demands, provide exciting opportunities and rewards for our Accelerators, etc. To implement this simple idea took original intent, determination and commitment, and continually requires discipline to keep focus, etc.

Consulting companies typically fit one of two other scenarios:

• High margin business model places downward pressure on consultant pay scales, affecting ability to attract/retain top tier consultants, and resulting in lower consulting standards in favor of luxury office space, perks for office staff, business diversification acquisitions, etc. Competitive pricing becomes burdened by new offices and new parent-company change of control.
• Pre-internet style business models previously had modest margin expectations but have given way to parent company expectations, resulting in downward pressure on consultant pay scales, affecting ability to attract/retain mid-tier consultants, and resulting in lower consulting standards in favor of new office space, incentives for office staff, business diversification acquisitions, etc.

It is a matter of experience, insight, will, and dedication to deliver superior service at fair prices.

Q9: Is Accelerate willing to team and willing to work with my existing service provider?
A9:    Yes, we partner, and we partner well.

We have developed strong partnerships with other service providers, with client internal organizations, and are always open to new partnerships and collaboration. We are also happy to work with your preferred provider in a collaborative, collegial manner.

The bottom line is:

We love our competition . . . they make us look good!