Getting Past the “But Our Clients Want Custom” Objection: What’s Really Behind Customer Resistance
“We’d love to move toward more standardized offerings, but our clients just won’t go for it.”
— Practice Leader, Consulting Firm
A Smarter Way to Evaluate Technology Partners: Think Big, Start Small
Choosing the right technology partner is a critical decision that can make or break your product strategy. Whether you're implementing a new SaaS platform, integrating AI capabilities, or modernizing your infrastructure, the process of evaluating technology partners requires a structured and strategic approach.
Ten Key Steps to Standardize and Scale Professional Services
At a macro level, professional services firms are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape. Pricing pressures, expanding down-market to serve smaller clients, advancements in AI and automation, and the need to mitigate labor market exposure are reshaping the industry. For example, in a Q4 2024 Source survey, 58% of clients reported that they are expecting professional service prices to fall (up markedly from 27% in Q3). These shifts are driving firms to rethink how they deliver their services. Standardizing and templatizing the delivery of custom services has become not only a competitive advantage but also a necessity for long-term growth and sustainability.
3 Shifts to Make When Selling Standardized Services vs. Custom
“Jaime, I can’t figure out Zoom’s new features. It’s hilarious—like I was a product person, but I keep clicking the wrong button and getting kicked out of the meeting.”
I’ve had similar issues recently. But here's the thing, selling a productized service can feel a lot like learning those Zoom features: confusing at first. However, once you get the hang of it, it transforms how you interact with customers. I’ve been in those Zoom sessions, and it’s often the same story for companies transitioning from services to products: You think you know how to sell, but suddenly, you're using the wrong buttons.
2024 Look Back and Learn
Reflecting on a Year of Growth and Innovation at Vecteris
As 2024 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to celebrate the milestones, achievements, and lessons learned from this incredible year. At Vecteris, our mission is to empower CEOs, product leaders, and product managers in B2B professional services to successfully navigate the journey of scaling for growth. We are incredibly proud of the strides you, our customers, have made in launching new and improved offerings, testing with beta products, and even making the tough decision to kill ideas that didn’t align with your vision for growth. Here is a short recap of all you have accomplished.
Books We Loved in 2024
At the end of each year, we like to take a moment to share a little inspiration from our team. Books have a unique way of shaping our perspectives, sparking creativity, and offering a much-needed escape. So, we asked each team member to share their favorite read from the past year—those stories, ideas, and lessons that resonated most with them.
Building a Playbook for Productization
We have many organizations come to us who are excited to start on their productization journey and see it as an avenue for growth and strength. When starting to work with these customers, I often hear them state the following goal:
“I’d like to create a playbook so we can have a repeatable innovation process at my company.”
Four Critical Inputs for Pricing your Productized Offerings
When developing a pricing and packaging strategy for new productized offerings, it’s crucial to move beyond traditional cost-plus models and embrace a value-based approach. Many organizations are realizing that launching innovative products requires not only technological changes but also a fundamental shift in how they monetize their offerings. Instead of solely focusing on internal costs and margins, they must consider how customers perceive value, aligning pricing strategies with the unique benefits their products deliver.
How to Identify Target Markets and Buyers
In this post, I’ll explore how to choose target markets and who you sell to in those markets. To learn more, check out my new book, Commercialize: How to Monetize, Sell, and Market Productized Offerings in Professional Services, written with Eisha Armstrong and Sean Gillispie.
"Commercialize" is Out Today! Learn How to Monetize, Market, and Sell Productized Offerings.
Commercialize is Out Today! Learn How to Monetize, Market, and Sell Productized Offerings.
“We thought we could just build the product, and the sales would come rolling in. But without a clear strategy for pricing, packaging, and selling it, our launch flopped.” – Chief Revenue Officer, B2B Services Firm