How Can We Create Innovative, Win-Win Client Relationships with Unique Pricing Models?

Innovative Ideas for Client Relationships

Please suggest on the following topics:

• Describe any innovative ideas or business models that will lead to a sustainable win-win relationship with the client.

Volume-Based Pricing Model

• Suggest a volume-based pricing model along with service level agreements (quality, delivery, response times) that you would be willing to discuss and formalize with the client.

Unique Offerings

• What specialty/process/skills do you offer to the client that differentiate you from others in your domain/industry?

Regards

You're asking several different questions with this one posting.

Sustainable Business Models

There are many sustainable business models that can be developed in HR. Does the client have a current HR Department, or are you becoming the key HR person making decisions and following up on requirements? I'd say that this first question depends entirely upon the size and complexity of the needs of the client you're addressing. If this is an SME, less than $100M USD per year in volume, you're probably looking at less than 1000 employees, so any services you offer might be more focused on individual attributes of the specific employee rather than overall HR needs. I'd address specific management needs through a study based on—most likely—a 360-degree evaluative process.

If you're working with a larger employer, you're going to be looking at the various general situations that exist with HR and addressing each of them in order of importance. The order of importance will be fixed by the employer, by the legalities of the situation, or by your own knowledge and experience in the importance of the challenges faced. If the company has an evaluative process built into its assessment phase for employees, a full study of both the evaluative process as well as the key employee base is warranted. The next review and changes I'd probably address are the key elements of motivation, which drive the revenues and profitability. What is the overall general tone of the work environment? Measure this objectively for a full management report.

Developing Competency and Quantifying Value (DCQV)

Next, I'd focus a study on DCQV, or Developing Competency and Quantifying Value. DCQV is a springboard against which you can measure the workplace output and its value from the Chairman of the Board of Directors to the newest hourly paid worker. Establishing the guidelines for DCQV can take time because measurement and comparison to expectations are sometimes tedious, but once objective goals (no more than 5) have been identified for each individual, you have a baseline DCQV Evaluation which measures every employee across the enterprise. I generally price DCQV Studies in the $50 per employee category, which means that 5000 employees evaluated in this manner would run a company $250K or so and would take approximately 7 weeks.

It's very difficult to offer group pricing, SLAs, or defined cost programs without knowing what the specific needs of the client might be, and I'd be at a loss to give you per group pricing without knowing or understanding the scope of your question more completely.

Specialty/Process/Skills That Differentiate the Purveyor

Immediate aspects of this that come to mind are these—if the purveyor has developed specific measurement tools, like DCQV, above, there can be no real comparison with other purveyors—there is no measurement against something which doesn't exist anywhere else.

One aspect that I always try to cover with clients—many ideas, concepts, and thoughts are not entirely new, but they may be new to that industry, or the application of the ideas, concepts, and thoughts may be new to that industry. This generally makes you a unique purveyor in that you are looking at the application of procedures in a different way or a different manner.

I hope that's helpful.

Regards

Thank you, AG. I am a freelance consultant providing resourcing services in multiple sectors. The above-mentioned details were requested by a potential client to be completed before an interview. I encountered difficulty in filling out the information in the Excel sheet as requested.

Main Challenge

The main challenge arose with the question, "What extra are you offering compared to different vendors in the industry?"

Good day!

Precisely what I thought you had in mind when hiring. The best answer is summed up in the 4Ps of marketing.

When I was working with BPOs, the price per agent was initially one month's salary. Freelance consultants even got into the business of training people for a short while and then getting them placed. Call center training institutes came up to plug the gap. Companies released ads in mass media.

Later, with increasing volumes, the price per agent hit rock bottom. Small towns also figured in hiring campaigns. Small BPOs emerged to handle processes that big BPOs didn't find lucrative.

While working in the EMEA/APAC region, the revenues are especially high—two months' salary plus one makes money in visa formalities. Visa formalities can generate lakhs. Here, some firms have moved up the ladder to become contractors and supply labor at half to two-thirds of the wage cost of a normal company, with immediate joining.

At one of the firms, we used dummy interviews for competitive intelligence. This can be priced separately.

Poaching involves extra costs and can be priced appropriately.

Next comes "testing." Some firms do not have the capability of assessing senior individuals, be it in finance, HR, and so on. The promoters in such places rely on contacts. This is one good area of revenue generation.

Then there are times when a customer wants to save money. Their decision is hiring in-house employees versus consultancy. Here, we can offer the services of an RPO. They pay a small markup over the salary/infrastructure costs.

Here, the company saves real money because infrastructure costs at the consultancy end will be shared among several agents, whereas the company would need dedicated resources.

In short, keep your own costing in mind and offer different services for different clients.

Interesting approach to look for answers to heavy strategy questions! You mentioned providing resourcing services in strategy. Please forgive my question, but does that mean you are the strategy resource yourself, or are you looking for someone who is a strategy resource?

Do let me know as your mandate is not very clear. As management consultants, we work in this area. Therefore, we can provide you with appropriate inputs if you can be a little more specific and clear.