The depth of detail and concentrated degree of specialty that comprises our stewardship-consulting approach makes these consultative services highly valuable to specific industries.

OUR CUSTOMERS

Paradigm has the breadth and depth of experience to work with a variety of industries. We do our best work with SMBs with 25-500 employees in locations surrounding the Inland Northwest, including the Idaho Panhandle to Boise, eastern Washington, western Montana and northeastern Oregon.

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION READY FOR A SHIFT?

  • Are all top-line leaders engaged with and benefitting by the sales team’s efforts and results?
  • Does your firm have a plan to increase market share when the economy changes course?
  • Does your firm understand when it’s time to move from sales to account management?
  • Do you have competition that is trying to commoditize the product set to establish a price advantage?
  • Is your company considering spending money on marketing intelligence to gauge branding alignment and customer satisfaction?
  • Is your company in need of improved product management?
  • Are you struggling with communication silos between operations, sales, finance, service?
  • Are margins increasing at point of sale or are you having to lower internal costs to increase margins?
  • Has your sales approach remained the same for more than five years?
  • Does the cost of sales increase and decrease in line with company profitability?
  • How many of your key accounts include your sales team in their annual planning?
  • Is your customer retention as valuable as new client acquisition…is farming more profitable than hunting?
  • If you have multiple product/service offerings, are you experiencing double digit growth in client adoption?
  • Are you achieving reduced cost of new client acquisition or is this cost remaining high?
  • Has sales management adopted the need for having both “hunters” and “farmers,” or favoring one over the other in the environment?
  • Are you struggling to break into a new market, such as enterprise accounts from the SMB space?
  • Does your sales team have SOPs for tactical topics, such as territory management, large account planning; green-field strategies; Selling to the C-suite?
  • Is there a clear career path for sales resources in your firm?
  • If one feels all that sales needs is a good “program,” whether it be a customer loyalty campaign, any one among the plethora of “sales-training programs” or a new CRM, Paradigm Consulting is not the answer. We believe some of these programs are excellent but what’s needed first is foundational.
  • Are there more than fifteen vendors serving your business today on a recurring basis?
  • When was the last time you had an expert third-party review of existing agreements with a key supplier?
  • Do you have multiple vendors providing similar services?
  • Do you have SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in any of the existing agreements? If so, are they being monitored internally?
  • Have you had collaborative negotiations with key vendors in their delivery to you, your preferred cost model, such as OPEX and CAPEX, or are you letting them decide how to sell the service/product?
  • Are there upcoming mission-critical installations or upgrades being done by parties outside your organization, which if not executed on time and with precision, would have a negative impact to the business?
  • Is your business making any significant capital expense in the next three years in areas such as technology, where the state of the offering is currently or will be under rapid development?
  • Is your firm struggling to reduce recurring costs while maintaining high service levels?
  • Do you have competition that appears to have an advantage due to their size, providing them leverage for purchasing and services which impact your competitiveness?
  • Do key vendor agreements have language giving you control of contract assignment in case of a buyout, bankruptcy, etc.?
  • Do you have or need business downturn clauses in your key vendor agreements?
  • Do your technology-based contracts have “current market competitiveness” clauses in them, protecting your ability to upgrade without financial penalty?
  • How many of your vendors have said “no” to a request for service? This should be happening on occasion.
  • How many of your vendors are part of your annual planning?
  • How effectively are you leveraging spends in complimentary disciplines?
  • Have you made the distinction between sourcing and procurement? If HR cost was not an issue, would you have a sourcing asset on your team? Procurement is often relegated to an individual contributor role with a clerical focus. Sourcing, however, can have a strategic impact on the organization. When you have an effective strategic sourcing process in place, you’ll find reliable, affordable and quality suppliers to supply the goods/services. Good work here makes the procurement process more streamlined and efficient.
Sales Stewardship Questions
  • Are all top-line leaders engaged with and benefitting by the sales team’s efforts and results?
  • Does your firm have a plan to increase market share when the economy changes course?
  • Does your firm understand when it’s time to move from sales to account management?
  • Do you have competition that is trying to commoditize the product set to establish a price advantage?
  • Is your company considering spending money on marketing intelligence to gauge branding alignment and customer satisfaction?
  • Is your company in need of improved product management?
  • Are you struggling with communication silos between operations, sales, finance, service?
  • Are margins increasing at point of sale or are you having to lower internal costs to increase margins?
  • Has your sales approach remained the same for more than five years?
  • Does the cost of sales increase and decrease in line with company profitability?
  • How many of your key accounts include your sales team in their annual planning?
  • Is your customer retention as valuable as new client acquisition…is farming more profitable than hunting?
  • If you have multiple product/service offerings, are you experiencing double digit growth in client adoption?
  • Are you achieving reduced cost of new client acquisition or is this cost remaining high?
  • Has sales management adopted the need for having both “hunters” and “farmers,” or favoring one over the other in the environment?
  • Are you struggling to break into a new market, such as enterprise accounts from the SMB space?
  • Does your sales team have SOPs for tactical topics, such as territory management, large account planning; green-field strategies; Selling to the C-suite?
  • Is there a clear career path for sales resources in your firm?
  • If one feels all that sales needs is a good “program,” whether it be a customer loyalty campaign, any one among the plethora of “sales-training programs” or a new CRM, Paradigm Consulting is not the answer. We believe some of these programs are excellent but what’s needed first is foundational.
Vendor & Sourcing Questions
  • Are there more than fifteen vendors serving your business today on a recurring basis?
  • When was the last time you had an expert third-party review of existing agreements with a key supplier?
  • Do you have multiple vendors providing similar services?
  • Do you have SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in any of the existing agreements? If so, are they being monitored internally?
  • Have you had collaborative negotiations with key vendors in their delivery to you, your preferred cost model, such as OPEX and CAPEX, or are you letting them decide how to sell the service/product?
  • Are there upcoming mission-critical installations or upgrades being done by parties outside your organization, which if not executed on time and with precision, would have a negative impact to the business?
  • Is your business making any significant capital expense in the next three years in areas such as technology, where the state of the offering is currently or will be under rapid development?
  • Is your firm struggling to reduce recurring costs while maintaining high service levels?
  • Do you have competition that appears to have an advantage due to their size, providing them leverage for purchasing and services which impact your competitiveness?
  • Do key vendor agreements have language giving you control of contract assignment in case of a buyout, bankruptcy, etc.?
  • Do you have or need business downturn clauses in your key vendor agreements?
  • Do your technology-based contracts have “current market competitiveness” clauses in them, protecting your ability to upgrade without financial penalty?
  • How many of your vendors have said “no” to a request for service? This should be happening on occasion.
  • How many of your vendors are part of your annual planning?
  • How effectively are you leveraging spends in complimentary disciplines?
  • Have you made the distinction between sourcing and procurement? If HR cost was not an issue, would you have a sourcing asset on your team? Procurement is often relegated to an individual contributor role with a clerical focus. Sourcing, however, can have a strategic impact on the organization. When you have an effective strategic sourcing process in place, you’ll find reliable, affordable and quality suppliers to supply the goods/services. Good work here makes the procurement process more streamlined and efficient.