Note: This note below was sent to our network of service providers via email on 10 June 2020. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
That's right, your success is our success.
It's trite and a truism, we know, but important all the same. Just like "the customer is always right".
I mention this because you are a valued member of our network of professional services providers. You are in the MeasureMatch marketplace while many are not - we screen heavily and reject a large percentage of applicants.
At the same time, we also screen out a large percentage of client account applicants.
Why? And why am I starting with this?
This quote from Shopify's founder, Tobias Lutke, explains our approach nicely:
"If you go into business school and suggest firing a customer, they'll kick you out of the building. But it's so true in my experience. It allows you to identify the customers you really want to work with."
So, we absolutely want to work with those clients who are welcomed into the MeasureMatch platform.
But, more importantly, and clearly, we want to work with you.
To that end, below are a few insights and points of guidance to help you make the most of your MeasureMatch experience.
The items below were gathered from what we've learned across all contracts completed to date.
Service Packages are helpful to communicate capabilities on top of the "marketing of you" that your MeasureMatch profile discloses.
Add one or more Service Packages to your profile today. And edit/change them up regularly. We're increasingly sharing these with prospective clients.
Here are a few examples for inspiration:
A special tip: We highly recommend creating a relevant Service Package before or just after submitting an Expression Of Interest (EOI) for a piece of work – this is a great way to effectively personalize your profile, tailoring it to speak to each client’s immediate requirements. What does mean exactly? Let's say you choose to pursue a Salesforce CRM project opportunity. Before or after you submit an EOI, add a Salesforce CRM-specific Service Package. Make sense?
No surprise here, right? Clients will want to align with success.
Give it to them. Login and use the Request Reviews functionality in your account to request reviews from former clients.
Like most services marketplaces, the vast majority of supply side participants don't lock in revenue opportunities. We'd love to buck that trend and broaden the revenue gains across our network. This is good for you, for us, for all marketplace participants.
First comms impressions count a lot. Demonstrate your value with examples.
You might want to try the same.
Join amazing independent consultants, consultancies, agencies and SIs, all providing systems and data services on-demand.
We love Calendly and use it every day and quite openly. We specifically use Zoom together with Calendly, which removes all of the friction common to scheduling meetings and calls. You and your prospective clients should never have to go back and forth to find a time to talk, to see each other, to move forward. We highly recommend using services like these.
You can grab your public profile link in your account.
Note: As I write this I'm realizing we should do this for you. And so we will. We'll add your public profile link to the Expression Of Interest messages that lands with prospective clients.
Admittedly, this is a tough one because we’re still early in the development of Partner Hubs, so it’s very possible that none of the tech vendors we’ve onboarded is relevant for you. If that’s right, but you do have technology vendor relationships, tell us and we’ll do our best to get them to participate as well.
The point of this note is this: While my team and I are working to create an unique, trusted, high-value environment for clients to engage amazing services professionals like you, and we're working hard to attract and retain those clients, we're also working hard to empower you to win here.
We won't always get it right, but we'll keep trying and your ideas will help to keep us building in the right direction.
What do you think? Is this helpful? Reply to this note to get a reply from me 😉.
All ideas are welcomed and encouraged.
Thank you for your continued participation in the MeasureMatch professional services marketplace.
James Sandoval
Founder & CEO
Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash
In this blog post I share a few thoughts on a decision we made to place a limit on the kinds of experts we welcome into the MeasureMatch marketplace network of service providers.
Networking isn’t something I ever thought I’d relish. It certainly wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to grow up to do when I was a kid.