How is your frontline performing in today’s challenging environment? To find out, I interviewed 245 executives from 88 Fortune Global 500 companies across 9 industries, with an exclusive focus on the performance of the frontline (relationship management) in three professional services businesses: [1] wholesale banking, [2] strategy/management consulting, and [3] IT/AI advisory services.
I asked them to rate their professional services providers’ frontline performance across three categories: people skills, support infrastructure, and firm culture. I used a Likert scale: 1 (Strongly disagree), 2 (Disagree), 3 (Neutral), 4 (Agree), and 5 (Strongly agree).
SKILLS
1. The frontline excels at delivering the right solutions.
2. The frontline identifies the right performance improvement opportunities because of its thorough knowledge of our products, services, competitors, and markets.
3. The frontline effectively cements and deepens relationships through the systematic and continuous guidance of the client dialogue.
SUPPORT
4. Senior management effectively supports the frontline by providing clear direction and adequate operational support.
5. Well-aligned account & opportunity management, IT/CRM, training & development, and performance management systems fuel the effectiveness of the frontline.
CULTURE
6. The frontline understands exactly what it needs to do, when and how — and executes it flawlessly.
7. The frontline is adequately rewarded through financial incentives and promotions when serving clients successfully.
8. The frontline is intrinsically engaged and dedicated to achieving outstanding client results.
9. The frontline is highly responsive because it has the freedom to do what needs to be done without interference from senior management or other parts of the organization.
10. The frontline performs well because of the firm’s ‘we’re all in this together’ culture — ‘collaboration’ is alpha and omega at the firm.
In addition to the ‘CT scan’, I asked executives to describe, via ‘stories from the trenches’, their experiences with the frontline of the aforementioned professional services firms (PSFs). The results were sobering, with significant differences across professional services businesses, including rather low overall scores (a ‘C-minus’), meaning that, seen through the eyes of clients, there is significant room for improvement; only 12% gave the frontline of their PSFs an A-minus or higher. The data revealed a massive opportunity for any firm willing to move from ‘C-minus’ to ‘A.’
It seems that PSF management too often sees only the ‘polished’ final results, not the underlying ’C-minus’ process; bad news can lead to better, more distinctive relationship management strategies.
More details about the ’12% Club’ in wholesale banking are available at www.pieterklaasjagersma.com/reports.
— published on LinkedIn | 02.16.26