Could Techno-crime Investigations Evolve Your Practice for the Future?
- Do you know where your next engagement is coming from, and when?
- Are there specific types of cases that you prefer to work on because they engage you and your employees more than others?
- What types of clients do you target now, and do you have a marketing plan that specifically targets them?
- Do you have a hard time marketing your firm’s services because you don’t feel that you are good at sales?
- Are there new and different types of services that you’d like to offer?
- Do you have clients that are difficult to work with, and have you thought about firing them?
Investigative firms that have the ability to conduct any investigation that involves technology can have a great advantage over those who don’t.
Have you thought about how this could impact your revenue, and also how this capability could impact how your clients view your firm?
- How do you currently conduct investigations that involve technology? Do you have this capability in-house or do you outsource that piece of the engagement?
- Would adding this capability give you the ability to attract more clients?
- Would you like to grow, but you don’t have a business plan?
Our coaching and consulting programs for business owners and executives can help.
Why Do You Need a Coach/Consultant?
Most people usually associate coaching with sports. Every elite athlete has at least one coach, if not more.
In business, we tend to think more in terms of outside experts as consultants instead of as coaches. Many people view consultants as impersonal outsiders who come in just to point out everything that's wrong with your practice.
They may have a lot of business experience, but probably don't know much about investigations, and they don't know your clients -- or the clients you'd like to attract.
Will they understand the unique aspects of how investigations are conducted?
What about specialized training about techno-crimes, and how these types of investigations require different skills, equipment, software, and training?
You know that owning or operating an investigations practice is different than almost any other business.
You need a coach/consultant who understands what you do, because they've had the same experience.
Did you know that many types of business executives also have coaches? Here are a few names you might recognize – and all of them have had the help of coaches:
- Steve Jobs (Apple)
- Eric Schmidt (Google)
- Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
Would you like to see more? Here are a couple of videos that might help:
Hiring the right experienced coach can provide you with a person who can listen to your goals, problems, and concerns who has only one goal – to make you or your business better.
A good coach will help you to identify gaps between where you are and where you want to be, and help you with developing strategies to eliminate these gaps.
A coach brings an objective view, which is a different perspective than you may receive from your employees, co-workers, friends, or family.
A coach will tell you what you need to hear in a safe environment -- not just what someone thinks you might want to hear.
A coach can provide you with new ideas that you may not have considered, or be there for you to discuss your ideas in a safe environment where you don’t need to worry about criticism or negative feedback.
One of the primary benefits of working with a coach is that they can hold you accountable. It’s all too easy to get so caught up in business and other issues that may be an excuse to procrastinate putting off dealing with more important matters.
Finally, what are the things that frustrate you the most?
Is there a reason you aren’t able to get rid of them on your own?
If you can, then that’s great!
If for any reason there are things you’d like to change but haven’t, then you may want to think seriously about how a coach can help.
Let me tell you about Highland Investigations, one of our coaching clients:
Highlands' Story:
Highland Investigations is a small private investigation firm founded by two brothers, Frank and Dan Highland. The firm was always willing to take on any type of investigation or security engagement, but the owners were having trouble growing the company.
In addition to their investigations work, Highland also provides security assessments to help clients prevent theft, fraud, and even shoplifting. The firm’s employees didn’t enjoy the security assessments, and many of the clients never implemented any of the firm’s recommendations, so these jobs were mostly viewed by the staff as a waste of time.
One of Highland’s employees, John, is also an accountant. This is really useful when they have a financial crime investigation, but to make the best use of John’s experience, the firm also advertises that they can help with taxes and business accounting.
Frank and Dan thought that by offering such a wide range of services they would bring in more revenue. They’ve advertised with Google and Facebook ads, and had fliers posted in many of the local businesses. Both brothers joined their local Chamber of Commerce, and encouraged their employees to recommend the firm to friends and family.
Highland has also tried advertising in the local paper, and even ran some ads on local television and radio stations. None of these efforts appeared to bring in any significant business.
Revenue never seemed to grow, and the firm never knew what or when the next engagement might be. Occasionally Frank or Dan would get a call from a local attorney with a small case, or from a suspicious spouse who wanted them to find out if their partner was having an affair.
But the big cases never appeared, and some of Highland’s investigators had even seen or heard about outside investigators from other firms who were brought in to work cases that Highland could easily have completed.
There was never a dedicated marketing budget or business strategy. Neither Frank, Dan, or any of their employees had any marketing experience or training. They relied on their contacts, word of mouth, and advertising to bring in business.
Frank saw a video on the TCI YouTube channel, and then visited the TCI website. He realized that Highland needed some help to grow their business by developing a marketing strategy that would attract better clients and increase revenue.
Frank and Dan had never thought much about investigations involving technology, because they didn’t have any expertise in the firm to deal with this type of engagement.
We scheduled several days of meetings, and made some adjustments to the Highland’s business philosophy.
They were known as a company that did a little bit of everything, but weren’t particularly known for doing any single thing well. Highland tried to be everything to everyone, which watered down any marketing initiatives they tried.
Both Frank and Dan had experience with financial fraud, and those were the types of cases that interested them the most.
We suggested that they rebrand to emphasize their expertise in that area, and stop anything that distracted them from that target market.
Highland stopped doing generic accounting projects, along with the general security assessments that none of their employees liked to do.
Highland developed a close relationship with a local digital forensics firm, so Highland would now be able to add these services to any investigation involving technology.
We helped develop a plan for Frank and Dan to visit local businesses to speak with those business owners about the risks of financial fraud.
The Highlands also developed a short training course that they offered to give to the potential clients’ employees at no charge.
The two brothers also visited every law firm in the area, explaining how they might help the law firm’s clients with programs designed to prevent financial fraud, but could provide investigative services when fraud occurred.
The owners contacted local reporters for television and newspapers, and suggested stories about fraud cases that might be of public interest.
Employees of the firm also began giving presentations to local business groups, which increased the firm’s visibility, as well as fraud awareness in the community.
Every employee became more active on social media, posting articles and links to fraud resources. This gave Highland even more visibility, and positioned the firm as a thought leader related to financial fraud in their region.
Highland’s employees also joined local chapters of professional groups, which helped to expand their network of contacts
significantly.
After several months, Highland was getting so many cases involving technology that they merged with the digital forensics firm that they had been working with, and can now provide those services much more efficiently, and at a better rate to their clients.
Highland came to us without a strategic business development or marketing plan, with uncertain revenue, and unmotivated employees.
With a more comprehensive business development and marketing strategy, Highland is now so busy that they’ve hired more staff, and are even thinking about expanding to other nearby cities.
Revenue is no longer a problem, and by any measure, Highland Investigations is a growing and successful investigations firm.
Our Coaching and Consulting Program:
The TCI Coaching and Consulting Program is customized to fit the specific needs of each client.
In our first free 30-minute consultation, we discuss where you are now and why you think coaching would help you the results you’re looking for.
This call can also let us get a feel for whether TCI coaching would be a good fit. Prospective clients should know after this first conversation if the process we suggest for your firm’s program could give you what you’re looking for.
From our perspective, we will only work with clients when we believe that our program can help. We want to hear that you are ready to improve, make any necessary changes, and have a commitment to do the work that will be needed to achieve your goals.
We don’t want to waste your time and money for a program your firm and employees won’t benefit from, and we don’t want to waste our coach’s time working with a client who isn’t committed to the program.
Here's the Way the TCI Coaching and Consulting Program Works:
If you decide to join after your initial free consultation, the starting package is for 3 months of coaching or consulting, and we’ll jointly agree on how much time you think might be needed, and how frequently we want to be in touch.
Most of our work can be done by telephone or a video call, but if you want us to work with you and your staff in person, we’ll talk about the best ways to make that happen. In addition, if you have other questions, you can also reach out via email.
Our programs for business owners and executives are completely customized based on your needs. After discussing your situation in the first free call, we’ll develop a proposal for you to review.
Once both parties agree to the scope of work and costs, together we’ll create and engagement agreement to document the expectations and goals for both parties.
We think you’ll find it to be a great investment, and that it will be one of the best investments you have ever made about the future of your firm.