Pronto Progress Account Mentor

The Account Mentor is responsible for providing professional and personal guidance to one or more teams of Technical Business Problem Solvers, (Professionals) consisting of Developers, Senior Developers and Project Mentors, (Staff). The Staff has various skill levels of Business Problem Solving and various Technical abilities. Thru the performance of quality work and applying a referral based sales methodology and mentality during all aspects of their work, the Mentor will also generate quality leads for future work for Pronto Progress.

The Dilemma: Experience versus Capacity
Experience: The business environment for Pronto Progress in the software development arena is complex in that Customers who purchase our services generally seek very specific experience which may be unavailable, not readily available, too costly, or available only remotely to their work site which is unacceptable to the Customer. Hiring a person with a resume that appears suitable based on experience alone is hardly a predictor of a candidate’s ability to perform a Customer’s task satisfactorily. Factors that could cause failure include such things as the person leaving for new employment in the middle of the project; a poor attitude toward specific work; a lack of taking responsibility for work; personal problems which distract a person from work; a lack of professionalism in the obtaining of skills needed for actually performing work; a lack of communication skills. The factors that contribute to possible failure seem endless. The notion of hiring a person for a specific project, then letting that person go at the end of the project, is not a palatable solution for Pronto Progress or the applicant. Business experience has shown that proper vetting of applicants for fundamental work ethic, intelligence, education and professionalism yields a Staff that has a better chance of success. References, grades, interviews and objective tests yield the information Pronto uses in the hiring of Staff.
Capacity: Capacity planning is the key to profitability at Pronto Progress. With too much idle Staff, corporate profits become impossible. Too little capacity results in late projects or lost opportunities for corporate growth. When available Staff lacks the Customer required experience, the Project Mentor or the Account Mentor assist in closing the deal, insuring quality and maintaining Customer satisfaction.

The Mentoring Solution: Pronto Progress has addressed the dilemma in the past thru cross training of personnel, coaching, supervision and reliance on the person’s ability to learn quickly and cope with new requirements. These remain the answers Pronto Progress can apply to the experience/capacity dilemma. The essence of the role of the Account Mentor is to develop both capacity and experience.

Lead Generation Solution: Carving a niche in the Progress® field has, to some extent, enabled Pronto Progress to solve the experience/capacity dilemma. Still, the information technology world continues to fracture into more and more specific technical areas. By putting Pronto Progress firmly into the lead generation business, a new solution appears. More leads that Pronto Progress already has the capacity to solve would mitigate the experience requirement. Sufficient leads in our core areas of capacity would allow Pronto Progress to grow and maintain profitability while giving our Staff a reliable employer and satisfying career.

The Account Mentor’s work results in the following positive results for Pronto Progress:

  1. Lead generation thru a referral based system of Community, Care and Contact.
  2. Management of multiple business accounts.
  3. Creation of a focus of excellence for their team.
  4. Growth, professionally and personally, of between 6 and 11 Staff.
  5. Billable work averaging 32 hours per week.

Customers pay for Pronto services. Pronto Progress will grow primarily thru referrals from Clients. Referrals are opportunities for appropriate business brought to our attention by Clients. Account Mentors will promote referrals thru Community, Care and Contact (CCC). Thru CCC, the Account Mentor actively cultivates referrals to themselves and thus to Pronto Progress from Clients.

Turning a Customer into a Client is an obvious avenue for future referrals for Pronto Progress. The Account Mentor recognizes that the primary point of contact between Pronto and its Customers may vary over the course of a business relationship. New Customers may view the Account Mentor or the Account Executive as the primary point of contact. Later, as work progresses and the Customer’s comfort level and knowledge of particular Staff expands, the Customer may identify Pronto more directly thru a particular Staff member. The emphasis on referral work will be actively promoted to Staff as a mechanism for future growth of Pronto Progress. Thus the contact point may shift for a Customer and ultimately, the Customer may become a Client of another member of the Staff.

The size of the Account Mentor’s team is limited by production work. Some Account Mentors may be capable of performing their duties with as many as eleven Staff, and some may find that eight is their limit. It is considered highly desirable that the Account Mentor maintain excellent technical skills. Teaching a behavior or training a behavior is extremely difficult. Modeling the appropriate behavior in front of Staff is considered the best way to achieve the proper behavior and impart the values we seek in Pronto staff. Since modeling proper behavior requires the Account Mentor to be involved in day to day production for one or more Customers, there is insufficient time available to effectively perform all the work required to manage more than 10 Staff. Also, the experience of the Staff working for a Account Mentor may limit the number of Staff that the Account Mentor can properly supervise. Some Staff may be relatively young and new to the Profession and though energetic and motivated, these Staff could require significant Mentoring in proper development, testing and communication techniques. Other Staff may be experienced, requiring little professional mentoring. The experienced Staff requires more subtle mentoring, often because of diminished enthusiasm for the Profession or because of poor practices learned thru prior employment. It may be a general rule that experienced Staff requires less time to manage than in-experienced Staff, but the rule is by no means universal. Commission rates on younger Staff are higher, thus compensating the Account Mentor for the additional attention and mitigating the limitations imposed by experience.

During the course of a week, the Account Mentor will bill approximately 32 hours of his time. Week to week this may vary, but the Account Mentor must manage his time and activities so that over the course of several months the average is at least 32 hours of billable work per week. The average will take into account only vacation time, holidays and maternity leaves.

Account Mentor

  1. Supervise Staff to insure Customer work is performed correctly
  2. Assign Staff to appropriate work
  3. Develop Staff abilities
  4. Deliberately develop leads by applying the Referral principles.

Bluntly, Pronto Progress is in the Lead Generation Business. Leads on Customers or good employees both constitute business. One day per week the Account Mentor will devote his activities solely to lead generation. The Account Mentor will set that day aside and insure it is always devoted to lead generation activities below. The Account Mentor will provide metrics on those activities.

Referrals

  1. Community
    1. Client Appreciation Party twice a year
    2. Business Networking function one time per month
  2. Care
    1. Pop-by you’re A+ and A clients every eight weeks
      1. Deliver a special thoughtful gift
    2. Take an A+ or A client to lunch every week
  3. Contact
    1. Maintain a Business Contact Manager, (BCM) Database with pertinent business and personal information on Clients.
      1. A+ Advocate. Has referred good business.
      2. A Has referred some business.
      3. B May refer business if asked and shown how.
      4. C Not known if they will turn into a referral source.
      5. D Don’t bother with them.
    2. Newsletter every 6 weeks to the C’s and up.
    3. Call behind the Newsletter/Item of Value
    4. Personal Note behind the Call that Connect

The number of the people in the database is less important than the quality of your A+ and A clients. The metrics Pronto will track will focus on proper procedures and attention to detail in lead generation. Ultimately, a handful of quality A+ clients may generate more than sufficient leads to keep 10 Staff busy for the Account Mentor. Attention to the referral program cannot diminish simply because a Account Mentor’s Staff is booked up.

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