Early in my career, when I worked at Seagate, they ran me through an extensive mentoring program where I had direct access to a senior director of the company. More often, I find that there is a tremendous shortage of mentoring programs and people acting like mentors within corporations.

Often the issue is that time is too short or budgets are too tight.

And far too often, managers are promoted and told to manage large teams while retaining the same responsibilities they held as individual contributors, and with no additional management training.  I frequently hear young managers saying “I remember how nice it was to be an individual contributor” or “I don’t like babysitting.”

How sad.

Before we all give up and say “if the company doesn’t care about mentoring, why should I?” How about we say, “let’s bring back mentoring, even if the company doesn’t recognize how important it is to its long-term success.

Here’s my help wanted advertisement that should serve as a reminder of the purpose of mentoring for any of you that have never had the privilege of being part of a mentoring relationship, or hardly remember what it was like, because it was so many years ago.

Help Wanted… Seeking inspired individuals that want to make strong connections at work.

Anyone that wants to apply, must support the following goals:

• Help needed educating individual contributors about the strategic direction of the company to ensure alignment between executive management goals and the work actually being done.
• Help needed taking top raw talent of the company and turning them into future leaders.
• Help needed creating deeper, more satisfying relationships at work to foster camaraderie and employee retention.

How does that sound?

On February 10th, my class had the distinct privilege of meeting Peter Moore, President of EA Sports. Peter was fresh back from watching Super Bowl XLIV; his Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation had accurately predicted the outcome of the game (proudly, for the sixth time in the last seven years). It is amazing to hear how much data regarding player stats across all the major sports are being stored by EA immediately following each game to ensure gamers have the most realistic experience possible, which also enables such powerful simulators.

This was the only class session I’ve ever held when the students really didn’t care when class was over. Peter is incredibly engaging and cordial, in addition to being a brilliant leader in his industry – marked by his award as one of Sports Business Journal’s Most Influential People in 2007 and 2008.

I could write a short book on the experience; however, I will limit myself to listing some of the interesting moves EA has taken in recent years to remain relevant and adapt in the rapidly evolving gaming industry, which underpinned my students’ learning from the Innovator’s Dilemma.

Capturing the core. There’s no question Electronic Arts is the leading video game producer in the world with approximately 20% market share and a near cult-like following by core sports video game players. These players demand continuous innovation with respect to realism. Although realism is critical, keeping EA’s audience engaged means moving to a more interactive, user centered approach. Players can now build their own teams online with EA Sports Team Builder. Peter gave the example that fans of this feature have been building their old high school teams with realism down to building the precise jersey.  EA now has 2.2 million players completing at least one online game each day.

Globalize. Global growth means localizing products such as FIFA Online 2. In order to learn what users want, they give it away free, while constantly monitoring game play to continually improve the gaming experience. It has now reached 7 million users in Asia & China.

Captivate the masses. The growth of the casual gaming segment started with online gaming, but took off with the introduction of the Nintendo Wii back in 2006. This audience, for whom innovation related to realism does not have a great attraction, is a whole new segment for EA Sports.  Although adaption of franchise games hasn’t always been easy, innovation means inventing new types of games such as EA Sports Active which target women in their 30’s and 40’s – a whole new audience for EA Sports.

I could carry on, but I can summarize the main takeaway I had which is that Peter and his division are not afraid of change. From digitization to globalization and new consumer segments, they are willing to usher in new business models and extend their brand into places not anticipated only a few years ago.

Practice what you preach and what you sell

At LEVEL Studios, we treat our clients the same way we develop marketing strategies for those same organizations. As a marketer, you are typically engaged with the development of strategy that will drive the acquisition, conversion or retention of a client’s customers. When you think about it, this should be the same paradigm as your agency’s relationship lifecycle with that client and should be driven by the Account team.

David Maister speaks to the idea that professional service firms “must execute a full package of practice development steps” to acquire, build and maintain client relationships. Each step is an interconnected link in the chain of the brand promise to your clients. Here is a quick look at each step of the process:

Acquisition | This step includes all activities in place to generate opportunities and leads through business development efforts, market outreach (publishing, writing, speaking), concerted marketing programs and materials. Those leads and the initial dialogue you have with any prospective client is the “courting” phase where you begin generating awareness and setting expectations for your team’s future performance. Every action is important because the client is not just buying your agency services; they are also entering into a relationship. Your goal as an account lead is not to sell something. Rather, it is your job to ensure the client trusts you enough to enter into a relationship with you AND your agency. That is how you acquire new clients.

Conversion | As they say, you are only as good as your last project. The idea of conversion for an account team is to take a new client and extend a single project into more follow-on work and a deeper relationship. That extension may be as simple as a new project or as a referral to another group within the client’s organization. Your aim is to meet or exceed expectations on existing projects by delivering outstanding work and providing exemplary service. If the client continues to be impressed with the work product AND finds your team easy to work with, then you have that conversion factor. A key idea for the Account team is not just to deliver to your Statement of Work, but also to ensure that your level of service makes them want more.

Retention | The bottom line in any client relationship is whether or not you have delivered as an agency against the client’s expectations for your brand. If you have, then you will inspire confidence, trust and loyalty manifested in long-term revenue growth with a given client. The fundamentals of how to retain a client are no different than any other relationship. It takes work, trust and a real sense of caring.

Conclusion

The lifecycle of a client relationship is ultimately led by the Client Services team. A continued emphasis on service by listening to the client and nurturing the relationship will create a solid foundation for repeat business and coupled with continued excellence in delivery, will result in great case studies and referrals to help drive the acquisition of new clients and ultimately stronger long term relationships.