Square Peg Consulting, founded by Frank McShane, is a change-management consulting firm assisting B2B businesses in identifying profit leaks and adjusting models to improve profitability. Serving manufacturing, distribution, and mid-sized supply companies, the firm relies on data analytics and presents evidence-based recommendations to its clientele.
McShane begins with an in-depth analysis of a company's profitability. "We then use this to find the overlooked areas that leak profit," he explains. "From there, it's about reorienting sales and marketing efforts to bring in more income." McShane believes that this ultimately helps a company maintain sustainability.
Square Peg Consulting advises its clients to redirect focus from low-value customers towards higher-value ones that generate more cash. McShane relies on an airplane seat theory to explain this thinking to clients. "If you divide customers into first-, business, and economy class passengers, they often bring in 80%, 15%, and 5% of a company's cash, respectively," posits McShane. "Let's say the profit ratio of first to economy is 16 to 1; you don't always pay first-class customers 16 times the attention," he explains. With this perspective, McShane encourages clients to spend resources on first- and business-class customers to generate large amounts of cash.
In McShane's experience, clients are sometimes quick to raise prices for economy-level customers instead of redirecting attention. "That doesn't always solve the problem in the long run because you're still spending resources that you can't get back in return from those customers," he explains. In these instances, McShane encourages CEOs and CFOs to get involved in restructuring the company's efforts.
McShane highlights Square Peg Consulting's reliance on data analytics as a fundamental approach. He values this as a method to unpack clients' companies and bring their attention to the particulars, which then allows him to craft a tailored plan to improve their business. "Instead of coming in with a prepared answer, I let the data be the guiding principle," says McShane. "I have a set of tools, but I don't open my toolbox until I know what's really going on."
By offering a data-driven angle for clients to view their companies, Square Peg Consulting strives to open room for numerous improvement opportunities. In McShane's experience, one such opportunity has been helping clients realize that they employ more salespeople than needed. "If you're aiming at a smaller set of customers, all you need are excellent salespeople that can bring in lots of cash efficiently," he explains.
McShane's motivation to found Square Peg Consulting came from 30 years of experience in executive leadership and consulting. "I realized I could be very impactful by consulting other companies," he explains. "The expertise is from my own history rather than opinion or theory."
Founded in 2017, Square Peg Consulting primarily works with clients in the Pacific Northwest but has grown to consult companies across the nation. With services traditionally lasting a month, McShane maintains transparency by being upfront and honest with clients about pricing and deliverables.
McShane continues to guide companies looking to grow their business and increase profits. He highlights that identifying the problem areas is not where companies' efforts should end. "Analysing the data is the easy part, but changing strategy, sales, and marketing is what needs hard work," says McShane. "That's the part I find really fun, and I enjoy finding creative ways to navigate that."
