Determine Client’s Needs—Our Most Important Step For every project, we first conduct exploratory meetings with the client for the purpose of seeking to understand the client’s specific needs. This is free to both new and existing clients. Help Define the Scope and Formulate a Needs Analysis We meet with the client to help define the scope of the project, and what roles each of us (The Marketing Advantage® and the client) will undertake to address the identified needs. The defining of roles is intertwined with the constraints of time and resources that apply to attaining solutions. Explore Alternative Solutions and Create Proposal The Marketing Advantage® reviews the factors that impact the client’s needs, and creates different plans that will address those needs. We then meet with the client and examine each approach and together we decide on a final plan of action, which becomes the basis for our written proposal. Work with TMA—Do, Learn, Teach The Marketing Advantage® then goes about creating the solution. Though we usually do most of the work, we work closely with each client to create a highly-customized result that is the sum of a synergistic effort. As the work progresses, and we at The Marketing Advantage® learn about various aspects that could impact on our client, we share this learning with our client. Thus, The Marketing Advantage® does not just seek to provide a superior solution, but also to become a knowledge resource to our client. Provide and Implement the Solution Once the solution is created, The Marketing Advantage® makes sure that the solution can be leveraged for maximum impact. Sometimes this means presenting the findings, other times it may mean encapsulating the solution in a reusable system, while still other times it may mean helping the client to incorporate the solution into their systems. Nurture the Solution Through to Impact. Our job does not end with the delivery of the solution. We work with the client to help ensure that the solution has the desired impact of addressing the client’s needs. This can involve us making presentations to top management or helping to make the business changes that might be necessary to implement the solution. In short, we work to ensure that the client’s unmet needs, for which the project was commissioned, are finally fulfilled.   Each of the steps above can be as formal or as flexible as the client desires.