|
|
|
|
 |
|
Selling professional services, and more specifically, selling management consulting, is often discussed as an art form, or mystical pursuasion used by those with the gift of gab. Our approach here at Beyond Referrals, is exactly the opposite. Beyond Referrals advocates that selling the services of management consultants is a respectful science, and when approached in such a manner is appropriate, honourable, advisory and collaborative in nature, and welcomed by the potential client. In fact we go even further by declaring that the ultimate success or failure of a management consultant is determined during the selling phase of the consultant-client relationship. While consumer products, commodity services, and generalist management consultants may focus on persuasion and influence, the true management consulting expert relies upon inspiration and trust to form the foundation for a successful and profitable engagement. Not theatrical inspiration, but the inspiration of speaking with someone that knows and has seen the challenges oppressing the potential client. The inspiration of expertise. Think about this for a moment - if you're in an adversarial, frustrating relationship before you're hired (read: RFP situation) why do you expect that to change once you win the business? Bad client behaviour during the sale will utlimately continue into the engagement period. As a management consultant, architect, engineer, IT professional, or lawyer your job in the selling process is to define roles and set the stage for not only closing a consulting engagement but also completing a successful and profitable consulting engagement. Bad selling means bad clients, bad projects and bad profits. Instead, learn to sell professional services in a way that will deliver better quality of work, better profits, and clients that grow your practice for you through referrals, repeat projects, and advocacy. So How Should Consultants Acquire New Clients? I am fortunate enough to meet hundreds, possibly thousands, of management consultants every year. They are some of the most well-educated, intelligent people I know. In fact most of my clients have masters degrees and many have PhD's. So why do so many of them struggle to win client engagements for their obviously valuable services? It’s a frustrating thing for consultants. They know they have the skills, tools, and knowledge to help potential clients – but it seems like they struggle to persuade clients to hire them – or waste time and effort attempting to win the wrong clients. Or heaven forbid spend their time responding to RFP's. Most have plenty of "marketing" training and tools like expensive web sites, glossy proposal covers, slick presentations, a nice logo, ads, and many network extensively. But still the new business seems to come when they least expect it, and never appears when they think it is a certainty. And too often, consultants tell me selling feels sleazy. Like they are trying to convince people to do something they aren’t prepared to do. For many, this alone paralyzes their selling efforts, further undermining revenue. What most consultants are missing is professional services sales skills. This is very different than marketing skills. Although some have found that generic sales training has provided some benefit, most tell me that mass market sales seminars fail to address the unique challanges of selling an intangible, hard to evaluate, professional service. Selling professional services is unlike selling anything else. Consulting Is A Helping Profession Consultants dedicate years and thousands of dollars to develop and perfect their consulting skills – obtaining management degrees, professional accreditation, attending conferences, reading and undertaking industry research. Conversely, most consultants dedicate a few days for seminars, and maybe a few hours reading questionable materials purchased in an airport book store, to develop their selling skills. “But I took marketing and sales in university” is what I often hear. Most consultants have university level marketing and possibly even generic sales training. And although it was probably a good introduction to concepts that support selling it likely missed one key element – a practical understanding of the behaviour of clients when buying consulting, and how this should shape your selling process. Understanding your client’s buying process, is the key to having an effective selling process. Specifically, you need to understand the journey that an individual potential client takes from being someone that has never heard of you or your firm, to someone that is buying your services today. Most consultants need to build on their existing education in marketing and sales to understand specifically how you and your selling tools can influence that journey in a manner that is helpful, respectful, and appropriate for you as a professional consultant. Don't Sell - Instead, Help Clients Buy So you’ve had sales training, maybe attended some seminars but things are still the same. The selling is not going well. How come? Most sales and marketing training is based upon the mass market principles of selling consumer products to consumers. In some instances, these consumer sales principles can be applied succesfully to other B2B product sales. Unfortunately, they do not translate effectively into the world of selling professional services. One of the biggest mistakes made by consultants in their sales efforts is the positioning of their firm. Over and over again I see consultants describing their value to a client as rooted in their people, their processes, or even worse - their pricing. Consumer based positioning strategies are deadly poison for management consulting firms and other professionals. The good news is that with the right advice, those positioning errors are relatively easy to correct. It's one of the first things Beyond Referrals does for our clients - and one of the most effective. Once you've established your position appropriately, helping clients to buy becomes a lot easier, and much more profitable. If you have an "elevator pitch", "thirty second introduction" "unique sales proposition", or "key point of differentiation", etc. etc. that is a sign that you have too closely adopted consumer selling language and likely principles that do not optimize the selling of professional services. You're on the right track, but you'll always follow the pack unless you communicate your market position using the specific language and information unique to the needs of the potential consulting client. There's a huge difference between the needs of someone buying chewing gum versus someone engaging a $500 per hour consultant. Doesn't it make sense that the selling process should reflect that difference?
Click here to read about Your New Practice – The One That Knows How To Sell
Click here for a special time limited offer
All content of this web site is copyright Beyond Referrals 2003-2010.
|
|
|
|||
