Selling Professional Services

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Selling Professional Services

This article first appeared on June 12, 2013 on BRW Professional services providers face a challenge that many within the sector are struggling to come to terms with. For centuries the sector – comprising doctors, lawyers, accountants engineers and the like – enjoyed a somewhat exalted position in society. Ignorance among the general populace, fuelled primarily by the high cost [...]

June 14, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Education in Sales, Sales Skills, Sales Training

This article first appeared on June 12, 2013 on BRW

Professional services providers face a challenge that many within the sector are struggling to come to terms with. For centuries the sector – comprising doctors, lawyers, accountants engineers and the like – enjoyed a somewhat exalted position in society.

Ignorance among the general populace, fuelled primarily by the high cost of education, made studying to be a doctor, lawyer or other profession out of the reach of most, and created an impression that being a professional made the individual somewhat special.

However today, wide, relatively easy access to education and the internet has reduced (if not entirely eliminated) the barriers. A wider general knowledge and more practitioners in each of these professions – all competing for a share of business that isn’t growing as fast as institutes are turning them out – is making it an imperative for professionals to find effective ways to generate business.

advertising brochure professional services

advertising brochure for professional services

Only a little more than a decade ago practitioners in these professions viewed advertising and marketing their services as being unprofessional and rather unethical. However time (and economic pressure) has forced their hand. They changed their opinion and started using brochures and advertising to generate new and additional business. Now the novelty of professionals advertising for business seems to have worn off. As advertising alone no longer generates the excitement for professional services that it once did, the more innovative in these professions have migrated to business development – a euphemism for selling.

The challenge for many professions faced with a decision to start more aggressive sales activities in their practices is two-fold. Firstly the image of salespeople is so badly misunderstood by professionals that they tend to shy away from even considering the notion of selling. Secondly, no course for accounts, lawyers, engineers or doctors teaches selling as part of the education of the people. As a result, most of these professionals either avoid selling or learn to “sell” from observation – often getting it totally wrong.

The key issue is how to deal with these two challenges.

Image problems

For starters, the image of salespeople as being opportunists or in some way unethical, even being charlatans who use high-pressure techniques and make any claim, simply to get a sale, refers to only a very few salespeople. As a comparison, not all lawyers are unethical professionals, even though some have been accused of simply chasing money or of less-than-professional behaviour.

The reputation of a few lawyers who have crossed the line refers to just a minority of evidently less-than-professional lawyers, not the entire profession. The same could be said for the medical profession. There have been instances when doctors have been charged with malpractice.

That doesn’t mean that the entire medical profession is unethical. Similarly, when a bridge collapses or a building wall falls over, one doesn’t blame the entire profession of engineering. On the contrary, the vast majority of doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals are hard-working, diligent, caring and capable professionals. And the same applies to salespeople. The few that have given the profession a bad name, are just that – a very few.

With regards to learning how to sell, there are a number of reputable organisations which provide sales training. Some have taken their processes to a higher level. Barrett Consulting, for example, has a sales development programme that is offered through Swinburne University of Technology as a VET-accredited sales program providing a Certificate IV in Business Sales. That course covers all of the essential elements of professional selling.

Professional services selling, on the other hand, is somewhat unique in several key ways.

1. Professional services are generally purchased based more on the personal and professional reputation of the individual partners in a practice, than the services provided by the practice as a whole. Why? Simply because most professions are regulated and as such, the services provided are controlled by law and by the profession’s own statutes and standards authorities. This restricted focus for professionals tends to temper the differences between professional service providers.

2. Most professionals are in a situation where they are expert advisers – often mixing their business development activities with advice that is also governed by statutes and regulations. As such, professionals need to be more sensitive to the accuracy of their claims and sales arguments. And while this may seem an inhibitor, in reality it is an advantage that makes the professional that much more credible.

3. And finally, professionals have to balance the way they generate business without being seen to be too aggressive in promoting the services of their firm or themselves.

There are a variety of skills and knowledge that professional services business development managers require, but there are only five guiding principles that underpin all of them …

Recognise that professionals can never be passionate about selling until they start searching for clients who they can be passionate about serving. Remember, too, that a great client is one for whom a professional would be prepared to work for free of charge, but who would never ask the professional to do so.
The best way to get new clients is to impress old ones. Measure the happiness of existing clients with the same kind of diligence used to measure time. That way professionals will focus on what makes a satisfied client, rather than simply a high-billing one.
When meeting a potential client, don’t sell competence – sell compassion. Clients can get competence from any professional. Compassion, however, makes one professional unique and different from another.
The single best way to get new clients is to ask current clients how to get more clients like them.
The best thing a professional service provider can promise a prospective client is more sleep. Ask what problems keep clients awake at night and build the practice around solving them.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Peter Finkelstein, www.barrett.com.au

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Is your business Customer Focused & Customer Centric?

As with many things these days, words or expressions get bandied about with little regard for what they really mean. For instance, when we ask people how they define ‘Prospecting’, the overwhelming response is ‘Cold Calling’. Prospecting is far more than cold calling: it can happen anywhere with new, existing or lapsed accounts – anywhere you are trying to uncover [...]

May 31, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

And so we enter the confusing world of whether a company is Customer Focused or Customer Centric. What do these terms mean anyway? Does it really matter which one we are?

Well, yes it does – quite significantly as it turns out.

What we at Barrett have observed is that few company executives appear to understand the difference between being customer-focused and customer-centric.

Customer Focused

Customer Centric

The Client

Customer-focused organisations generally structure sales so that they can maximise their return. That is, they look at how they can get more business from their customers by delivering a level of service that is slightly better than their rivals, and sometimes – though not always – offering a lower price. This often means that salespeople are trained to uncover buyer needs and offer solutions that address those needs. In short, customer-focused organisations address customer needs only in so far as these are self-serving and address the organisation’s goals and imperatives.

Customer-centric organisations, on the other hand, explore ways to satisfy the needs of their customers at the same time as delivering greater value, making it easier and a more delightful experience for their customers to buy from them – considering incremental sales only as a result of the degree to which customers have been satisfied. Customer-centric organisations do this in the unequivocal belief that by demonstrating superior Customer-Centric behaviour, by investing heavily in making the customer’s experience unique and pleasurable, they will get increased support (and profits) from an expanding, loyal, customer base. This means they also invest in their people to enable and empower every member of the customer centric organisation to make decisions on the spot to address client’s issues, needs, etc. Their company stories are centred around the customers success and how their founders and employees helped their customers succeed. By placing their people at the centre of their business, customer centric organisations coach and support their people to be and do their best so the business and its customers thrive.

This all sounds lovely but is being Customer Centric better for business?

Yes Absolutely!

The following companies are example of those organisations that are doing very well – consistently – across a number of dimensions including: customer loyalty, revenue, profitability, staff retention, leadership, etc. by being Customer Centric

Nordstroms (USA up market retailer much like David Jones in concept)
SAS (Scandinavian Air Services)
Ritz Carlton

With respect to Nordstroms, when asked at a recent investor meeting to quantify what the Customer-Centric approach had cost the organisation, the chairman’s response typified the philosophy and also demonstrates the difference between Customer-Focus and Customer-Centric behaviour. John Nordstom (the chairman) responded by telling investors that the cost to the company was far less than the profits it had made from customers returning time and time again to buy apparel at their premium priced stores.

Locally, companies like Bunnings are also moving in this direction by hiring knowledgeable staff i.e. retired tradies, husband and wife teams; people who have real experience in home maintenance, gardening, building, etc. who are empowered, proactive and interested in helping their customers. We had such an experience on the weekend with a Bunnings team member, who it turns out, makes guitars as well, who helped our son prepare to make a skate board using his knowledge of woodwork. The other staff we interacted with were equally happy and helpful. It was impressive.

Contrast this with Customer-Focused behaviour…

In November 2012 the respected consumer advocacy group Choice published a report on the levels of service and Customer-Centric behaviours amongst Australia’s leading retailers.

Furniture and white goods giant Harvey Norman was found to deliver the very worst levels of service. However, when approached for comment, chairman Gerry Harvey said the consumer group Choice got it wrong, had a private agenda and that Harvey Norman’s service was fantastic.

Harvey Norman is undoubtedly Customer-Focused. It tries hard to stock its stores with a range of products priced at an attractive level. It has staff roaming the floor who give the appearance of being interested in helping their customers. It spends huge sums on television advertising, trying to convince hard pressed customers to visit their stores for a great product, great prices and service. But someone has missed the plot. Either Choice has totally misread the realities or Harvey Norman has lost touch with its customers.

Is the Harvey Norman response, as opposed to the Nordstroms response typical of the difference between Customer-Focus and Customer-Centricity? Well, let’s look at the results:

Harvey Norman’s results for 2012 were 39.2% down on the previous year
Nordstrom’s results showed 13.5% improvement, 2012 over 2011

So you be the judge.

In short, Customer-focused companies do some things that superficially address customer expectations, driven by their desire for improved profit performance. Customer-centric organisations make meaningful changes in order to address their customer’s expectations, expecting and getting reciprocal support.

After all it was the late Peter Drucker – the great management guru of the 20th Century – who said: “The purpose of business is to satisfy its customers’ needs. The consequence of satisfying customers is improved, continuous profits…”

And you know it when you enter a customer centric organisation because everyone you speak to in the organisation is focused on you; they are interested in what you have to say and want to help you get what you need, they are genuine in their support and everyone seems to have the same set of principles and values they operate from – there is consistency across the board.

Outcome: you are left feeling safe, valued and cared for. And usually you want to come back for more and perhaps even tell your family and friends about what a wonderful experience you had.

You can watch an entire presentation on Customer Centricity given by Peter Finkelstein at the recent Swinburne University Business Forum function:

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Questions deliver answers. What questions deliver sales?

It is well known that questions deliver answers. The real question in sales is ‘What questions deliver sales results?’ Asking questions and listening are at the heart of any effective selling situation. Questioning and listening are critical; without them you have salespeople conducting monologues to an audience of bored, disengaged, frustrated customers. Any self-respecting sales person couldn’t image not asking questions in [...]

May 15, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Results

It is well known that questions deliver answers. The real question in sales is ‘What questions deliver sales results?’

Asking questions and listening are at the heart of any effective selling situation. Questioning and listening are critical; without them you have salespeople conducting monologues to an audience of bored, disengaged, frustrated customers. Any self-respecting sales person couldn’t image not asking questions in a sales situation, yet many well intentioned salespeople still fail to sell effectively because of poor question choices.

is selling about making friends?

like me …

follow me …

tweet me …

poke me …

WHY?

Many salespeople describe themselves as ‘people people’ often entering a sales career filled with good intentions and under the false assumption that selling is about making friends, getting along with people and getting people to like you because when they like you, of course, they will buy from you. Wrong. People buy from people they TRUST and trust supersedes like. The problem facing many salespeople who adopt the ‘like me and you will buy from me approach’ is that they specialise in ‘Social’ Questioning’, which revolves around their need for affiliation and not much else. You hear it all the time, salespeople being told that they need to build rapport by asking people about their personal lives, footy teams etc. This is very old fashioned and not as effective as people think it is. In fact for many first time client encounters it can be a real turn off for the client. It often comes across as fake. You will build more rapport by focusing on what you are really there to do – and that is work with client’s priorities and address their issues. Of course it helps to be likeable but you need to build trust as a priority first and focusing on the client and what they want is the key.

Successful salespeople specialise in ‘Opportunity’ Questioning. Here they are looking for evidence that opportunities exist for them to work on effectively with others. They are inquiring, curious and ideas oriented. They are also asking questions to validate their clients. It is their world they are interested in. It is the sales person’s job to see how the client’s and the sales person’s worlds can intersect successfully – where they can find something of mutual value they can both work on for the benefit of both parties – the fair exchange of value, if you will.

In these instances questions are used to not only assist salespeople with gathering information about the customer i.e. their needs, situation, issues and priorities but also, when used effectively, assist the customer with coming to a clear understanding and realisation about what they need to do for themselves, hopefully with your assistance. For instance by practicing ‘Opportunity’ Questioning the salesperson can:

Gain an understanding of the customer’s needs, priorities, issues, perceptions, prejudices, fears, etc.
Come to have a deeper understanding of the customer’s buying motivators or intentions.
Build genuine rapport and trust with the customer by listening effectively and demonstrating empathy towards their situation. Key is being able to see it from the client’s point of view.
Probe deeper into their situation using effective questioning techniques that help the customer to see a greater, tangible need for your product or service.
Establish what the consequences and opportunities are for the customer and how working with you will add value to them.

When we don’t ask ‘Opportunity’ questions we are at risk of accepting what we are told is true. This can then lead to all sorts of issues such as:

being told something is true when it is not
making assumptions and being caught out taking the wrong approach
being misled and losing out as a result
acting unwisely and causing harm to yourself or others
giving people what they don’t need
creating more problems than there were before

So next time you are out with your salespeople, or, if indeed you are a salesperson yourself, look at your approach to questioning. See what you are doing, what effect your questions are having on your clients and sales results.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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How much valuable selling time are you wasting?

When it comes to sales productivity and sales performance many companies are shortchanging themselves and, unfairly blaming their salespeople for poor sales performance results. How can that be? Well too many businesses pay salespeople for business development and then lumber them with non-revenue, non customer oriented activities such as administration, unnecessary internal meetings, service delivery or transactional account problems. And [...]

March 27, 2013 in Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Uncategorized

When it comes to sales productivity and sales performance many companies are shortchanging themselves and, unfairly blaming their salespeople for poor sales performance results.

How can that be? Well too many businesses pay salespeople for business development and then lumber them with non-revenue, non customer oriented activities such as administration, unnecessary internal meetings, service delivery or transactional account problems. And whilst acknowledging that these are very much a part of managing the client’s experience and classified under the sales portfolio, the haphazard manner in which these are structured does little to encourage optimal live and productive sales activity on the part of the sales person.

stop and reflect on what is optimal for their business

stop and reflect on what is optimal for a business

In a recent study conducted by Barrett we found that amongst salespeople in Australia, South Africa and Europe, too many companies are restricting the effectiveness of their sales forces by overburdening their salespeople with functions that should and could be performed more efficiently by a Sales Support team and other non-revenue generating functions in the company. However, often too busy to stop and reflect on what is optimal for their business, companies rarely take the time to actually look at how their salespeople are investing their time.

Interestingly though, when companies perform a Sales Activity Assessment on their sales operations including running time-in-motion studies on their field sales teams and speaking to customers, they often find that the their salespeople are doing anything but selling.

Here is an example of a recent sales activity assessment time-in-motion study on the activities of a large Australian field sales force that was experiencing a steady decline in sales revenue. Their results were compared to an international benchmark for sales activities.

The international benchmark for sales activities in major cities, against which this company’s sales force activities are being compared reveals that salespeople on the road (as opposed to call centres) spend time, in each of the six areas of sales activity, as revealed on the table below…

Sales Activity	Model		Barrett Client Company
Prospecting	15.46%	6.95 hours	6.0%	2.70 hours
Face-to-Face Selling	18.90%	8.51 hours	19.0%	8.55 hours
Servicing Customers	16.80%	7.56 hours	13.0%	5.83 hours
Organisational Activities	22.02%	9.91 hours	36.0%	16.20 hours
Travelling and Waiting	19.01%	8.55 hours	20.0%	9.00 hours
Personal / Miscellaneous Activity	7.82%	3.52 hours	6.0%	2.70 hours

Note: “Face-to-Face Selling” is defined as those meetings where the intent of the sales person making the call was to induce a purchase, as opposed to relationship building, service, problem solving calls etc.

As can be seen from the Barrett Client Company study, whilst there are differences in some of the areas, particularly the amount of Organisational Activity (Client company x 36.0% against a model of 22.02%) and Prospecting (Client Company 6.0% against a model of 15.46%), in the crucial area of face-to-face selling, there is no great variance between the client company and the model.

Specifically in the Barrett Client Company study you will notice that the salespeople in this business are being pulled into Organisational Activities and Servicing Customers 49% of the time which means the sales person time is spent in administration, organising and transactional customer service activities instead of being invested in what they are paid to do, and that is selling.

This issue is not only the problem of this company.

What is also evident, from both the Barrett Client Company study and international models is that salespeople have very little time to perform their primary responsibilities – i.e. induce a purchase (face-to-face selling).

Note: The International Benchmark presented here does not equal the notion of Best Practice. It is just representing the current state of play in the field sales force world.

Organisational Activities and Servicing Customers

We understand that a field sales person cannot be Selling 100% of the time, however, giving salespeople the space and time to sell is critical.

As a sales person we need and want to do as much as we can for our company and our customers. But in the end, a sales person’s and a sales team’s success is going to be measured in terms of targets achieved or missed.

So if you are in a sales team that spends 15% or more of its time on these distractions it’s time to talk to your sales management and senior leadership group.

Ask what they expect: More Sales or more time on Service & Deliveries?

If it’s the latter, ask them to reduce your sales targets so that you don’t feel as if you are underachieving. If you do then you’ll soon find sales management and senior leaders will find other ways to address these distractions that keep you from selling and instead let you get on and sell.

If this is an issue for you and assess your Sales Team’s Sales Intelligence and current perception of their roles or conduct a Sales Activity Assessment on your business please contact us on (+61) 0395330000 or email contact@barrett.com.au

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Leadership in Uncertain Times

In December 2012, like in the previous years, we published the 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released a brief summary of each trend. Throughout the year we will look into each of them a little deeper. This month we are focusing on the Sales Trend “Leadership in uncertain times”. Extreme uncertainty is the new norm. Living in a [...]

March 14, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Education in Sales, Sales Leadership, Sales Management

Extreme uncertainty is the new norm. Living in a constant state of fear and anxiety only leads to more fear and anxiety. Research shows that highly distracted or stressed people don’t and can’t innovate and change and without purposeful leadership and reason to change people will stand still and be left behind, trampled in the rush to the future.

In times of uncertainty, leadership is required more than ever; leadership that can take us into the unknown; pioneering if you will.

This sales trend predicts managers of all persuasions, especially sales managers, will have to take on leadership roles and reduce their dependence on ‘processes only management’ and technical gadgets to ‘fix’ sales and business productivity issues. In uncertain times managing processes will only get you so far and then what? No more hiding behind the desk and excel spreadsheets; no more looking for shortcuts so you don’t have to deal with people; no more leaving good sales performers alone and booting out the poor performers with no interventions. It’s time to lead. And this means taking risks – calculated risks.

taking a calculated risk

Smart companies realise that great leaders are great enablers. The rules have fundamentally changed; what was once the norm is now obsolete: no playing it safe; sales leadership needs to be founded on sound thinking around new sales strategies and ways of operating, personal courage and conviction in adversity, and a willingness to experiment and pilot new ideas supported by learning and relearning. Taking risks to design and develop sales teams of the future will be the hallmark of these new sales leaders along with building and earning trust and respect for all the right reasons.

Rethinking Sales Strategy

According to a recent international survey conducted by UK consulting firm Value Partnership there are some real issues facing businesses, especially big business when it comes to taking a One Company global approach. Many large complex global companies were taking a ‘one company’ approach but were struggling with what aspects of their business should be global and what should remain local. Still confused many were trying to solve this dilemma by still focusing on structure instead of mindset and behaviours. One company said it was shifting from hopelessly local to mindlessly global. Which continues to highlight the crisis in leadership we are facing.

Ownership of sales strategy

Effective sales leaders know only too well that their challenge it to take the overarching strategy of their organisation (global &/or national) and localise it to their markets and country so their sales teams can make it work. Giving sales leaders the freedom to make the overarching strategy work in their domain is critical especially for international and global businesses.

Cultivating effective leaders and sales leaders will be the key; training them in ‘how to think’ about their business, market and value chain not just telling them ‘what to think’ is critical. Developing their capabilities around creating and delivering sales strategies; being effective sales leaders; applying sales management functions; sales coaching; account planning; mapping sales force structure; finding and managing sales talent; monitoring and managing sales performance; as well as creating a climate of trust, collaboration and action.

Effective sales leaders need to develop their own leadership style and have courage to be themselves. They establish their own vision and purpose as a leader and understand and respect that each person is different and accordingly adapt themselves and their leadership approach based on the levels of maturity of their sales people and teams.

Smart companies are realising they need their sales mangers to shift from being ‘super salesmen’ (as many are still today) to being effective sales leaders. Training, coaching and educating sales managers to become effective sales leaders is complex yet doable and will be on the agenda of smart companies in 2013 and beyond.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Images used: Uncertain Times by Amy Casey

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