Selling Professional Services

You are browsing the archive for Sales Skills.

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

No Comments »

Are your invisible sales managers losing you sales?

The number one priority for any sales manager is to lead and drive the effective sales performance of their sales team. The only way a sales manager can achieve this is by being AVAILABLE and RESPONSIVE to his/her sales team. What does this actually mean in real world terms? working with your sales team This means getting out from behind [...]

April 15, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Results, Sales Skills

working with your sales team

This means getting out from behind your desk, ditching any excessive administration, leaving internal meetings and getting out in the field and working with your sales teams. If you want to drive and lift sales performance you need to be out in the field working with your sales teams at least 26-30 weeks a year.

That’s right, at least 26-30 weeks a year in the field! The more time you are out in the field actively coaching and developing your team: working on deals together, helping them develop their sales/territory plans to find new markets or avenues into new or existing accounts, making sure they are skilful at selling, etc, the more sales you and your team will make. NB: This does not mean that you do the selling for your sales team which is also another issue for another time.

Yet too many sales managers remain invisible to their sales teams. Salespeople are lucky if they get any one-on-one time from their sales managers, let alone effective coaching and support.

WHY?

Because most sales managers in most organisations are being drowned in administrative paperwork, endless meetings and interference from other departments. The following table is an excerpt from a recent large study undertaken by The Sales Management Association in the USA looking at Sales Management Activities.

Sales Management Activities	Front line sales manager		Mid tier sales manager		Top level (senior) sales manager
Sales Management Activities	*Actual*	*Desired*	*Actual*	*Desired*	*Actual*	*Desired*
Company administration	31%	10%	30%	11%	25%	12%

You can see already that the Actual versus Desired for company administration is way out of balance by a factor of 3 for the front line and mid tier sales manager – whose job is really to do that coaching and development in the field. Sadly, on average only 26% of the sales managers’ time was actually spent in the field working with their sales teams.

This backs up other studies which have been undertaken over many years. As we wrote recently, salespeople have a hard time getting enough real face time to sell because of other extraneous company activities put upon them. And so it is with Sales Managers. This is just one study of many showing how sales managers are being robbed of doing their real jobs.

So why is this happening?

obsessed with numbers

Two reasons:

Over the years companies have been removing the sales support functions from sales managers and teams trying to cut overhead costs, saving money… the consequence is making the administrative work load for sales managers worse, robbing them of doing their real jobs. I was reminded of a saying the other day: ‘you cannot save yourself rich’
Obsessed with numbers, too many senior management teams are turning their sales leaders and, especially their field sales managers, into number crunching desk jockeys. Time in motion studies reveal that each level of sales management spends more than 50% of their time with other internal functions instead of in the trenches with their sales teams and customers.

The consequence is that most sales managers’ time allocation is inefficient, leading to lost sales and poor growth. However, most sales managers believe their time should be weighted more to customer and market facing activities. With less time spent on administration. No surprise really.

Findings also show that the more sales managers are in the field working with their salespeople on customer and market activities the more positively this is correlated with sales growth.

The root cause for sales management inefficient time allocation is directly correlated to senior management influences.

So how do you change this?

Like freeing sales people up to have more live selling time, businesses need to free up their sales managers to have more field time with their sales teams.

Organisation should mandate that sales managers spend time in the field with their sales people in the real market place. The figures below are what is recommended for a full time sales manager:

3 days/week in the field for mid tier sales managers
3.5 days/week in the field for front line sales managers

The Sales Management Association study also recommends that businesses need to:

Limit and control the impact other internal departments have on the sales managers
Limit the amount of reporting sales managers have to do
Make sure that sales management and leadership have a direct input into business strategy planning – involve them at the start
Limit internal demands made on front line sales managers which reduces their external focus.

This is not new to Barrett either, we see this ineffective use of sales managers’ time and talent daily.

creating and leading fit viable sales teams

The reality is sales leadership and sales management is not about selling itself, it is about creating and leading fit viable sales teams that can sell! In fact when one examines the role of the modern sales leader it quickly becomes evident that there just isn’t time to sell. Equipping sales leaders and sales managers to perform the tasks for which they are responsible, and sustaining the momentum of the sales force in its drive for incremental value and volume, at the same time as continuously improving the customer experience, is a challenge that demands a high degree of maturity, dedication, focus, extraordinary leadership skills – and of course, adequate time in the field to make this all happen.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

No Comments »

Enthusiasm in Selling

There is a popular fallacy that salespeople are born, not made. Whilst there is some vestige of truth in the statement, it is not for the reasons made so popular – i.e. it’s not that salespeople have the ‘gift of the gab’ but rather because these successful salespeople are genuinely enthusiastic about what they do and helping prospects find a [...]

February 22, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Life Skills, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

This does not mean that they are the life of the party or always talking about this and that. Enthusiasm should not be mistaken for extroversion. You can have people who are quiet, attentive but none the less enthusiastic about their passion, their purpose in life.

Enthusiasm is that extra spark that provides inspiration to have the confidence to take on the world. It is contagious and when mastered, it has enormous power.

Consider this approach to life…

We have a challenge. We take action. We succeed. Therefore we have a great deal of enthusiasm.

The statement however is presented in the wrong sequence. It should read…

We have a challenge. We generate enthusiasm for addressing the challenge. Therefore we succeed.

Few people are enthusiastic because they solved a problem; they solve a problem because they are enthusiastic.

The fortunate thing about enthusiasm is that if can be developed by combining three simple elements that we all have…

You must have an INTEREST in what you’re doing
You can hardly be expected to be enthusiastic about anything until you have some interest, and unless you know something about the subject, project or issue you cannot develop that interest.
You must have KNOWLEDGE of what you’re doing
Ignorance is bliss, particularly when you don’t really care or have no desire to be enthusiastic. But when you do learn something new and you begin to understand its importance, your enthusiasm gathers speed. The more you know the more enthusiastic you become simply because you can see more opportunities.
You must have BELIEF in what you are doing
If you don’t believe what you are saying you can’t expect to be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is contagious. No one can be exposed to its radiant force without being positively affected. It is power. The true enthusiast expresses power naturally and excellence is just a normal way of life.

To sell really well it helps to be enthusiastic about your company, your products, your team and what you stand for. If you can get that right there is no stopping you then.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

Due to large amounts of Comment Spam we turn off comments 90 days after the first post.
If you still want to comment please contact us and we post your comment on your behalf.
Comments Off

First, people buy the salesperson

Here’s a simple reality… Prospects and customers buy the salesperson first during every sales call – or they don’t buy at all. In any major sale, especially Business-to-Business (B2B) or complex Business-to-Consumer sales, the prospect or customer makes a predictable series of buying decisions that lead to a final purchasing decision. The first and perhaps the most important of these [...]

January 25, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Skills

Here’s a simple reality… Prospects and customers buy the salesperson first during every sales call – or they don’t buy at all.

In any major sale, especially Business-to-Business (B2B) or complex Business-to-Consumer sales, the prospect or customer makes a predictable series of buying decisions that lead to a final purchasing decision. The first and perhaps the most important of these is:

‘Do I buy what this salesperson is saying?’

This decision is always made before the prospect or customer will seriously consider factors such as your product or service offering and price. Yet many sales people are unaware that it is how they are presenting and conducting themselves that is setting up the success or failure of the sales opportunity.

Most sales people make the mistake of devoting the selling time to pitching their products or services. Here’s the problem: whether the prospect or customer realises it or not, the first thing they decide is whether they like and trust you, the salesperson. If you bury your prospects or customers beneath a mountain of product information while the prospect or customer is making up their mind about whether or not they like and trust you, you have already lost the deal.

When prospects and customers can relate to you, like and trust you, everything about the sales process becomes much easier. Here are a few ideas that will help you build and gain that trust and create genuine connections…

show interest and understanding, be organised

Demonstrate your interest: Stop trying to be interesting, instead, demonstrate your real interest in your prospect or customer, don’t talk too much about yourself.

Show that you understand: People have a strong need to feel understood. Ask questions, listen and make sure you understand your prospect or customer’s needs and priorities. Confirm the person’s need by restating them so they know you understand their situation by verifying. Verifying is very useful when trying to understand another person’s situation or point of view. Verifying your customer’s needs requires the combination of three key communication skills: listening, paraphrasing and clarifying. Verifying can be a useful technique to ensure the message has been received and understood by both the sender and receiver. Verifying involves paraphrasing or summing up in your own words what you think the person has communicated.

Use an organised sales procedure: A step-by-step procedure keeps you on track and helps you be methodical, thorough and professional. Your professional approach will sell you.

Be dependable and consistent: nothing annoys customers or prospects more than inconsistency and lack of follow up. So do what you say you will do. Being reliable, be consistent and above be sincere and genuine.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

PS You can get a Sneak Preview as well as purchase and download the detailed 49 page report of the 12 Sales Trends for 2013 now to see which trends will have the greatest impact on your sales optimisation efforts in 2013. In the meantime you can download our past trends here for free.

Due to large amounts of Comment Spam we turn off comments 90 days after the first post.
If you still want to comment please contact us and we post your comment on your behalf.
Comments Off

Hot bath turned cold – ditch the Rah Rah

November 8, 2012 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Training

Have you ever heard the expression “Hot bath turned cold’? Perhaps not, however if you have been involved in the sales training industry or sales management it is a term that is synonymous with the quick, sheep dip, Rah Rah motivational sessions that business leaders and sales managers run for their sales people in the hope that they will sell more. Sadly the opposite is true. At the very best these ‘hot bath’ motivation techniques can provide entertainment value, however at worst they can do more harm than good. We get a lot of salespeople saying they are sick of these types of approaches to sales training because they are left with little to show for it – they are given no real skills or tools they can use in the field. And like a hot bath whatever warmth you may have felt while in, it soon gets cold with your short, medium and long term expectations of sales success never met.

Yet many companies think that all sales people need is a bit of motivation to make them sell more so they get in a pumped up motivational speaker with a bit of sales experience to tell war stories and how you can be like them if you only do this or that. Management’s attempts to cut corners and scrimp on effective sales training and coaching are cheating our sales people, our customers and our businesses.

never stop learning, a little bit every day ....

Well founded research in learning and development shows that continuous learning, a little bit every day, is the way to go. Smart, savvy, successful sales people need to train like athletes. This doesn’t mean spending a lot of money on fancy training– it means creating a culture of continuous learning where practice, reflection, self-learning and coaching occur daily using applied, practical sales tools and sales processes that can be easily transferred and taught. That is why sales training and development programs like Barrett’s Sales Essentials are delivered over 20-40 weeks in bite size chunks to enable learning and development to take place and sales mastery to be achieved which in turn produces sales results.

Sales Training needs to be an integrated process involving role clarity, clear sales competencies, sales plans, sales metrics, regular infield coaching, etc. all linked to a strategy – not some afterthought or isolated event.

Ask yourself these questions:

Q. What are you trying to change by offering sales training?

Q. Do you want change to occur as a result of the training? if so, can it be defined and measured?

Q. What is the point of doing the training?

Q. What am I trying to achieve with training?

A study conducted a number of years ago found that within one week of leaving any sales skills training program (with no follow up sessions or coaching) salespeople had lost 87% of the new skills they had learned during the training program. Recent research by ES Research Group shows that 90% of all sales training programs result in a 90 – 120 day increase in productivity – but after that, nothing. It was only a temporary blip! Fewer than 20% of companies show sustainable productivity gains that last a year or more.

What we have found, and learning research shows, is that sales training only works if it is carefully matched to and directly supporting the use of your sales model, methodology & sales force profile and it has to be supported by Coaching in the field and real world application hence the 70:20:10 learning philosophy made known by Morgan McCall, Robert W. Eichinger, and Michael M. Lombardo.

To ensure that real learning takes place and endures, we need to emphasise and encourage a holistic approach by integrating both formal and informal elements. The most effective way to learn and develop a new skill or behaviour is to apply and practice it on the job and in real life situations. Good learning and development philosophy is built upon how individuals internalise and apply what they learn based on how they acquire the knowledge.

The 70:20:10 formula* that describes how learning occurs:

70% from real life and on-the-job experiences, tasks and problem solving. This is the most important aspect of any learning and development plan. Many organizations agree in theory, but getting it right is another matter altogether.
20% from feedback and from observing and working with role models – coaching from peers, subject matter experts and mentors.
10% from formal training/learning so that participants gain a solid base of knowledge and skills.

At Barrett we believe that the key elements to a successful learning process include both the “70:20:10 formula” and how individuals internalise and apply what they’ve learned.

Effective sales training can be defined as a planned program within the organisation that endeavours to bring about relatively permanent changes in employee knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours. Behaviour modelling training has been found to be most effective.

To give a long term benefit, the training needs to give your sales staff the opportunity to apply what they learn in real life situations out in the field and have regular reviews as to effectiveness and efficiency of application.

Leading companies will link this to a clearly communicated and committed sales capability plan and make it a conscious part of everything: every sales meeting, every sales call, every coaching encounter will be about sales fitness.

So forget these RAH RAH Hot Bath sessions that promise the world and deliver nothing. You know they DON’T work! Now towel on down and get selling.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Due to large amounts of Comment Spam we turn off comments 90 days after the first post.
If you still want to comment please contact us and we post your comment on your behalf.
Comments Off

Barrett Sales Blog

You are browsing the archive for Sales Skills.