While every business development professional dreams of out of the blue phone calls from potential customers, they seldom happen.It’s really important to remind ourselves that most new business opportunities come from following up on referrals and tips from your own network of friends, clients and contacts. We all know the old saw about it being…
Sometimes, often when you least want it to happen, usually at the most serious moment, something happens. A phrase comes out wrong and is somehow horribly right; someone exposes their stupidity to the light, your colleague drops you in it or life’s essential futility slaps you in the face- What can you do? Have a…
Yes it is, it really is…. Selling professional services is different to selling ‘stuff’. You are selling an intangible, a relationship, trust. I’ve seen the greatest salesman in the world reduced to blubbering wrecks as they try to close a consulting sale whereas some of the most introverted analysts within my organisation make great salesmen;…
(Updated 17 October 2009) Selling anything requires trust, you need to trust the brand, the salesman or (preferably) both. Why do you buy stuff? This is a digression from the focus of selling professional service but bear with me, when did you last buy a car? Who did you trust, the brand or the car…
When you’re trying to explain what you do to other people whether in conversation, through the written word or as part of a proposal, remember that ‘concrete is always good’. I’m not talking about the noxious mix of cement, sand and lime used in building, obviously, but it’s a useful metaphor as it’s an almost…
With all of the stuff I’ve been writing recently about the importance of campaigning, it’s easy to forget that there’s a hard-edge to it all. The edge is that it’s about building and maintaining your network over time. But like all advice, unless you trust the source of that advice, I’m simply a stranger asking…
A war is made up of a number of campaigns with distinct aims, leading to your ultimate victory. Campaigns should be connected and shaped by the ultimate war aim. For Churchill in 1941, it was the unconditional surrender of Germany and her allies. Every campaign of the war, whether in the air, on the ground…
So you’ve identified what it is that you do brilliantly, or at least well enough to offer you real specialist status in your potential customers’ eyes. This is not as difficult as it seems. One of my specialist areas of work is presentation skills and nearly everyone who has ever got up to speak to…
There’s a gene missing in many professionals who have spent years building their skills. That gene is the “telling anyone who’ll listen that you’ve a skill that you’re proud of, and if they ever need that skill, they know where you are” gene. We just don’t tend to spend enough time getting out there and…