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THE DUMBBELLS CUT BACK THE SMART PEOPLE DONT THE UPSIDE OF RECESSION - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston and Patrick Cahill
The market drops 370 points in a single day, corporate earnings disappoint and housing prices continue to sink. We are in uncertain economic times. We may be in a recession right now, or could slip into one next week... or next month.
As optimists, we don't like forecasting difficult economic times. But, even optimists have to come to grips with the realities of our uncertain marketplace.
With economic anxiety looming, many of our clients are asking: how should I position and market my firm in the year to come? Assuming yours is a healthy company, here are our general recommendations.
PROPOSAL WRITING STAY ON TARGET PROPOSALS WITH FOCUS WIN NEW BUSINESS - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
Like a Poor Marksman You Keep…Missing…The Target!
- Admiral James T. Kirk
If you don't know your destination, any road will get you there. When prospects for your services ask for a formal proposal, they are telling you their desired destination: a business relationship with you. And they're asking you to answer the question, “What road do we take to get there?”
Since it's your job to give directions, you want to tell them the straightest, shortest, and easiest route. After all, you don't want them to get lost along the way, or so tired on the path that they give up before they get to the end.
RAMP UP YOUR BRAND - SLEDGEHAMMERS AND SERVICE BRAND PREFERENCE - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Swing the Hammer
Imagine the strongman game at the carnival. You lift the sledgehammer over your head and swing it down onto the platform. When it strikes the target, a metal cylinder rises up and up—20 feet up the pole until it rings the bell. On its way down the pole the cylinder passes the same words it passed on the way up: strongman, tough guy, athlete, junior, and weakling.
In a way, establishing a services brand follows a similar process. You swing the hammer (your marketing tactics, the marketing mix you employ, and the quality of your company's services) and the strength of your efforts determine whether or not your brand moves up the pole and makes it to the top to ring the bell.
The question is, “What stages must your brand pass through in order to ring the bell?”
COLD TO GOLD GETTING THE MOST FROM COLD CALL SET MEETINGS - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
Like King Midas, as I was told, everything he touched turned to gold.
- Joseph Simmons and Daryl McDaniels
“If I could just get a meeting with my target prospects I am certain I could close five (or six or eight) out of every ten.”
How many of you think the same thing? You know that when you get in front of the prospect you can wow them. Every time a lead comes into the firm and you go on the sales meeting, it's a slam dunk. Made-in-the-shade. Can of corn. You know you'll get the gig.
AVOID THE REVENUE ROLLERCOASTER TRAP WITH CONSISTENT LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Many consulting, professional, and technology service businesses find themselves trapped in the following vicious, no-growth cycle. The firm is either:
Heavily marketing because they don't have enough leads and new business, or
Heavily billing and delivering, and thus have no time for marketing, lead generation, and selling.
We call this the service revenue rollercoaster. It's a common trap for many professional service companies because when they get busy they can't sustain their marketing momentum...they're too busy with client work. Then, when the client work slows down, they must start marketing from square-one all over again, as all momentum from previous marketing efforts has stalled.
THE TOO SALESY PARADOX WHY PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CANT SELL AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
The distress is obvious. The complaints are frequent. The clear disdain for the activity is surprisingly unfiltered. What are we talking about? Selling, or more specifically, selling professional services.
In conversation after conversation as I work with clients, conduct seminars, or network with my professional colleagues, I hear the same comments:
Selling conflicts with my values as a professional.
Selling gets in the way of building strong relationships.
You have to have it in your genes - like a used car salesman.
I don't sell professional services - I work with my clients to create the best solutions.
People won't respect me as a professional if I am selling to them.
I can't sell to them. What will they think of me?
It (selling) is not what we do around here.
GENERATING LEADS, BRAND, RELATIONSHIPS, AND TRUST AT THE SAME TIME - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
Relationships. Trust. Delivery of superb value. These are core ingredients of a successful service firm. Talk to 100 service firm marketers and leaders, and they'll all tell you (and most of them believe it, even if they're wrong) that their firm is in the top of their industry in each of these categories.
Why, then, do service firms typically do such a poor job of bringing relationships, trust, and value into their marketing mixes?
SERVICES SELLING I DIDNT RAISE YOU TO BE A SALESMAN - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys
Don't let 'em sell siding or drive them big trucks
Have 'em be consultants and accountants and such.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys
'Cause they'll never stay home or they're on their cell phone
Even with family around.
With all due apologies to Willie Nelson, I am sure this was the sentiment of most of our parents. Yes, be a lawyer or accountant or even (heaven forbid) a consultant, but please don't ever come home and declare, “Mom, I found my calling. I am going to be a salesperson!”
FIVE STEPS TO GETTING THE FEES YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
One of the most common laments I hear from service business executives goes like this:
"Our services are becoming a commodity. Everyone is out there saying they can do the same thing we do, pushing fees further and further down. Prospects are just buying on price."
Unfortunately as service providers, there are aspects of what we provide that have become commodities. Price competition is rampant.
However, if you follow these five steps to provide value before, during, and after the sales process, you will get the fees you know you deserve.
THE POWER OF THE MARKETING PYRAMID - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm 1956
Imagine this scenario: you are at a professional services firm that has just come off a fairly good year of growing revenue and profits. You want to continue this growth going into the coming year and have decided you are finally going to take some of these profits and invest in marketing. You have accumulated a list of 1,000 clients, former clients, and prospects to target. Everyone turns to you and asks, “Well, how are we going to invest our hard-earned profits?”
WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING SERVICES: WE DON'T DO MARKETING - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
As we speak with leaders of professional services firms and ask them, "What do you currently do for marketing?" a certain percentage of them reply, "We don't do marketing." What we find, however, is maybe they do more than they think.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
The science and art of professional services marketing have come a long way in the last few years. It is no longer impossible to find examples of marketing efforts planned well, executed well, and measured well. Yet, in spite of these great strides, I continue to see the same marketing sins committed over and over again to the detriment of the firms and the people steering the marketing ship.
What’s frustrating about these sins is that they are all made by intelligent people who have the good sense and ability to avoid them.
DONT WORRY ABOUT YOUR COMPETITION LET THEM WORRY ABOUT YOU - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
What, Me Worry?
- Alfred E. Newman
Who are your closest competitors? How are you going to beat your competition? What makes you better than your competition? What are the differentiating factors between you and your competition?
You get asked these types of questions all the time from your prospects, your clients, and your internal staff. Don't overdo trying to answer them.
TOP 10 LEAD GENERATION MISTAKES MADE BY PROFESSIONAL SERVICES - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
Williamson: [handing Roma lead cards] I'm giving you three leads...
Ricky Roma: Three? No, I count two.
Williamson: There's three leads there…
Ricky Roma: I'm waiting for the new leads.
- Glengarry Glenn Ross, David Mamet 1992
Leads, leads, leads. It seems it is all about leads once the referrals and the circle of family and friends aren’t enough to keep our firms growing. Yet, when it comes to generating leads, most professional services firms get it all wrong in ten very common ways.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR SHORTENING YOUR SALES CYCLE OVER TIME - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way. ~Anonymous
I spend a good percentage of my time selling. I also teach selling to professional service providers. And one issue that comes up time after time is, "How do I get prospects to buy faster? Why don't people respond to my proposals, my calls, my emails, or me? How do I shorten the sales cycle?"
My flip answer, "Have more in the pipeline at all times, so the sales cycle just seems shorter."
Of course, that rarely makes anyone feel better. So based on our research and experience, here are my Ten Commandments to Making the Sales Process Move More Quickly.
INCONCEIVABLE! – 7 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Vizzini: Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
- The Princess Bride
As service firms begin to awaken from a long recession-inspired hibernation period, they are again beginning to think about proactive lead generation. If your firm is stepping-up your outbound marketing, your first step should be to re-examine your firm's thinking about what works and doesn't work.
Consider the following seven service lead generation misconceptions. Destroying these myths can lead to more production and better return-on-investment for your marketing time and dollars.
GIT R DONE: EXECUTING YOUR LEAD GENERATION PLAN - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
Question: On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being "always" and 5 being "never", how often do you stick to project schedules and keep commitments you make to clients?
I'm guessing that most of you would give yourself a 1 (or a 2). Of course you make commitments and keep them. What kind of professional would you be if you didn't? (I don't know about you, but many a service provider has made commitments to me and not kept them. A topic for another time...)
WHATS MISSING FROM SERVICE FIRM MARKETING STRATEGIES - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
Ask 10 professional service firms to see their marketing strategies and you will get an interesting mix of answers. You might get a 50 page document that would get an “A” in any business school class. Some firms might give you a few pages on the tactics they plan to implement by month or quarter. Many firms would say, “Marketing strategy? We're working on getting it down on paper this year.”
BUY BEFORE YOU BUY - GETTING PAID FOR LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Free is Fine, but Can I Pay Instead?
Marketing is expensive. Especially when you sell complex products and services, your investments in brochures, websites, ads, direct mail, and PR can be steep. After all, you need to educate your prospects and seduce them with your solution and its benefits. This is a bit more involved than grabbing people's attention with a free sample for an impulse product like a cube of bubble gum with a gooey surprise in the middle
RAIN SELLING HOW RAINMAKERS LEAD SALES CONVERSATIONS - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Sales Conversations for Services
To advance in their careers and become Rainmakers (those people at services companies that bring in the new clients and revenue), professionals such as accountants, lawyers, management consultants, and technology consultants eventually need to excel at selling professional services. Rarely, however, are these poor souls given a primer on rainmaking, especially when it comes to leading sales conversations and sales meetings. As a result, they often just 'wing it' and learn by doing, making many avoidable mistakes and losing opportunities to win new clients.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CLIENTS REALLY NEED - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
Ray Kinsella: So what do you want?
Terence Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.
Ray Kinsella: No, I mean, what do you WANT?
[Gestures to the concession stand they're in front of]
Terence Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer.
- From the movie Field of Dreams, 1989
All too often it seems I am stuck in this great scene from the movie Field of Dreams (one of my all time favorites) when I ask professional service providers what needs they fill for their clients.
COMMUNICATING THE VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES CREATING A NEW REALITY - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
“…but I know it when I see it.”
- Potter Stewart, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
In writing his ruling on pornography, Justice Stewart probably sounded like so many of the clients you work with as a professional service provider. Since you are selling something clients cannot see or touch, they have a hard time knowing exactly what they are buying and what value they will get in return.
YOUR FEES ARE TOO HIGH STEPS TO HANDLING OBJECTIONS THAT WILL GET YOU CLOSER TO THE SALE - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price.
- Anonymous
How many of us, as professional service providers, have heard from prospects, "your fees are too high," "someone else will do it for less," or "I don't see why I have to pay all that money just to have you do an audit, write a brief, create a marketing plan, etc?" And, more important, how many of us have been able to resist the urge to simply lower our fees to get the work?
THE MYTH OF BEING DIFFERENT - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
One is the loneliest number.
- Three Dog Night
I got a bad grade on my final paper in Entrepreneurship class in graduate school. The professor said, "The business you're proposing to launch...it's not different. Other people do it. While the plan seems well-thought-out, due to the simple truth that this business has been largely done before, and there doesn't seem to be anything truly unique about it, I wouldn't advise launching the business." (So long, stellar GPA...)
Being different and unique seems to be highly regarded by folks that think about, write about, and teach business.
YOU WON THE CLIENT NOW START MARKETING TO THEM - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz
Answer: More often than you think.
Question: How often should I send marketing messages to my current and recent clients?
In How to Market Training and Information, Don Shrello wrote, “Regardless of how often you contact your clients and prospects (those who have already…purchased something from you), you're probably not contacting them enough.
SALES CALL PLANNING WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE EVERY SALES CALL - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
A good part of business development success is, as some say, just showing up. But show up prepared and success is what you will get.
IS THERE ANY VALUE IN YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION FIVE TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING THE REAL VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
Are You Different?
In the course of my work with all manner of professional service firms, I hear a very common lament. “We are becoming a commodity. The prospects just seem to buy on price. We are really good. How can I possibly separate myself from the crowd?”
My usual response is, “What can make you special? Why are you different?”
YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER BUT YOU CANT MAKE HIM SELL OR CAN YOU - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
Recently, we presented to a group of firm leaders across a range of service areas on how to sell professional services. During the Q & A session, one leader of an engineering firm asked, “This is all great stuff, but how do you get them (my engineers) to sell? I mean, I have tried everything, but they still would rather do just about anything but sell.”
Well, short of walking around with a large stick and a menacing attitude, we suggest you will inspire more of the professionals in your firm to sell by helping them get into the right frame of mind to become a rainmaker. It is not just a question of telling them to go out and sell; you need to take care of the following six areas to get the activity you want.
THE THREE R’S OF SERVICE BRANDING: REACH, RECOGNITION, AND REPUTATION - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston
Think about your most recent branding campaign. Were your television ads as successful as you'd like them to be? Perhaps the billboards didn't create the recognition that you were looking for, but your online ads on Yahoo! and AOL worked quite well. Did you pick the right professional athlete to represent your firm's services?
If you're reading this far, and you work at most service businesses, you probably think I'm nuts. You don't do any of this.
Well, maybe you're a big firm and you do (kudos to you), or you've tried something here and there. But in most of our service business realities, advertising-as-a-primary-branding-vehicle is not the norm. And it shouldn't be.
HOW TO CREATE A BRAND ONE PROSPECT AT A TIME - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston
Having spent longer than I care to admit pursuing traditional brand development through advertising, I recently became fascinated with the prospect of building brands using direct response marketing and lead generation activities. (I wonder what my colleagues at the ad firm would think if they knew!)
Traditional wisdom has always told us marketing types that our marketing communications are either 1) emotionally oriented and image based OR 2) direct oriented and response based activities. You simply can't do both at the same time.
Or can you?
ON SERVICE BRANDING, DIFFERENTIATION, AND MARKET SHARE - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr
To maximize profit, managers have pursued the Holy Grail of becoming number one or two in their industries. Recently, however, new measures of service industries like software and banking suggest that customer loyalty is a more important determinant of profit.
- James Heskett, et. al., Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work, Harvard Business Review
Product companies seek to become market-share leaders. To do this, they look to launch and manage a portfolio of differentiated products that have specific features most appealing to a specific target audience for a reasonable (but as high as possible) price.
STAYING TOP OF MIND WITHOUT BEING A PAIN IN THE NECK - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr
“And if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with,
love the one you're with, love the one you're with, love the one you're with.…”
- Stephen Stills
Why does it seem that our clients (and prospects) too often take the advice of seventies rock stars when selecting their professional services providers? Perhaps the following story will shed some light.
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Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dr. John Oda
John Oda Ph.D NLP is a business peak performance expert, an author, and speaker frequently called upon to provide corporate training, workshops and seminars for many companies in the United States. He is an expert in coaching sales and business professionals in overcoming the behaviors and obstacles that may impede their sales results and affect their bottom line. Since 1995, John has created a speaking bureau such topics, which include: time management, sales training, human diversity, leadership programs and etc. He provides companies with a strategic plan to increase their bottom line by over 25 percent yearly. - Visit Dr. John Oda's Website |
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George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance.
Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson.
His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more.
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Anne Barr
Anne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations,
networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business
ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Laurie Stafinski
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