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Over the years, one of my chief objectives has been to help technical professionals become more comfortable with the sales role. My reasoning is easily understandable: Discomfort with sales keeps many professionals from getting actively involved. More involvement, logic would suggest, will lead to more sales. That makes perfect sense, but is getting reluctant technical professionals more engaged the best route to increased sales? Or would it be more productive to help those already in lead sales and marketing roles to improve their approach? Having worked with many marketing professionals and seller-doers in our industry, I see a lot of room for improvement. And ironically, a good place to start with this group would be making them more uncomfortable with selling. Here's why: Most people don't like being on the buyer's side of the sales transaction (precisely why many technical professionals don't care to be cast in the seller's role). Think about your own impressions of salespeople and marketers. Do you appreciate calls from telemarketers, television and radio commercials, junk mail, spam, or pop-up internet ads? How do you think your clients feel? Of course, you would never equate selling professional services with telemarketers and spam, would you? But the similarities are greater than we'd probably like to admit. I have accompanied numerous engineers, architects, and other technical professionals on sales calls over the years. Interestingly, they commonly default to the very model of selling that they resent: Talking too much, focusing on themselves and their companies, not listening well. Why? Because that's the approach to selling that we've all experienced. So if we're going to unlearn those bad habits, we need to become more uncomfortable with traditional sales and marketing. That was the big turning point for me as a business development professional. I took off my rose-colored glasses and realized I needed to shift the characteristic focus of my selling from myself and my firm to the client. That was the genesis of what I've come to call Service-Centered Selling. Principles of Service-Centered Selling
Service-Centered Selling
is the application of service excellence to the way we develop new
business for our companies. Remember, great service happens in the
context of a strong relationship with the client. Selling is essentially
how we initiate that relationship. It’s courtship. Naturally the way we
start the relationship sets the tone for how it will develop. If we want
the client to value the service difference we offer, we should begin
demonstrating it during the sales process. That difference likely then
becomes the key factor in our being selected for the work.
Service-Centered Selling
is more than an approach or strategy. There are numerous excellent books
and seminars that teach similar methodologies—in fact, I’ve incorporated
many of them. But it wasn’t technique alone that got me over the hump,
nor does that seem to work for most technical professionals either. What I needed was a new attitude, a new mindset. That’s why Service-Centered Selling pushes us to reexamine both the how and the why of the way we develop new business. It engages both the head and the heart. Here are the core principles behind Service-Centered Selling: u
FOCUS: Serving, not selling.
While most people hate to be sold, everyone appreciates being served. When
selling profes u MOTIVATION: Meeting client needs, not primarily our own. Perhaps the greatest reason for our discomfort with salespeople is that we distrust their motives. We suspect they are driven by their own needs, not ours. So when does your firm make sales a priority? Is it not when you really need the revenue? Do you think clients don't notice? Client focus is not as easy to fake as many of us think it is. So you'll not likely make a substantial transition in your sales effectiveness until you're truly motivated by serving the client. u
Goal:
Developing profitable relationships, not just pursuing projects. A
sometimes myopic focus on winning and doing projects plagues our
industry. This despite the fact that most firms boast that 80 percent or
more of their work comes from repeat clients. Sustainable success is
founded on enduring client relationships. Not surprisingly, those firms
that concentrate on building relationships during the sales
process—versus simply chasing the project—have a distinct advantage. u
Commitment:
Time spent with the client is always mutually beneficial.
Traditional sales calls waste a lot of the client’s time. Those in sales
roles in our business often recoil when I mention this. They mistake the
client's willingness to meet with them--and even be friendly with
them--as evidence that the client feels it's time well spent. But the
fact is that clients almost always have something better to do than
entertain our sales call. That is, unless, we make a commitment to
always bring something of value to every sales call in exchange for the
client's time. This is what I call the "entree," which typically
involves helping the client address a need or solve a problem. In
Service-Centered Selling, we don't just talk about solutions, we start
delivering them. u OUTCOME: The "sales process" becomes the primary way you differentiate your firm. Qualifications-Based Selection rules may prevent clients from shopping your services on price (sometimes), but don't assume clients really make decisions based on qualifications. The truth is they screen firms based on qualifications (sometimes), then select the one they feel most comfortable with. The trust-building, relationship-building advantages of Service-Centered Selling will take you much further than touting your credentials (which is traditional selling). Don't tell clients how good you are, show them! Copyright © 2008, The Business Edge, all rights reserved
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