OUR BLOG

LEADERSHIP

Who Should Be On Your Leadership Council?
When Service Firm Leaders Perfect Deliberation, They Reignite Growth
Five Reasons Service Firm Leaders Should Score Their Business Monthly
What Should You Expect From Your Service Firm Leadership Team?
Do You Have A Leadership Team Or A Leadership Council?
Ten Traits Of Organizationally Healthy Professional Service Firms
To Grow Your Professional Service Firm, Prize Culture Over Strategy
TP35: The One Tipping Point Mid-Size Service Firms Must Address To Keep Growing
Seven Reasons Most Mid-Size Service Firms Don’t Grow Very Much
Five Reasons Mid-Size Service Firms Need A New Leadership Operating Model
How Leaders Can Address The Growth Tipping Point For Mid-Sized Service Firms
Five Reasons Professional Service Leaders Should Prize EQ Over IQ
Why Mid-Size Service Firm Leadership Teams Need Collective Objectives To Grow
How To Grow Your Mid-Sized Service Firm: Jealously Protect Your Focused Energy
Why Professional Service Firms Should Consider Circle Of Seven Mentoring Networks
How A Leader’s Energy Field Impacts Team Productivity
Don’t Trade Misery For Money: How Professional Service Firms Can Leverage The Great Resignation
Strong Personality Vs. Strong Person: The Makeup Of A Leadership Council
Custer Or Marshall: Why Mid-Size Service Firms Must Choose Their Leadership Model
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Define And Defend Your Values
If You Want To Grow Your Mid-Size Service Firm, Establish A Formal Leadership Council
Want To Grow Your Professional Service Firm? Focus On The One
If You Want To Grow Your Midsize Professional Service Firm, Align Your Leaders
Why Midsize Service Firm Leaders Must Think Like Entrepreneurs To Grow
How To Grow A Mid-Size Professional Service Firm Today
Why It's Important For Great Leaders To Tell Great Stories
How Great Leaders Persuade Using Word-Pictures
How The Say-Do Ratio Influences Trusted Advisor Status And Profits
Why Service Firm Leaders Should Nurture The Entrepreneurial Instincts Of Their Top People

SALES

Five Strategies For Midsize Service Firms To Break Through Revenue Plateaus
How Pro Service Firms Can Fix The ‘Drop Everything — Chase Money’ Problem
Prospect, Originate, Navigate: How To Fill Your Professional Service Pipeline
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Think Carefully About Your Promise
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 7
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 6
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 5
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 4
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 3
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 2
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 1
How Mid-Size Service Firms Can Acquire Great New Clients On LinkedIn
Five Ways The Consultative Sale Improves Profits
How To Win The Complex Service Sale Consistently
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough

MARKETING

How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Why Service Firms Need A Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Does Your Website Attract Ideal Clients?
Why Service Firms Need The Ultimate Digital Marketing Stack
The Myth Of The Time-Starved Service Buyer
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
Why You Need A Generous Brand
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
Are You Measuring Your Time Funnel?
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Five Digital Marketing KPIs
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Is Your Website Open For Business
How To Build A Great Digital Marketing Plan
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
The Value Of An Idea Driven Website
Who Benefits From Your Content?
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
How To Get The Greatest Value From Content Marketing
Why You Should Absolutely Give Away Your Best Ideas
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
How To Nurture Ideal Prospects

REGISTER FOR BLOG

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

HOW TO SELL PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TODAY – PART 1

WINNING WITH INTEGRITY

I want to ask you a question.  When I use the term “sales person” what image comes to mind for you?  Do you think of a slick huckster who will do or say anything to close a deal?  Do you think of someone who lacks integrity and is prone to lying or at least over-promising?  Do you envision someone who is not trustworthy and is maybe lacking in scruples? 

This is not at all how I think of sales or of selling, especially for professional services.  I believe the exact opposite is true.  The best sales or business development people I’ve known over the years have very high integrity, are completely trustworthy and hold the respect and admiration of everyone around them.  They are great people as well as great sellers. 

Over the next several thought pieces, I want to share with you what works today in selling professional services.  These are my lessons learned from 25 years of marketing, sales and entrepreneurship.  I believe success in selling starts with adopting the right mindset.  Let me share with you how character and integrity are crucial to success in selling services.

KEY TAKE-AWAY:

 

IN THE TRIPLE WIN, THE CLIENT WINS, THE SALES PERSON WINS AND THE DELIVERY TEAM WINS.

Who This Counsel Is For

I want to make sure I don’t waste your time.  So I’d like to tell you, right up front, who this counsel is for.  Over the last 25 years or so, I’ve been fortunate to serve some very successful professional service organizations.  Most of these firms have realized substantial growth in new client acquisition, revenues and profits. 

I’ve designed the counsel in these thought pieces on professional services sales for mid-size service firms with 15-150 staff who want to at least double their revenue.  These firms have a history of success.  They’re often the best-kept-secret in their industry.  Whereas in the past, they’ve been successful accidentally, they are now ready to be successful on purpose.

My counsel is for firms in a number of different professional service industries including:

  • Technology consulting 
  • Financial services – particularly RIAs
  • CPA and accounting
  • Law firms
  • Business consulting
  • Management consulting
  • Software-as-a-Service 
  • Coaching
  • Engineering
  • Architecture

The ideas I’m about to share are for people who bear sales or business development responsibilities.  This might be someone who wants to improve their sales capabilities or someone who is new to business development and service sales.  It could also be someone who’s transitioning from a technical role to business development. 

The counsel I’ll provide is applicable to nearly any type of service sale.  I see very different types of sales engagements, depending on the business model of the organization.  For instance, some of our clients only sell in a B2B context, where they are selling services, often managed services, to another business.  Other clients engage in what I call the B2HEC sale – the high-end consumer. 

This requires a bit of distinction from the start.  The B2B sale can be very complex and multi-phased, lasting up to a year or more.  The deals are large.  This sale usually involves a committee of decision-makers whose concerns have to be addressed in full to win the deal.  The B2HEC sale can be much shorter, sometimes resulting in a close in just a single meeting. 

So as you progress through what I’m about to share with you, please use what is applicable to your type of sales engagements.  Because the B2B sale is often complex, I will share a lot of insights to accelerate your success in this area. 

The Triple Win

I want to introduce in this thought piece the concept of a triple win.  This is the sales mindset that I encourage you to adopt.  It goes like this.  In the triple win, the client wins, the sales person wins and the delivery team wins.  That’s the triple win and it is a direct counterpoint to the lose-win-lose sales mindset that is prevalent today in so many service firms.  Let me explain.

In the triple win, the client wins because they are deeply satisfied by a sales process that anticipates their needs from the start.  The sales person listens to them carefully, pushes back on ideas that are inappropriate and guides the client toward a service package that is ideal for their goals and budget. 

The sales person wins in this model because they have a very high close rate, often a 100% close-rate.  They are a hero in their organization and hold the respect of people around them, especially people on the delivery team.  The sales person sleeps well at night, knowing that they did the right thing by the client.

In the triple win, the delivery team is delighted to begin serving a new client because the sales person did such a good job on-boarding the client.   The business ultimately wins because the client is happy, stays long-term, pays their bills on time and then refers other great clients.  These are the benefits of the triple win.

In the lose-win-lose model, by comparison, the client loses, the sales person wins and the delivery team and the business also lose.  In this model, the sales person did whatever it took to close a deal and then threw the client over a wall to the delivery team who often has no insight into promises made to the client through the sales process.  I’ve known way too many service organizations who employ this sales model.  It is a formula for failure. 

Here is my thesis to you.  If you adopt the win-win-win mindset, your career, your personal compensation and your sense of integrity will all flourish.  You will love who you are and what you do.  You will like who you see in the mirror.  You will live by a moral code that was around long before you came to be on planet Earth and will be around long after you leave planet Earth.  You will be proud of your work and of the way you’ve treated your clients.  This is the power of the triple win. 

KEY TAKE-AWAY:

 

IF YOU ADOPT THE WIN-WIN-WIN MINDSET, YOUR CAREER, INCOME AND INTEGRITY WILL FLOURISH.

How To Adopt The Triple Win Mindset

The triple win requires you to re-think what it means to sell.  In this model, your role is to help clients acquire the best service package for their needs and to ensure that the delivery team can deliver in full against the promises you make.  Here are the outcomes that I consistently see when people adopt the triple win.  These people:

  1. Drive revenue for their firm and exceed their quota (if they have one)
  2. Produce happy long-term clients who refer them and their firm
  3. Deliver a great experience through the sales process that makes prospects say wow
  4. Set expectations about how the client will be served long-term
  5. Produce a deal that the delivery team can seamlessly deliver against

In the triple win mindset, the goal is not to close a deal.  The goal is to discover if there is a fit between what the prospect needs and what you do.  Think of this like an exploratory journey where you are seeing if you can work together.  This can be really hard when you have business development responsibilities or carry a quota.  I get that.  But if you take shortcuts and try to push deals forward that you know are not a good fit, this will only hurt your career, your sense of integrity and your company.

A Metaphor For How To Sell Professional Services Today

Here is how I think of professional services sales today.  This is like a ship passing through a set of locks, like the Panama Canal, to go from a lower body of water to a higher body of water.  As the ship passes through the gates, water enters the lock so a ship can gently and steadily rise from a lower to a higher body of water.

Professional services sales is simply about getting a series of gates to fall open so you can proceed toward the end-goal, serving the client very well.  In professional service sales, you will likely encounter a series of steps, not a single event, unless you deploy the B2HEC sale.  I think of these steps as a sales campaign.  In each phase of the campaign, your job is to fill the client with confidence that moving ahead with your firm is in their best interest.

However, it is equally as important to pause forward movement if the prospect is not ready or even to abandon forward movement if the prospect does not fit the ideal client profile.  I’ll explain more about these two concepts in a future thought piece.

Be on the lookout for my thought piece where I’ll describe how to align the three teams who are crucial to this process: marketing, sales and delivery.  Until then, I’m wishing you the very best of success.

About The Author

Randy Shattuck is a seasoned entrepreneur who works hand-in-hand with senior leaders of mid-size professional service firms to grow revenues, acquire clients, open new markets, increase profits and effectively position their brands.

OUR BLOG

LEADERSHIP

Who Should Be On Your Leadership Council?
When Service Firm Leaders Perfect Deliberation, They Reignite Growth
Five Reasons Service Firm Leaders Should Score Their Business Monthly
What Should You Expect From Your Service Firm Leadership Team?
Do You Have A Leadership Team Or A Leadership Council?
Ten Traits Of Organizationally Healthy Professional Service Firms
To Grow Your Professional Service Firm, Prize Culture Over Strategy
TP35: The One Tipping Point Mid-Size Service Firms Must Address To Keep Growing
Seven Reasons Most Mid-Size Service Firms Don’t Grow Very Much
Five Reasons Mid-Size Service Firms Need A New Leadership Operating Model
How Leaders Can Address The Growth Tipping Point For Mid-Sized Service Firms
Five Reasons Professional Service Leaders Should Prize EQ Over IQ
Why Mid-Size Service Firm Leadership Teams Need Collective Objectives To Grow
How To Grow Your Mid-Sized Service Firm: Jealously Protect Your Focused Energy
Why Professional Service Firms Should Consider Circle Of Seven Mentoring Networks
How A Leader’s Energy Field Impacts Team Productivity
Don’t Trade Misery For Money: How Professional Service Firms Can Leverage The Great Resignation
Strong Personality Vs. Strong Person: The Makeup Of A Leadership Council
Custer Or Marshall: Why Mid-Size Service Firms Must Choose Their Leadership Model
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Define And Defend Your Values
If You Want To Grow Your Mid-Size Service Firm, Establish A Formal Leadership Council
Want To Grow Your Professional Service Firm? Focus On The One
If You Want To Grow Your Midsize Professional Service Firm, Align Your Leaders
Why Midsize Service Firm Leaders Must Think Like Entrepreneurs To Grow
How To Grow A Mid-Size Professional Service Firm Today
Why It's Important For Great Leaders To Tell Great Stories
How Great Leaders Persuade Using Word-Pictures
How The Say-Do Ratio Influences Trusted Advisor Status And Profits
Why Service Firm Leaders Should Nurture The Entrepreneurial Instincts Of Their Top People

SALES

Five Strategies For Midsize Service Firms To Break Through Revenue Plateaus
How Pro Service Firms Can Fix The ‘Drop Everything — Chase Money’ Problem
Prospect, Originate, Navigate: How To Fill Your Professional Service Pipeline
To Grow Your Mid-Size Professional Service Firm, Think Carefully About Your Promise
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 7
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 6
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 5
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 4
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 3
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 2
How To Sell Professional Services Today – Part 1
How Mid-Size Service Firms Can Acquire Great New Clients On LinkedIn
Five Ways The Consultative Sale Improves Profits
How To Win The Complex Service Sale Consistently
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
How To Break The Grip Of Rainmaker Culture
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
How To Know When Prospects Are Ready
How To Pull Prospects Into Conversations
Nurture Organic Relationships Online
How To Build Relationships With Jaded Prospects
Do Prospects Want To Buy Or Be Sold?
Close Deals Faster Using Proof Statements
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough

MARKETING

How To Market Managed Services - Part 3
How To Market Managed Services - Part 2
How To Market Managed Services Today – Part 1
Why Service Firms Need A Multichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Does Your Website Attract Ideal Clients?
Why Service Firms Need The Ultimate Digital Marketing Stack
The Myth Of The Time-Starved Service Buyer
Do You Choose Clients Or Do They Choose You?
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
Why You Need A Generous Brand
How Content Impacts The Service Sale
Are You Measuring Your Time Funnel?
How To Get Mindshare With Busy Decision-Makers
How To Get Great Prospects Leaning In
How Digital Marketing Creates Sales Funnel Velocity
Five Digital Marketing KPIs
Do Your Users Experience Content Regret?
Content Registrations Are Not Enough
Is Your Website Open For Business
How To Build A Great Digital Marketing Plan
Digital Marketing Perfect For Complex Sales – Part 2
Digital Marketing Is Perfect For The Complex Sale
The Value Of An Idea Driven Website
Who Benefits From Your Content?
Your Best New Client Is Looking For You
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 3
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 2
Why Service Firms Should Focus On Ideal Clients– Part 1
How To Get The Greatest Value From Content Marketing
Why You Should Absolutely Give Away Your Best Ideas
Do This to Fill Your Sales Funnel
What You Must Do To Acquire New Clients
An Audience Of One
How to Attract New Ideal Clients
Are You A Content Marketer Or A Thought Leader?
Consider The Source: Theorist Or Practitioner
Why Pain Points Are Not Enough
How To Nurture Ideal Prospects