How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services

ISBN-13: 9781119434702 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 272 str.

Doug Fletcher

Opis

The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the 'product, ' you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job--not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or 'behind' when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You'll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you'll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients. Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be.

• Get the word out and make productive connections
• Drop the fear of self-promotion and advertise your accomplishments
• Earn potential clients' trust to build a lasting relationship
• Scrap the sales pitch in favor of honesty, positivity, and value

Working in the consulting and professional services fields comes with difficulties not encountered by those who sell tangible products. Services are often under-valued, and become among the first things to go when budgets get tight. It is now harder than ever to sell professional services, so your game must be on-point if you hope to out-compete the field. How Clients Buy shows you how to level up and start winning the client list of your dreams.

Spis treści

THE PROBLEM1 A Curious Problem 32 Finders, Minders, and Grinders 14The Business Development ImperativeOBSTACLES3 Beyond Pixels 27Selling a Service Is Different from Selling Things (and Harder)4 Obstacle #1--What They Didn't Teach You in B-School 37If I Am Supposed to Be the Expert, Why Do I Feel So Stupid about Sales?5 Obstacle #2--But I Don't Want to Sell 45Moving Past Willy Loman6 Obstacle #3--Things Aren't What They Once Were 56It Is Harder Than Ever to Sell Expert Services7 Obstacle #4--A Blizzard of Bad Advice 67Everything You Know about Sales Is WrongHOW CLIENTS BUY8 The Secret to Selling 83Never Say Sell9 Element 1--I Am Aware of You 95What Was the Name of Your Firm Again?10 Element 2--I Understand What You Do 112You Do What?11 Element 3--I Am Interested 127These Are My Goals12 Element 4--I Respect Your Work 138You Have the Right Stuff to Help Me13 Element 5--I Trust You 154You Have My Best Interests at Heart14 Element 6--I Am Able 168I've Got Budget and Buy-In15 Element 7--I Am Ready 181The Timing Is RightPUTTING THE SEVEN ELEMENTS TO WORK16 A Chain Is as Strong as Its Weakest Link 197Using the Seven Elements as a Diagnostic Tool17 Getting to Work 212Learning to Think and Act Like a Rainmaker18 All Business Is Local 223From the Silk Road to the Information Superhighway19 Our Vision of the Future 229A Roadmap for ChangeNotes and References 241Acknowledgments 248About the Authors 251Index 253

O autorze

TOM McMAKIN is CEO of Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE), a leading provider of business development services for consulting and professional services firms. Previously, he held leadership positions in private equity and served as the chief operating officer of Great Harvest Bread Co, a multi–unit operator of bread stores. Tom is the author of Bread and Butter, a critically– acclaimed book that describes his work at Great Harvest and how he and his team created a nationally recognized corporate learning community and culture of best practices using collaborative networks. He has appeared on the pages of Fast Company, Inc. magazine, Newsweek, BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal and speaks widely. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and former Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.

DOUG FLETCHER currently splits his time between speaking/writing/coaching on the topic of business development in consulting and professional services and teaching at the Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship at Montana State University. He also serves on the Board of Directors of The Beacon Group, a growth strategy consulting firm headquartered in Portland, Maine. Prior to that, he was co–founder and CEO of North Star Consulting Group, a technology–enabled consulting firm that specialized in global web–survey projects. Earlier in his professional life, Doug served as a consultant with the management consultancy, A.T. Kearney, and was trained at General Electric in its leadership development program. He is a graduate of Clemson University and has an MBA from the University of Virginia′s Darden School of Business Administration.

www.howclientsbuy.net

Blurb

Praise for HOW CLIENTS BUY

"A terrific resource for anyone looking to build a successful client service business. McMakin and Fletcher are spot on citing quality and trust as cornerstones."
Lynne Doughtie, U.S. Chairman and CEO, KPMG

"How Clients Buy provides essential advice to professionals who have to step up from delivering services to selling them."
Ford Harding, author of Rain Making and Creating Rainmakers

" Tom and Doug offer well grounded, practical advice on how to enhance business building, the most important skill any business, large or small, must tackle to grow and prosper. They take an ′outside in′ (client perspective) view and offer important personal guidance on how to be an effective ′grinder, minder and a finder.′ Their book is fun, easy to read and well worth the time invested."
Gary Singer, CMO, A.T. Kearney

"The best written book on the subject. If you′re a lawyer, accountant, or management consultant, read it on a plane ride home and change the trajectory of your career."
Jeffery Fox, author of How to Become a Rainmaker

"Selling expertise is hard. If your goal is to build your practice, Tom and Doug′s book is a master class in how it′s done."
Jeff Shore, author of The Buyer′s Experience and Host of The Buyer′s Mind podcast