Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

The Art of Follow-On Selling

It’s accepted wisdom among professional service providers that the shortest path to new business is to extend or expand services with existing clients. After all, an incumbent firm with a strong track record should find opportunities as new needs arise for current clients.

Unfortunately, those opportunities can be tough to capture on a consistent basis.

On Monday, March 26, I’ll be leading a webcast to discuss a systematic strategy and specific steps to accelerate success in selling follow-on work. Here’s a link to find out more about this webcast, The Art of Follow-On Selling.

The Art of the Client Interview

When I was asked to single out the one piece of advice I thought was essential for selling professional services, mastering the art of the client interview ended up at the top of my list of must-have skills.

Whether it's done by phone or a personal visit, a sales interview with a prospective client kicks sets the stage for what--if anything--you will get the chance to do for that client.

This month’s Guerrilla Consultant article focuses on why the client interview can make or break a sales opportunity, and how to use the client interview to make a great first impression and gather the information you need to win the work.

Enjoy the article, and let me know what you think.

Tom Peters' 111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on SELLING

Tom Peters has published 111 Ridiculously Obvious Thoughts on Selling, which has some real gems of wisdom. It's available for download in PDF format.

Here are five of my favorites:

• Non-obvious targets have great potential.

• Are you a great interviewer? It's a make or break skill.

• Don't waste your time on jerks--it'll rarely work out in the mid- to long-term.

• This is not a war, damn it.

• Lend a helping hand, especially when you don't have time.

You'll find 106 other ideas in Peters' latest rant that are right on target if you're selling professional services.

Words Are Worth a Thousand Pictures

Whether it’s a Web site, advertisement, or other marketing collateral, we’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Having a visual of the product enhances marketing communication, we’re told, because people don’t have time to read. I don’t doubt that people fail to read most of the advertising copy they come across, but that’s because of the hype that’s part of most ad copy, not people’s lack of time to read.

In a study of 3,600 consumers, researchers concluded that to get people to notice an ad, text was twice as important as pictures. Your clients are interested in reading about your services, but you must grab their attention. What’s new about your offering? What’s your story? Is there news?

What’s most important is that the fluff be ruthlessly eliminated from your ad copy, Web page or other marketing communication. If you include hype and half-truths, you make it nearly impossible for clients to separate the wheat from the chaff. The result: a lost sale. Ten different studies have shown that when the bull is stripped from ads, consumer interest skyrockets.

Of course, other studies have shown that long ad copy does work when selling products and services. When it comes to marketing consulting services, though, to improve your client’s rate of interest, make every word count. And remember that the “right” words, not just any words, are the ones that sell.

Double the Power of the Benefits You Offer

It’s axiomatic that you should sell benefits, not features. Many consultants work hard to clarify the value of their offerings, and that helps clients make informed decisions. But can you do more?

To boost the value of your product or service in the minds of clients, do what some politicians are famous for—go negative. No, that doesn't mean you should slam the competition. Instead, think about the attributes of your offering that could help clients prevent a loss or avoid a risk, and include those attributes along with the benefits you normally spell out.

The urge to avoid loss is a powerful motivating force in buying behavior. In one study, business buyers were motivated to invest in Internet technologies due to fear of obsolescence, not because of the opportunity to enhance their businesses.

Some consultants sell exclusively on fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I’m not advocating that questionable approach.

But an honest assessment of how your product can avert a loss focuses the client’s attention squarely on what makes your product different. Include that assessment in your sales and marketing communication to add some punch to your proposal. That may be just the differentiator you need.

When to Give Up on a Sale

Many consultants know intuitively when they’ve hit the wall and a prospective client isn’t going to buy. Others give up too early, while still others keep hitting their heads against that wall. So when do you stop trying to convert a prospect to a client?

At a minimum, you should plan three to five sales discussions with a prospective client before throwing in the towel. Research shows that a prospective client’s first opinion is often incorrect, and that it’s not until the third exposure that the client can fairly evaluate proposed benefits. Assuming you've made the value of the offering clear, that’s when the client’s positive thoughts are most likely to outnumber the negatives.

The key is to keep the door open so you get to the third presentation, whether that’s in person, by phone, e-mail, or other mode. Consider staging how you communicate your marketing and sales messages to your prospective clients. Use the first interaction to spark interest, the second to clarify value, and the third to respond to concerns and ask for the sale. That sequence isn’t set in stone—your client’s needs must dictate how you proceed.

Of course, you won’t always need three meetings—sometimes once is enough for a client to buy. But even if a client says yes in the first meeting, don’t assume it’s a done deal. There is a chance that client will decide not to buy after the initial decision. 

At some point, though, it’s best to call it a day. If you’ve given four or five sales presentations, you may still close a sale but, by then, the odds are working against you.

Selling Doesn't Have to Be So Hard

Why do some consultants generate leads and win project work with ease, while others wait for an eternity just to get a response to an e-mail or a voice mail sent to a prospective client?

In the latest issue of Management Consulting News, Jill Konrath, sales strategist and author of the new book, Selling to Big Companies, has the answer. Her advice is practical, relevant, counter-intuitive, and it works.

Have a look at the interview with Konrath.

Read the latest issue of Management Consulting News.

The Law of 250: How to Become the World’s Best

Maybe you’ve heard of Joe Girard. He’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Greatest Salesman.

That’s quite a claim, but in Joe’s case it just might be true. All by himself, he sold more cars per year than 95% of all the dealerships in North America. And he did it for more than a dozen years in a row. In fact, he consistently sold more than twice as many cars as whoever finished second.

So how did he do it? Well, one thing he did was to apply his Law of 250. Girard believed that everybody knew about 250 people. If he could get everybody he came in contact with to remember him and recommend him to their friends, it would expand his marketing efforts 250-fold. 

Joe committed himself to staying in touch with every lead, prospect, and customer he had ever acquired. He did it with greeting cards. He sent out over thirteen thousand cards every month, each of them personally signed. He mailed them in plain envelopes, always a different size or color, so that nobody would think they were junk mail. 

So did it work? 

Well, he’s in the Guinness Book of World Records, isn’t he?
 
We have it a lot easier than Joe did. We don’t have to send out cards every month. We don’t have to spend money on postage. We can't send our prospects seven or eight e-mails in the course of a year, maybe one or two clippings that will be of interest to them, and maybe two or three greeting cards.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re dealing with moms and pops who are buying cars or tax preparation services, or if you’re dealing with senior executives who are placing million dollar contracts. People like to do business with people they like, and if you pay attention to them on a regular basis, they are more likely to like you. The point is to stay in contact, maintain rapport, and keep our customers thinking of us. 

Authored by: Tom Sant
Author of Persuasive Business Proposals and the forthcoming The Giants of Sales.
You can reach Tom at tsant@hydeparkpartnerscal.com

More on Solution Selling

I just finished reading an advance copy of Jill Konrath’s forthcoming book, Selling to Big Companies, which hits the bookshelves in December. Jill has some good advice that we should keep in mind:

 “Never try to convince prospects that you have a great solution. Instead use questions to demonstrate your deep knowledge of their most pressing business concerns.”

I won’t give away anything else from the book, but you might want to pre-order it to get a jump on your New Year’s resolutions. I’ll be interviewing Jill in-depth about her book for a future issue of Management Consulting News.

Closing the Sale

Sales consultant Jill Konrath hates the use of sales “closing techniques.” Her recent post, Why I Hate Closing Techniques, recalls a conversation she had with a VP of Sales about his need to help the sales force get better at closing sales.

Jill Writes: “If I've heard that line once, I've heard it a hundred times. Despite being on an important sales call, I couldn't help but cringe. You see, I will never, ever train people on closing techniques if they sell to the corporate marketplace.

Why not? When you analyze what happens when you teach sellers how to be great closers, you'll understand my perspective.”

You can read her take on closing sales. She exposes the flaws of the serial closer by looking at the process from the customer's perspective.

Having been a buyer and seller of services, I couldn’t agree with her more.