How to sell professional services
How To Market & Sell Professional Services Today
I've been a professional service
marketer and entrepreneur now for nearly
25 years and over the course of my
career I've worn many hats but I've
always been in the business of growing
service firms sometimes that means
growing brand awareness sometimes that
means repositioning brands sometimes
that means productizing services so they
are easier to sell sometimes that means
coaching sales and business development
teams but there is one thing that has
not changed over those 25 years I
believe the fundamental goal of
marketing is to make a firm more
valuable there are many ways to do this
many initiatives that could contribute
to the goal but the goal itself adding
value really hasn't changed what has
changed a great deal
over the past 10 years is how service
firms go to market how they build
trusted relationships with prospects and
how they acquire great new clients
there's been nothing less than an
earthquake of disruption and service
marketing it's radically different today
than when I started my career yet the
goal remains the same add value what's
the best way to do that today
how should sales and marketing leaders
build their strategy what should be in
and what should be out of your plans
what is the best way to apply your
resources to most likely realize growth
well here are my perspectives
when I look at all of the changes that
have taken place in professional service
marketing and sales over the last decade
or so I'm struck by one phenomenon while
the tactics have changed tremendously
the strategy remains relatively constant
and here it is if you want to be
successful in growing a professional
service firm you have to get in front of
the right people and tell them the right
story you have to make the right
promises and those promises need to be
compelling and meaningful for those
people then you have to deliver against
your promises without question you have
to maintain your credibility if you do
this you'll grow that's it
it's really that simple so the strategy
really hasn't changed what has changed
tremendously over the last several years
is the number of ways you can tell that
story the messaging platforms and the
ways you can get in front of the right
people the channels but the process of
telling stories and making promises
really is not all that different today
than it was when I started my career
this is where a lot of service firms are
making mistakes today and running into
some pretty significant challenges just
because you're telling your story on
Twitter today versus the direct mail
piece 20 years ago that doesn't mean the
story or the promise can be any less
meaningful this is why it my advice to
you about how to build your sales and
marketing plans starts with the
foundation of everything else
positioning in fact here are my four
areas for sales and marketing success
and professional services today one
developed the best position to deploy
content marketing 3 acquire the right
technology systems and 4 adopt a
scientific or orientation let's look at
each one of these in greater detail
positioning concerns being crystal clear
about who you want to serve and how you
impact them when your position is clear
there is no doubt about who your ID
ideal client is or what you can do for
them this is the single biggest area
where I see professional service firms
struggling today let me explain what I
mean by this if I were to ask an
accountant what do you do
they might answer I'm an accountant if I
were to ask a lawyer the same question
they might say I'm a lawyer if I ask an
engineer they might say I'm an engineer
the same is true of an architect a
financial advisor or even a professional
coach but none of these statements
actually answer the question let me
provide some alternatives that I think
make this point about position and clear
I'll ask the question and answer by
professional service provider what do
you do account I help entrepreneurs
realize their financial dreams by
optimizing cash flows and reducing taxes
lawyer
I protect and enhance the value of a
company's most important assets their
intellectual property architect I
empower land developers to design and
build spaces that human beings love to
occupy financial advisor I give families
peace of mind knowing that they are on
track to accomplish the financial goals
that matter most to them coach I inspire
and guide the next generation of leaders
to break through to new heights of
personal performance and quality of life
IT consultant I accelerate my clients
toward their goals with technology
systems that improve productivity and
stakeholder delight you see the key
component of positioning is not what its
who who do you serve
what do they want to accomplish then
it's how how do you serve these people
how does you serving them propel them
toward their goals more effectively than
if you were not serving them finally
there is the what what do you do what
service do you offer but the what always
comes after the WHO and the how the
biggest mistake I see in service
marketing and selling is focused
the what and virtually ignoring the who
this is completely backwards this also
makes your story completely
indistinguishable from every other
service organization on the planet today
there are thousands of accountants
lawyers architects financial advisers
coaches and IT consultants the question
becomes why would someone pick your firm
rather than a firm down the street if
you want to win you have to position for
the WHO and the how the who is who you
serve the how is how what you do impacts
them in ways that are meaningful to them
if you get your positioning right then
everything else will follow
content marketing is the single greatest
opportunity I've ever witnessed to tell
great stories it is so important in fact
that I've developed an action guide
about this topic it's called seven steps
to a content marketing program that
consistently yields ideal clients and
it's free on our website the action
guide contains seven videos and seven
downloadable tools so what is content
marketing well I think of content
marketing as the ultimate try before you
buy opportunity for prospective clients
you see herein lies the problem with
services they're intangible I cannot
hold them in my hand or compare the
features and benefits of this service
versus that service there is no credible
buyer's guide that allows me to compare
either service offerings or service
providers this means as a service buyer
I'm taking a lot of risk I have to trust
a service provider a great deal to sign
an agreement that says in so many words
I'll give you a lot of money and you'll
give me nothing tangible in return
now that's faith what service buyers are
actually acquiring believe it or not is
the opportunity to achieve an outcome
that matters to them they're not buying
your services per se they are buying a
likelihood a probability and this
probability sounds to them something
like this by hiring you to achieve this
goal I am far more likely to reel
the outcome that I desire then if I try
to do this on my own or if I hire some
other service provider so the question
becomes what inspires them to take that
leap of faith what causes them to say
yes to your promise and my experience
there's one question that matters more
than any other as it relates to getting
a yes how are you going to accomplish
this goal from me from my business from
my family this is the single most
important question I train service sales
and business development people to
listen for this is the question that all
of our content strategies are designed
to elicit we want today's sophisticated
service buyer to self persuade using
digital resources and content and then
ask that all-important question this
question how will you do it for me is
really about approach service buyers
want to know what your approach will be
to accomplishing the goals that matter
to them
in fact I've come to believe that
approach matters just as much as
high-profile people and a respected
brand that's well recognized in your
industry when people say yes to your
service offering they're really saying
yes to your approach so the question
becomes how do they learn about that
approach and what gives them the
confidence to say yes this is
complicated by the fact that we live in
an age of deep distrust in this day and
age prospective service buyers don't
want to talk to a human being until
after they've made up their mind that
you could be their service provider in
other words they want to make 90 percent
of the decision about whether or not to
work with you without giving you a voice
and that decision process at least not a
human voice they expect you to earn
their trust without actually talking to
them a huge factor in their decision
making process will be their confidence
in your people your history of
delivering results and in the approach
that they think you'll take to achieve
their goals if they're not confident in
your people your history
outcomes or your approach they'll walk
away and you'll never even know you
missed a deal so how do they learn about
all of that or gain confidence in it if
they're not willing to talk to you this
is where content marketing has forever
changed the game if you give people
great ideas about how to accomplish
their goals long before they become your
client they get to sample your approach
they get to try before they buy and this
means you win since today's
sophisticated service buyer wants to
take their inbound journey independent
of a human being you have a challenge if
you produce content and ideas that
attract prospective service buyers how
do you know who's leaning in how do your
sales and business development people
know with whom they should be spending
time how do you demonstrate to yourself
and your stakeholders that all of your
investments in marketing are actually
producing the outcomes you want to
realize how do you know whether or not
you are producing an ROI and what size
is that ROI these questions are the
primary impetus behind a new approach to
technology for sales and marketing teams
at service firms after a decade of
experimenting I've come up with an
acronym that now guides all of our
technology recommendations and
investments just to be clear I don't
recommend something that we haven't
implemented ourselves and the acronym
goes like this
CMS + m a+ crm + sm equals success these
are the technology systems you need to
invest in to produce a high performance
sales and marketing system that
consistently impacts growth let's go
through each of these in greater detail
CMS stands for content management
systems CMS's are used to build and
manage websites and deploy content
marketing on a consistent basis here are
some guidelines to help you think about
what you need in a CMS it should produce
a mobile responsive website because you
cannot ignore today's mobile user it
should be easy to work in and intuitive
for the
who managed your site it should be
extensible and allow you to quickly add
new pages in today's content driven
world you should be updating your
website at least weekly ma stands for
marketing automation marketing
automation systems sit between your CMS
and your CRM system and convey critical
information at my firm we work in
several different marketing automation
platforms here are some guidelines to
help you think about what you need in an
MA system it should track the digital
footprint of every user in your CRM and
translate that footprint into a score
based on a taxonomy that you define the
digital footprint tracking should
include every touch point a user and
could encounter email sends opens and
clicks web page visits form views and
submits media downloads social media
likes and shares the system should
accurately track time on site and time
on page for every user because this is a
key indicator of intent it should allow
for lead grading and this is a feature
that allows you to define who is most
likely to buy based on ideal client
profile criteria such as title geography
and Industry CRM stands for customer
relationship manager today for reasons
we cannot always explain all of our
clients use Salesforce SMM stands for
social media manager there are a number
of these tools available today and they
are quickly morphing in terms of
features and benefits if you visit our
website you'll find a number of free
resources that will help you think
through the best technology systems for
your needs
all of this technology should allow you
to accomplish a goal that I believe is
incredibly important adopting a
scientific orientation to serve as sales
and marketing
I don't believe in black magic or voodoo
or the secret sauce of rainmakers I'm
okay with getting lucky now and then in
business but for the most part I want to
know that if I pull certain levers I'm
going to achieve certain results
time after time I want to understand
cause and effect relationships I don't
want to rely on luck this is where I
believe you have to commit to measuring
everything and then asking yourself what
worked and what didn't and why as a
young marketing professional these
questions scared me but as a seasoned
entrepreneur I now believe these
questions are essential this is the
approach that we now take for us and for
all of our clients put forward our best
hypotheses about what we believe will
most likely achieve the goals get all of
the best ideas on the table and vet them
until we're satisfied put forward a
scientific and measurable goal for every
major initiative make this reasonable
well at the same time having a stretch
quality to it define how the initiative
will be measured discuss not only the
metrics but also the specific tools that
you are confident will produce accurate
and reliable data build a plan to
execute the initiative using a Gantt
chart execute measure analyze the
outcomes if you take these steps you put
yourself in the best possible position
to become a learning organization those
organizations who commit to excellence
and to a scientific orientation will
learn will refine
and we'll grow
