Words
The Sunday Dispatches archive...
Meetings with senior level decision makers
Your consultancy has great credentials. You don’t find it difficult to get meetings per se. However, when you analyse these meetings, the majority aren’t with senior level decision makers (SLDMs) … are they? And you know that winning bigger, juicier projects means meeting ‘higher-ups’. But like a lot
Why revenue and profit are rubbish metrics
Do the right things well The outcome most consultants want from business development mentoring is increased revenue and profit. So, when I start working with my clients we inevitably set sales targets and create a ‘rough cut’ plan for their achievement. However, I always caution my clients that while sales
Do it right
I am constantly amazed how many consultants still go into client meetings and ‘wing it’. Even when they are seeing senior executives, or looking to win major contracts. In order to excel as consultants we must plan, practice, and perform in our sales meetings. Plan To plan a client meeting,
Be selective. Be directive.
Expert consultants often give clients too much information at the pre-sales stage. This can result in overwhelm and procrastination, because clients aren’t experts and they find it hard to wade through the subtle nuances. Look through a recent project proposal and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
First Seven Jobs
I’m following the Twitter meme #firstsevenjobs. I started working at 12 years old, so I thought it might be fun to share mine with you ... and the sales lessons I learnt from each. 1. Car valet. Ok it’s a very grand title for cleaning cars when you'
Getting it
As consultants, we sometimes have prospects who just don’t ‘get it’. They struggle to see, or believe, the benefits of our propositions. When this happens I’ve found consultants adopt one of three different mindsets, with supporting internal dialogues. 1. The blame mindset. "It’s the clients fault
How permissive are your clients?
Gaining permission is the first step to getting clients talking openly about project value and decision making. Permission is the client’s explicit agreement to work with you in a particular way, at a particular level. And, in my experience, consultants often mistake this with having rapport, which is an
Leave things behind
As the renovation of our Victorian house continues I've noticed is that my builder leaves things behind. A small collection of Acrow props, a 110 volt transformer and cables, a table saw, excess materials, and so on. The builder isn’t disorganised. The things left behind are for
Step out of the content
Experts have deep knowledge about a specific subject. Their expertise may be in digital security, business administration, human resources, public relations, or any number of other fields. When it comes to selling their consultancy, I’ve noticed these expert are inclined to focus on what I call content conversations. It’
Why objection handing doesn't work. And what to do about it.
Objections arise when the client puts up some sort of barrier to whatever it is you're proposing. The most widely taught objection handling method is to 'agree with then outweigh' the client's concerns. I think the idea is to maintain rapport, while proving to