| Selling
Professional services is different.
It takes sustained effort, commitment from the partners and
a methodology to make it work.
In most consulting practices we see:
- Intermittent Business Development –
everyone commits to one or two seminars then forgets about
business development for the rest of the year
- Feast and Famine – too much work
then too little. This is typically linked to intermittent
business development but the causal link is not clear within
the firm
- Cross selling - very rarely. Leads are
rarely generated and when they are, follow up is poor
- Practice Leverage – most chartered
professionals fail to leverage other practices within the
firm. The client is therefore left with a view that the
firm is only as good as the last service provided and will
not engage with other practices
- An historical view that “selling”
is not appropriate
- Over reliance that the brand will bring
business through referral work
The reasons why these factors are well known but seldom acted
on is that business development programs are difficult to
sustain. Staff who sell services are often those delivering
services. They get distracted by assignments which can be
billed. They have pressing client needs. When the individuals
finally get a break in billable work, they stare down the
abyss of an empty pipeline, not enough work. With lead times
varying from instant engagement to several months, the pressure
to bill then increases to fever pitch with negative consequences
for the individual often resulting in poor quality of life
both within the firm and at home.
There are no simple fixes for this dilemma without a methodology.
Many Professional Service firms have instigated short term
programs that need to be re-invented each time. Partners get
enthusiastic, staff act in response to the partners. Everyone
is appalled to find the program in disarray after a few months.
Enthusiasm declines and reinvigorating any program becomes
infinitely more difficult with a pessimistic audience.
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