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Creating a Client-Centered Business
What is a client-centered business? A client-centered business is a rather vague idea, but one that focuses on the needs of a client, as opposed to a conventional business model. This isn’t a new concept. If you aren’t sure if you are totally client-centered or if you aren’t familiar with this concept, it is an important one to consider quickly implementing in your business. How this business is precisely set up will depend on the clientele of the company.
Who Will Buy Your Professional Services?
Discover what your perfect future client looks like, and how to get in front of him/her and you’ll be well on your way to growing a successful professional service business
Internet Marketing Education For Professional Services And Small Businesses
Internet marketing can be simple, effective and inexpensive, if small business owners and professionals take the time to get educated.
100 Ways to Succeed #39
Blog As If Your Life Depended On It!
100 Ways to Succeed #78
Speak Not Ill of Thine Competitors
Direct Response Directory Ads
For some, not all mind you, directory advertising, the kind the Yellow Pages sells, is still a decent place to advertise.
Face-Time or Phone-Time To Fill Your Sales Pipeline?
Have you noticed that the higher up people move in their organizations or the longer someone has been in a sales role, whether it be in professional services or a traditional sales role, the farther away they move from the daily regimen of outbound prospecting calls to schedule appointments to increase their sales pipeline?
New Way For Professional Services to Get Customers
Today’s technology has changed the landscape as to how commerce happens in all industries. People communicate differently and have access to more information. Employees telecommute, and it is easier to do business globally. Customers choose their products and services differently.
Where Can I Find The Best Medical Insurance?
What Company Has The Best Healthcare Cover? Finding the best healthcare coverage is like finding the best shoe. You will need to know something about the foot in question before you start looking.
Latest Fiction for the Sales Force - No More Hunters/Farmers
In 2007 we had to deal with writers proclaiming that sales and the sales force were dead. The reality of all of that talk was that the people writing about it weren't close enough to sales to know what they were talking about. Companies with transactional sales don't need salespeople selling their transactional items, but they do need salespeople persuading companies to choose them in the first place. Then the transactions can be placed via Internet or an inside sales group. That's about the only scenario where the "dead" proclamation even comes close to being accurate.
Tracking the Return On Investment of Your PR Campaign
There's an old sales adage that says "People buy from people they know, like and trust," and public relations (PR) is one of the most cost-effective ways to build the awareness, goodwill and credibility that help influence buying decisions. Not that we would suggest that small businesses use PR to the exclusion of all other marketing tactics, but a healthy dose of PR, combined with a little advertising, direct mail, or other tactics, can provide a big sales boost for many small businesses.
Is your marketing painful?
Marketing a business (or in my case a health care practice) needs some pain. We need to remind our prospects of why they need to use our services, and give them the option of chosing us. Pretty, pretty marketing just won't do!
Education Based Marketing the New Sales Paradigm for Relationship Selling
Are you engaged in the old paradigm of sales based marketing? Have you heard of education based marketing? If you believe in relationship selling and wish to increase sale, then you may need to change your sales paradigm.
How to Create Great Direct Mail Copy That Will Get Noticed
Direct mail can be a good way to grow your business, but it can also be a costly mistake if not done correctly. What can you do to get the best response possible?

Client Feedback
When was the last time you asked a client for feedback about your professional services and how your office staff works as a team? You might turn up some useful information by doing a client feedback session when the work is complete. I recently had an experience with a hospital that is an example of how frustrating a poorly working team can be. As a practice advisor for attorneys I am always looking for examples, good and bad, about how to run a professional services practice.
Your Path to Effective Service Selling
Selling services is far different than selling products, and for reps who want to be successful at "service selling", it's imperative to understand where the differences exist.
Dramatically Improved Sales Begins By Being that Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits
In sales during tough times and good times, you must stand out in the crowd. How successful you are at this goal will ultimately determine your sales success.
Just By Answering Your Telephone Can Increase Sales
Next to driving by more business than you’ll ever had and just asking for business, returning phone calls may be an incredible opportunity to increase your sales.
IDENTIFY AND ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A CENTRE OF INFLUENCE
How to generate a regular flow of new customers through networking with different influential people. How to grab the attention of potential business clients.
What Exactly Are You Selling?
Are you cheating yourself by pricing by the hour? By determining exactly what you're selling, you'll better be able to determine your price.
Levelling the intagible playing field of professional services procurement (Beyond Referrals Profile)
“I stated that the worst thing a purchasing person can do when using an RFP to buy professional services is to exclude a project budget. Immediately, a rebuttal was offered, “But if I give them the budget,” stated the attendee, “they are all just going to come in at that budget.” He was right. But he failed to recognize that as a distinct advantage for both the vendor and the purchaser. When everyone’s price is the same, the buyer can compare expertise and value across a consistent price spectrum and purchase the services of the best expert they can afford.” From the PowerPoint “A Decent Proposal”, Cal Harrison, Beyond Referrals (August 2008)

Sales Skills For Service Professionals Part 3
The third of three skills everyone who sells a service needs to develop is the ability to relate moving stories and metaphors.
Sales Skills For Service Professionals Part 2
The second of three skills to successful sales is the ability to listen with total focus on the client.
Even Engineers Sell
If you offer a professional service, you need to sell that service in order to grow. Change how you view selling and you’ll see immediate growth.

Be the Red Crayon
If you’re just another white crayon in a box of white crayons, why will they buy from you? Eliminate the competition by simply having no competition.

HOW TO CREATE A BRAND ONE PROSPECT AT A TIME
By Robert Croston Having spent longer than I care to admit pursuing traditional brand development through advertising, I recently became fascinated with the prospect of building brands using direct response marketing and lead generation activities. (I wonder what my colleagues at the ad firm would think if they knew!) Traditional wisdom has always told us marketing types that our marketing communications are either 1) emotionally oriented and image based OR 2) direct oriented and response based activities. You simply can't do both at the same time. Or can you?

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER BUT YOU CANT MAKE HIM SELL OR CAN YOU
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Recently, we presented to a group of firm leaders across a range of service areas on how to sell professional services. During the Q & A session, one leader of an engineering firm asked, “This is all great stuff, but how do you get them (my engineers) to sell? I mean, I have tried everything, but they still would rather do just about anything but sell.” Well, short of walking around with a large stick and a menacing attitude, we suggest you will inspire more of the professionals in your firm to sell by helping them get into the right frame of mind to become a rainmaker. It is not just a question of telling them to go out and sell; you need to take care of the following six areas to get the activity you want.

THE TOO SALESY PARADOX WHY PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CANT SELL AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
By John Doerr The distress is obvious. The complaints are frequent. The clear disdain for the activity is surprisingly unfiltered. What are we talking about? Selling, or more specifically, selling professional services. In conversation after conversation as I work with clients, conduct seminars, or network with my professional colleagues, I hear the same comments: Selling conflicts with my values as a professional. Selling gets in the way of building strong relationships. You have to have it in your genes - like a used car salesman. I don't sell professional services - I work with my clients to create the best solutions. People won't respect me as a professional if I am selling to them. I can't sell to them. What will they think of me? It (selling) is not what we do around here.

SERVICES SELLING I DIDNT RAISE YOU TO BE A SALESMAN
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys Don't let 'em sell siding or drive them big trucks Have 'em be consultants and accountants and such. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys 'Cause they'll never stay home or they're on their cell phone Even with family around. With all due apologies to Willie Nelson, I am sure this was the sentiment of most of our parents. Yes, be a lawyer or accountant or even (heaven forbid) a consultant, but please don't ever come home and declare, “Mom, I found my calling. I am going to be a salesperson!”

YOUR FEES ARE TOO HIGH STEPS TO HANDLING OBJECTIONS THAT WILL GET YOU CLOSER TO THE SALE
By John Doerr If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous How many of us, as professional service providers, have heard from prospects, "your fees are too high," "someone else will do it for less," or "I don't see why I have to pay all that money just to have you do an audit, write a brief, create a marketing plan, etc?" And, more important, how many of us have been able to resist the urge to simply lower our fees to get the work?

COMMUNICATING THE VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES CREATING A NEW REALITY
By John Doerr “…but I know it when I see it.” - Potter Stewart, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court In writing his ruling on pornography, Justice Stewart probably sounded like so many of the clients you work with as a professional service provider. Since you are selling something clients cannot see or touch, they have a hard time knowing exactly what they are buying and what value they will get in return.

RAIN SELLING HOW RAINMAKERS LEAD SALES CONVERSATIONS
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Sales Conversations for Services To advance in their careers and become Rainmakers (those people at services companies that bring in the new clients and revenue), professionals such as accountants, lawyers, management consultants, and technology consultants eventually need to excel at selling professional services. Rarely, however, are these poor souls given a primer on rainmaking, especially when it comes to leading sales conversations and sales meetings. As a result, they often just 'wing it' and learn by doing, making many avoidable mistakes and losing opportunities to win new clients.

Differentiation - Dare to be Different
It’s good to be different! Standing out from the crowd is essential to a successful marketing strategy; growth, profit and even survival depend on our ability to be different to our competitors. It's a challenge that is particularly difficult for service based companies. So how do you stand out from the crowd?
Register Your Business Name
When you begin selling franchises, you will want to have obtained a federal registration for your business name. This is obtained by making a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A franchisor licenses the business name to its franchisees, so it is important that the franchisor own and protect the name as much as possible. However, it is not necessary to have already obtained name registration before beginning to sell franchises.
Marketing Means Networking
Branding is always about YOU. Yes, branding your company name is helpful, and branding your goods and services is a nice idea. But the more people who know and appreciate you, the more business you'll do. In the end, marketing is about networking.
While We Were Sleeping: A Story of Misdirected Efforts in the World of Public Sector Procurement Policy
It has been one of the more interesting weeks in the world of Government of Canada procurement policy-making. Despite the numerous “outward facing” storylines that can be pursued in terms of GoC activity, the real action (or lack thereof) is actually within the supplier community itself. I am of course referring to the ongoing inability of associations and lobbying groups to respond to government policy outside of the confines of a narrowly defined platform. A platform I would add in which the tempo is being set by the government.

A Nine-Step Approach For Coaches, Consultants, and Business Advisors to Get All the Clients that You Can Handle
Provides a framework for business advisors to generate business.
Ten Recommended Strategic Actions Needed Prior To Starting Your Professional Services Business
Every day there are multitudes of entrepreneurial spirited people who think about starting his or her own professional service business. And of that multitude, there is some lesser number that actually moves forward and starts their own business to provide professional services off various kinds. Your Strategic Business Coach has worked with numerous entrepreneurs in the startup phase of their professional services businesses and has learned some valuable lessons from those experiences. From those “lessons learned,” Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten (10) recommended strategic actions that you need to take prior to starting your professional services business.

Ten Recommended Strategic Actions Needed Prior To Starting Your Professional Services Business
Every day there are multitudes of entrepreneurial spirited people who think about starting his or her own professional service business. And of that multitude, there is some lesser number that actually moves forward and starts their own business to provide professional services off various kinds. Your Strategic Business Coach has worked with numerous entrepreneurs in the startup phase of their professional services businesses and has learned some valuable lessons from those experiences. From those “lessons learned,” Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten (10) recommended strategic actions that you need to take prior to starting your professional services business.

Ten Recommended Strategic Actions Needed Prior To Starting Your Professional Services Business
Every day there are multitudes of entrepreneurial spirited people who think about starting his or her own professional service business. And of that multitude, there is some lesser number that actually moves forward and starts their own business to provide professional services off various kinds. Your Strategic Business Coach has worked with numerous entrepreneurs in the startup phase of their professional services businesses and has learned some valuable lessons from those experiences. From those “lessons learned,” Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten (10) recommended strategic actions that you need to take prior to starting your professional services business.

AN ACTION STEP IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Finding the right words to market your business is important, but don't mistake your wordsmithing for productive action. Crafting a good marketing message and delivering it effectively are not at all the same thing.

Strategies To Increase Fees Performance From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Professional service firms are still struggling when it comes to increasing their professional fees & improving their performance. Too many firms are doing business basically as outsourced labor & getting paid strictly on number of hours of billable time plus expenses. The missing ingredient is not getting paid for the “value” they are providing to the client, which should always exceed the cost of the billable time. Some readers are already saying that this billing on “value received” will not work & will not be accepted. With that being said, I will attempt to outline some strategies that I believe will enable a professional services firm to increase their professional fees and improve their performance. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers the following strategies:

How Professional Service Providers Can Break Through Resistance to Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
One of the most powerful strategic marketing tools is referrals. Are you resisting the opportunity to request referrals? In doing some research on this subject I learned that many, if not most, professional services providers resist because of fear. Yes, I said fear. The professional services providers are afraid they will: offend and therefore harm their relationship with a client; fail and not cultivate any new business; be perceived as a “salesman” or a “saleswoman” instead of as a professional; and be placed in a totally awkward and uncomfortable position with their clients. So, what can you do to break through and overcome this resistance? Your strategic thinking business coach has six (6) suggested “break through” strategies for you to consider.

“Seven Strategic Tips For Selling Professional Services Brand, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
Selling professional services presents many challenges and problems with closing a deal with a prospect and/or client. The term “closing” has an inherent seller-orientation and it can be interpreted as putting your needs ahead of the client’s needs. And that is never a desired interpretation for those who sell professional services. The “closing” model also presents some conflicts between the belief that buying is driven by rational decision-making, rather than emotion. What is important is to have the buyer of professional services feel comfortable about a rational decision they have to make. Instead of the “closing” concept, which presumes a transactional, seller-centered, rational model of buying decisions, let’s look at a model centered on trust in the seller. Here are some tips to accomplish that. Here are tips

Other professional services Related Articles

“A Business Coach’s Top Ten Tactics for Marketing Professional Services”
Marketing professional services is a real and difficult challenge. The challenges of marketing professional services are different from those of marketing products. Two major reasons for the differences are that clients cannot see or touch professional services before they buy them and the professional services are often produced and consumed simultaneously. And another reason is that marketing professional services is split among marketing, sales, professional and management staff instead of a dedicated marketing and sales force. Based upon my research and my own professional experience, I developed a Top Ten Tactics for marketing professional services. My top ten tactics for marketing professional services are:

“A Strategic Approach To Produce A Strong Professional Services Brand, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
A professional services firm, just like other types of businesses, needs to develop a strong brand and a favorable impression in the minds of prospects, clients and stakeholders in their business. In smaller professional service firms, there are limited financial resources for advertising as a primary branding vehicle. Therefore, as strategic approach is imperative to maximize the impact of available resources to rand your professional services firm. How do you influence your market in a strategic way that produces a favorable image of your firm in the minds of your prospects, clients and stakeholders? Your strategic thinking business coach recommends the following strategic approach.
“Seven Strategic Tips For Selling Professional Services Brand, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
Selling professional services presents many challenges and problems with closing a deal with a prospect and/or client. The term “closing” has an inherent seller-orientation and it can be interpreted as putting your needs ahead of the client’s needs. And that is never a desired interpretation for those who sell professional services. The “closing” model also presents some conflicts between the belief that buying is driven by rational decision-making, rather than emotion. What is important is to have the buyer of professional services feel comfortable about a rational decision they have to make. Instead of the “closing” concept, which presumes a transactional, seller-centered, rational model of buying decisions, let’s look at a model centered on trust in the seller. Here are some tips to accomplish that. Here are tips

How Professional Service Providers Can Break Through Resistance to Requesting Referrals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
One of the most powerful strategic marketing tools is referrals. Are you resisting the opportunity to request referrals? In doing some research on this subject I learned that many, if not most, professional services providers resist because of fear. Yes, I said fear. The professional services providers are afraid they will: offend and therefore harm their relationship with a client; fail and not cultivate any new business; be perceived as a “salesman” or a “saleswoman” instead of as a professional; and be placed in a totally awkward and uncomfortable position with their clients. So, what can you do to break through and overcome this resistance? Your strategic thinking business coach has six (6) suggested “break through” strategies for you to consider.

Ten Recommended Strategic Actions Needed Prior To Starting Your Professional Services Business
Every day there are multitudes of entrepreneurial spirited people who think about starting his or her own professional service business. And of that multitude, there is some lesser number that actually moves forward and starts their own business to provide professional services off various kinds. Your Strategic Business Coach has worked with numerous entrepreneurs in the startup phase of their professional services businesses and has learned some valuable lessons from those experiences. From those “lessons learned,” Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach offers ten (10) recommended strategic actions that you need to take prior to starting your professional services business.

THE TOO SALESY PARADOX WHY PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CANT SELL AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
By John Doerr The distress is obvious. The complaints are frequent. The clear disdain for the activity is surprisingly unfiltered. What are we talking about? Selling, or more specifically, selling professional services. In conversation after conversation as I work with clients, conduct seminars, or network with my professional colleagues, I hear the same comments: Selling conflicts with my values as a professional. Selling gets in the way of building strong relationships. You have to have it in your genes - like a used car salesman. I don't sell professional services - I work with my clients to create the best solutions. People won't respect me as a professional if I am selling to them. I can't sell to them. What will they think of me? It (selling) is not what we do around here.

Design Your Own Logo, Save a Buck, Send the Wrong Message
Most new and small business owners are faced with the plethora of challenges, not the least of which are advertising and marketing. Making the most of their investment dollar is all-important. Too often, however, the corners that get cut can prove very costly down the road. Saving a buck on professional design services can set a bad precedent and create a stigma that is sometimes unable to be undone. Making the investment in professional design services can be a very wise move for many business owners.
Client Feedback
When was the last time you asked a client for feedback about your professional services and how your office staff works as a team? You might turn up some useful information by doing a client feedback session when the work is complete. I recently had an experience with a hospital that is an example of how frustrating a poorly working team can be. As a practice advisor for attorneys I am always looking for examples, good and bad, about how to run a professional services practice.
Web Designing an Art of Computer Geniuses
In present scenario, there are number of custom web development design companies which are providing custom web design services with useful web related solutions. Professional web designers are extremely talented and skilled in delivering remarkable services like custom web design & development. An eye catching web design, attention from browsers, etc. are the major weapons of custom web design services and the professional web designers implement every designing activity considering all the SEO techniques. In a nutshell, we can say that custom web designing is the web activity that helps in creating customized design website and ultimately, attract maximum visitors to the website.
Professional SEO Plans VS Individual Submission And Link Building Packages
In this article I would like to explain the difference between a professional SEO plan and individual submissions packages and link building services which you find on the Internet and can purchase online. The main difference between those services is when you purchase a SEO plan from a good SEO company you will get professional advice and guidelines to improve traffic to your website. Keyword research is also a major importance and is included in most search engine optimization packages.
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