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B2B sales, especially in professional services, is not so much about SELLING as it is about BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. If you help your customer solve their business problems, they will gladly buy services from you. Everyone working in the consulting company needs to be aware of the customers' challenges; You need a sales oriented culture. This presentation summarizes my experience of selling consulting services and creating a sales oriented culture in consulting companies from the last 18 years.
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Gustaf Brandberg * February 2013
FOSTERING A SALES-ORIENTED CULTURE IN CONSULTING SERVICES
GUSTAF BRANDBERG
2006 - 2010
Digital Service
Design
Consultant
Team leader
Sales manager
Founder and CEO
CITERUS
Agile software
consulting company
Angel Investor
GOAL STATEMENT
“ Increase managers’
and consultants’ abilities to upsell and
crossell
GOAL STATEMENT
“ Increase managers’
and consultants’ abilities to make your customers chose you as preferred supplier
RULE #1
You’re in the relationship
business, not the one-
night-stand business.
YOU
YOUR
CUSTOMER
YOUR PROJECTS
Your job is to boost your customers’
careers.
TRUST IS THE FOUNDATION OF ALL RELATIONSHIPS
Unlike your matrimonial partner,
a happy customer will often help you find new ones.
Reference cases
Speakers at
seminars
Quotes on CVs
and LinkedIn
Word-of-mouth
SUGGESTIONS?
SO WHY SHOULD YOUR
CUSTOMERS TRUST YOU?
You treat their money
as your own
You give advice that
are in their interest
You deliver quality
work on time
You keep your
promises
You deliver quality
service
You understand what
they need
Did I chose the right supplier? Will the
consultant challenge my work? Do I
lose control? Why can’t they just get it
done? Will the smart consultants make
me seem ignorant? Are these guys
really good? Do they really care, or do
they just want my money?
MEANWHILE, INSIDE YOUR
CUSTOMER’S HEAD …
Superplease Court
Nurture Broadcast
FOUR TYPES OF
SALES SITUATIONS
EXISTING CUSTOMER NEW CUSTOMER
A need that
the customer
is aware of
A need that
the customer
is unaware of
Listen!
LISTEN!
Ask the right questions and
do your customer’s business case
Increase revenue
Reduce risk
Increase shareholder
value
Cut costs
- project costs
LISTEN!
Sources of knowledge
1. Industry knowledge
• User groups
• Industry meetings
• Market research
2. Customer knowledge
• Management visits
• Reverse seminars
• Systematic team
debriefings
• Systematic feedback –
formal and informal 3. Project knowledge
• Pre-study involving
stakeholders
PPS Project Directives
LISTEN!
Example – SF Bio
• Understanding the business
case for popcorn, gift cards
and biomaterna™
• Selling tickets and candy
• Planning workshops with the
ledership team – getting
personal but not private
LISTEN!
A Service Quality Program
The responsibility of managers:
• Everyone working in the project
is aware of the business case.
• We collect formal and informal
feedback from the customer.
• We act on the information we
get.
LISTEN, DON’T SELL.
Superplease Court
Nurture Broadcast
EXISTING CUSTOMER NEW CUSTOMER
A need that
the customer
is aware of
A need that
the customer
is unaware of
Listen!
SUPERPLEASE
satisfaction =
perception - expectation
Quality service
Quality
work
Perception
• When was the last time you got a
superpleasing experience buying a
service. What made it great?
• When was the last time you got lousy
service. What made you dissapointed?
Discussion
Maximize perception
Always look for opportunities to superplease
(and be sure to leave some money on the table).
Manage
expectation
Don’t oversell
Managers: Make sure that the people
doing the job are involved in the sales
process.
The orange
juice test:
500 glasses of
freshly pressed
orange juice,
please.
Superplease Court
Nurture Broadcast
EXISTING CUSTOMER NEW CUSTOMER
A need that
the customer
is aware of
A need that
the customer
is unaware of
Listen!
Example
NURTURE
Set clear expectations
Sell
yourself
3 leads per year
Get LinkedIn endorsements from customer
FOSTERING A SUPERPLEASING
CULTURE
THE ONE CULTURE
PRINCIPLE
Behaviour
towards
customers
Internal
behaviour =
HOW TO CHANGE
YOUR CULTURE
= Recruit superpleasing
and nurturing people
THE LAW OF PICKLED CUCUMBER:
When you pickle cucumber, the cucumber gets
more pickled than the pickle get cucumbered”
• How can YOU set a good example?
• How can YOU improve the recruitment
process in order to get sales-oriented
people?
• What incentives and practices can YOU
introduce in your team to foster a sales-
oriented culture?
Discussion
HOW AGILE METHODOLOGIES FOSTER
TRUST
Retrospectives for learning
TRUST
SUGGESTED
READING
Managing the Professional Service Firm David Maister
Agile Software Development with Scrum Ken Schwaber and Robert C Martin
Secrets of Consulting I and II Jerry Weinberg
Many of the concepts in this presentation origins from….
![Encube Consulting Inc [itSMF Presentation (Strategy - Culture - Structure)]](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/58a4a7ba1a28abe2428b58fd/encube-consulting-inc-itsmf-presentation-strategy-culture-structure.jpg)
