Selling

It is not long in any conversation with a professional service entrepreneur, before the topic turns to the perennial challenge of selling work. To be successful not only must you be excellent at what you do (my assumption throughout this series), you must also be excellent at selling your services. There are so many firms that tick the first box but are woeful at the second; indeed, they almost have an attitude that the world should come to them. Unsurprisingly, it rarely does. One level back from this desperate state of affairs, is the firm reliant on one, or two, gifted individuals to sell the majority of work with no intent to broaden out the capability more widely. Such businesses very quickly hit their growth plateau and, regardless, will find it difficult to realise full value in the future – due to the clear dependence on such idiosyncratic contribution. The next level back from here – entering the realm of solvability – is an owner-manager acutely aware of the need to develop a sales capability (beyond the mercurial abilities of any ‘rain makers’) but with limited experience, or knowledge, as to how best to go about this. This guide is for such a reader.

Indeed, if you have been recommended this series but only have time to read one guide, I would steer you here. Nurturing a genuine sales capability is so often the ‘final bastion’ to be overcome in the challenge of building a business of value. Crack this and you really are most of the way there. Guide 08 is packed with the information required to set in train a capability improvement project; one that will leave your company with the tools, processes and attitudes required to make a ‘step change’ improvement in your sales performance (and, hence, firm value).