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| Marketing: Selling Service |
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| Written by Brad Dawson |
| Sunday, 30 September 2007 19:00 |
 This article identifies three ways to immediately increase sales-win rates in the services environment and significantly reduce the overall cost of sales. Take the journey Product sales are one-time events. Sales professionals bundle as many options or add-ons into the original sale as possible because there is little chance of creating an up-sale opportunity. Knowing this, sales professionals focus on closing the deal and moving on to the next target. They understand that, except for potential referrals, a closed customer has little value to them. In contrast, selling services is a journey with a desired destination. To build trust, sales professionals proactively walk a customer through a series of strategic sales events culminating with a large-scale opportunity. This process of destination selling can be explained using the AIM model (assessment, implementation, maintenance). A successful customer relationship begins with an assessment offering that is strategic in nature, quantifies the impact of an identified problem, and relies on risk mitigation as the value proposition. Assessment offerings are small-dollar events that test customer dynamics and establish a common communication base. These efforts also allow sales professionals to gain unique knowledge that nearly guarantees a long and profitable customer relationship. Implementation offerings are the primary services of the firm and represent approximately 60% to 70% of the total revenue base. Using destination selling, the implementation offering is the logical next step in the AIM model and, because the customer relationship has already been established through the assessment offering, the sales professional can bypass the traditional sales qualification and competitive risk analysis. When implementation offerings are paired with assessment offerings (as opposed to being bid alone), the win rate jumps from 20% to more than 85%. The last stage in destination selling is maintenance. Maintenance offerings ensure that the customer relationship remains intact for the entire business cycle, a period that can range from three to 10 years, depending on the industry. Since implementation offerings typically have a duration of six months to a year or more, the sales professional needs additional offerings to retain the customer relationship through the remainder of its natural business cycle. Maintenance offerings are usually low-effort, fully chargeable activities that necessitate frequent interaction with the customer, allowing sales professionals to remain abreast of customer changes, identify potential offering opportunities, and thwart any competitive advances. Delivery experience required Sales professionals in the services environment must have delivery experience. Too often, businesses hire sales professionals that appear to have the right stuff in the form of great presentation skills, a strong value proposition orientation, and an extraverted personality. But service offerings, unlike tangible product offerings, are a series of tasks that solve a customer problem. The sales professional must form the myriad of options into a credible solution that is consistent with the customer’s unique requirements. This can only be achieved by having experienced these solutions from the delivery trenches. Successful sales professionals in the services environment are a result of targeted training, careful guidance, and top-down mentoring. Simply put, they are a product of nurture as opposed to nature. As an example, large management consulting firms require their sales professionals to start at entry-level delivery positions. After a couple of years, individuals are placed on either a partner or delivery expert track. For those placed on the partner track, the process of creating a sales professional begins. Some firms use door-openers to fill their sales professional roles. These individuals are usually well known in the industry and come with an overflowing Rolodex. But make no mistake: these are not sales professionals. They merely expedite the sales process by putting the real sales professional in a position to close a deal. Having a prominent door opener is not a replacement for a competent, delivery-oriented sales professional. Don’t abandon your customer Selling services revolves around developing a trust relationship with the customer. During the sales process, experiences are shared, promises made, and a working relationship evolves. However, for many businesses, the signing of the contract constitutes the end of the seller’s relationship with the buyer. With delivery being the primary focus, a delivery team replaces the seller, and the customer relationship has to start all over again. As you can imagine, this relationship changeover is fraught with problems. Customers get nervous when new individuals are introduced, and delivery managers find themselves in a hostile environment—hardly the best way to start a project. Sales professionals who have invested their energies in the relationship often provide the customer with their personal contact information as a way to assuage their guilt. No wonder the first action by many project managers is a change order to better reflect the real needs of the customer. In a services environment, the sales professional cannot abandon the customer. The customer must be confident that the relationship, once established, will continue throughout the life of the project. For some companies, the sales professional plays the intermediary between the customer and delivery team, resolving problems before they become project impediments. In other cases, the sales professional is relegated to a ceremonial role where appearances are only necessary at benchmark meetings. Regardless, once a customer is sold, the sales professional remains an integral component of the delivery process. Successful selling in a service environment requires diverse offerings that satisfy each stage of the customer’s business cycle, a sales professional with strong delivery experience, and constant interaction throughout the entire delivery process. Selling services is not a one-shot event. It is based on a high level of relationship trust and proactively moving the customer through a series of strategic selling events, all culminating in a strong revenue-per-customer performance. Brad Dawson is the managing director of LTV Dynamics and has more than 25 years of management consulting experience. Prior to starting LTV Dynamics in 1997, he was a senior-level sales director and management consultant for Electronic Data Systems, a national practice manager for Coopers & Lybrand, and a senior consultant for KPMG Consulting. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |