it’s going to take practice.
by august j. aquila
i have often been asked, “what is the best way to prepare professionals to bring in new business?” i think the people who ask this question are trying to find an easy answer to a more complex issue.
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unfortunately, there is no single approach that will do the job. now having said that let me offer you the following four approaches.
they will give you some idea of what to do. as they say, different strokes for different folks. so, use the ones that work best for your firm and the individuals in it.
- create a series of in-house classes on marketing and sales. this approach provides your partners and staff with the information they need to put the sales process into action. it provides an overview of the sales process, from prospecting to closing techniques. don’t forget to provide technical knowledge, especially to consulting services. what good does it do to be a great salesperson if you cannot deliver the service or don’t know the benefits of the service or product? the major negative with this approach is that you don’t learn sales by reading or hearing about it. you need to practice it.
- weekly marketing and sales meetings. get your people together to discuss product features and benefits, successful sales techniques, and sales skills in general. have them discuss successes and failures. there’s truth to the adage, “we learn the most from our failures.” let staff people make presentations on a service outside of their realm of experience. they can interview firm experts and share their new knowledge with the rest of the group. doing this shows your people that you are serious about developing a sales culture in the firm.
- make use of role-playing scenarios. one of the best and most effective ways to learn is to see yourself doing something. mobile phones are great for this activity because you can video each presentation. create a selling situation. for example, have a staff member present a consulting proposal to a business owner or have someone discuss the benefits of using the cloud. then, have other members of the firm work through the scenarios. after each person role plays, the group can review that video for discussion and comments.
- on-the-job training. one of the best ways to teach your people how to sell and promote the firm is teaming a junior consultant with an experienced business developer. the senior person reinforces what was learned in the classroom while on the call and provides a post-mortem on what went well or not so well. this approach may take extra time, but it is necessary if you are serious about developing your professionals into first-class business development specialists.
remember that learning mainly takes place where the work is done.