Why Professional Service Providers Can’t Sell (And What To Do About It)

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.

So what happens the moment these same professional service providers (be they lawyers, accountants, or consultants of every ilk) start to do any business development? They become their worse nightmare - the overly aggressive, too “salesy" used car sales person.

They try so hard not to sell or to have any appearance that they are selling, the affect is quite the opposite of what they intended. As Queen Gertrude said to Prince Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

On Being Too “Salesy"

First of all, there is nothing wrong with selling. Quite the contrary, the act of selling itself, when done well, adds a significant amount of value. A well planned sales conversation can help even sophisticated buyers make smarter decisions.

However, having learned that questions are the key to having good sales conversations, professionals sometimes ask the questions such that you can almost hear the seller thinking:

First, I'm going to ask a few questions about the person's family...I'll make small talk about fishing and his kids. OK, that was a good warm up...now I'll say ‘let's get down to financial business,' so I can be viewed as a focused financial advisor.

Now is the time I ask questions about his situation and goals...While I'm doing this, I need to seem very professional and financial so I'll put my glasses on and take out my calculator...question six: retirement cash flow...question seven: tax planning...question eight: estate planning...

OK, now that the questions are done, I'm going to get him to explicitly state the value of the solution I propose, close the deal, get the order, and thank him for his ‘valuable time today.'

I do not have an exact definition for too “salesy," but I do know when I am on the receiving end of the hard sell. So do most buyers. And when they do see it, their reactions are consistent:

• Buyers' defenses go up. First impressions are important. If the buyers' first impression is, “He's a sales guy," it is tough to shake it.

• Trust is difficult to establish. Being too “salesy" makes buyers question the seller's motives, making trust difficult to establish.

• Buyers feel patronized. Sellers may be trying to be deferential by saying transparent things like, “thank you for your valuable time." Most times buyers feel the seller is contrived.

While being too “salesy" is ill-advised for almost any sales rep, it is particularly bad for sellers of consulting, professional, financial, and technology services. Buyers of products can often say, “I don't like the sales rep, but I can tune her out for the next few minutes and simply evaluate her product against the competition."

Buyers of services are evaluating the sellers themselves. Why? The seller is very often the service provider. The relationship does not end when the sale itself is completed - it is just beginning. Thus, the foundation of trust set up between the buyer and seller in the sales process is of paramount importance.

Non-“salesy" selling

How do you avoid the trap of the too “salesy" paradox and discover client goals and offer the right solutions without sounding contrived?

• Take pride in selling. Sometimes salespeople say too quickly, “Now I don't want this in any way to be viewed as a sales discussion...I'm here to help you." This sounds like a contrived speech and very close to “I am from the government...and here to help you." There is nothing wrong with selling. Avoid being a sales apologist.

• Choose not to be contrived. While it may seem simplistic, one of the most important ways to avoid sounding contrived is to choose to avoid it. By saying to yourself before a sales conversation, “I'm not going to deliver phrases like ‘thank you for your valuable time' and ‘what keeps you up at night'," you will erase a certain amount of contrived language from your speech patterns.

• Relax. Sellers that seem rushed create buyers that feel rushed. Rushed buyers feel pressured. This fosters distrust. If a seller seems too eager, the buyer thinks “Why does he seem to want/need this sale so badly...what's wrong with this picture?"

• Be a person, not a robot. The underlying strength of most sales methodologies is their focus on helping you to understand buyer needs. This is good. However, engaging these sales methodologies like they are a script creates a robotic, stilted sales discussion. The more your sales discussions resemble normal conversations, the more real rapport you will be able to build.

• Meet your commitments. As you improve at conducting sales conversations that flow like conversations, you will generate an increasing level of trust. Be worthy of that trust; keep promises and deliver on what you say you will.

• Get feedback. Almost every seller can improve their sales conversations. The most consistent and fastest way of developing your skills is to have someone whose opinions you respect observe you in action. It is worth the time and resources to get good feedback. Actively seek it out.

Sincere selling is valuable and rewarding; “salesy" selling is contrived and ineffective. As you are selling, tune into how “salesy" you sound. You may find that a few stylistic changes can dramatically change your sales success rate and keep you from becoming another victim of the “salesy" paradox.