You're always selling your next piece of business (even if you're not ‘selling') because you must create client loyalty through client satisfaction. If you don't, your clients can-and will-choose other providers who are just waiting to steal them from you.
If you are working with a client, you are selling. Why? Because of how people buy professional services.
Consider the following:
• Client loyalty drives the growth and profitability of your service practice
• Client satisfaction drives client loyalty*
• Clients make the decision everyday to continue (or discontinue) working with you based on their experience with you and the value you provide to them
Are You Unique?
Your service firm's corporate brochure may claim, “Our unique services make us trusted partners, critical to our clients' welfare and success.” However the truth is, and we all know this, our clients can walk out the door any time they choose. They don't need to stay with us; they know it and we know it.
As of the writing of this article, there are 770,000 lawyers, and counting, in the United States. If you're one of them, realize that there are at least a couple of hundred other attorneys and firms striving to take your client from you. And if you're a management consultant, CPA, advertising executive or IT consultant, the story is much the same for you, too.
Selling while Delivering
Thus, if you're working with a client, you're selling your next piece of business (even if you're not officially ‘selling') because you must constantly create client loyalty through client satisfaction. If you don't solidify that loyalty, your clients can-and will-choose other providers who are ready, willing, and able to steal your clients.
This doesn't mean you are always actively engaged in sales conversations, or in any way being ‘salesy'. It does mean, simply, that your best sales pitch, and the best branding and marketing as well, is the delivery of consistent client value, which, in turn, creates client satisfaction. Yes, at the appropriate time, you (or your firm) must engage selling conversations and activities with clients. Your chances of success in selling services, however, are much higher if you solidify your brand through consistent delivery of value to clients.
Show Up Every Day
On the other hand, if there's any day when you physically show up to work but you don't really ‘show up' ready to give 100%—you're clients will realize it. Even if you're not ‘selling' at any given moment (i.e. you're not actively engaged in gaining commitments for new business) you are always sealing your chances of closing your next piece of business with your current client by simply delivering your current work with high quality and value as perceived by the client.
So if you think you're ever not selling, even if you are not the partner or principal on the deal who is in charge of the sales portion of the client process, think again. Every time you or someone from your firm touches the customer or delivers work, you either enhance or detract from client satisfaction-a direct precondition of client loyalty and service growth and profit.
*Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work. Harvard Business Review, 1994.
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