Not a Natural Born Seller? Here’s What You Can Do About It

Industry Specific - Professional Services

Written by M. Schultz and J. Doerr

If you’re like many professional services providers, the thought of having to sell makes you anxious, distressed, and uneasy. After all you entered your career as a consultant, accountant, lawyer, or engineer because you are good at your craft. You didn’t enter your career so you could one day become a salesperson.

However at some point in every professional’s career they realize that if they want to advance in and make partner or break off and start their own practice, they need to bring in their own book of business. But you were never taught how to sell.

Natural born seller Well, we’re going to let you in on a little secret: As a service provider, you already have many of the skills you need to be great at selling.

Think about it. When you deliver services to your clients, you:

•    Ask questions
•    Provide expert opinions
•    Work hard
•    Are accessible
•    Build creative solutions
•    Deliver what you say you are going to deliver
•    Develop relationships
•    Act with your clients’ best interest in mind
•    Solve problems
•    Introduce clients to new ideas, helping them see a better way

This is exactly what you need to do to become successful in sales. It is not about persuading someone to buy something they don’t need. It is about helping clients and prospects find solutions to their needs while providing value.

As a Service Provider You Already Have Many Skills You Need to Be Great at Sales

Here are just a few ways you can apply the consulting skills you already have to your selling efforts:

1. Sell as You Serve

Many consultants who have never sold think the purpose of selling is to part someone from their money at any cost. They believe that to be successful at selling, consultants must leave their values and everyday personalities at the door and adopt a sleazy persona and voice—a voice that would normally say something like, “What’s it gonna take to get you into this shiny, red, pre-owned sports car today, ma’am?”

Nothing is further from the truth. The best rainmakers bring in new clients because they are no different when they sell their services than when they deliver their services.

Great consultants create better futures for their clients that the clients didn’t know were possible.

The best rainmakers meet mutually set expectations over and over again, building trust, relationships, and confidence. The best rainmakers are ethical at all times.

2. Sell to Need

Great consultants are masters at uncovering clients’ goals and challenges and helping them make the changes necessary for success.

Great rainmakers are no different. However, many consultants feel uncomfortable making connections, uncovering needs, and working closely with people they don’t know well. Too often, the first conversations go awry when they don’t need to.

The same skills you use to get to the root of your clients’ problems and develop solutions to help them meet their goals are the ones you can use to uncover prospects’ needs and propose winning solutions. You just need to recognize what you need to do and bring these skills out at the right time and in the right way.

3. Communicate the Value

Great consultants understand the value they provide to clients.

They craft compelling solutions based on their clients’ unique needs, and they communicate that value to clients clearly and articulately.

Selling is no different. You must learn to lead discussions that influence direction and outcomes, and you must advocate your services and communicate your value. Just like when you advocate new ideas to your clients when you work with them, you must be persuasive, inspire confidence, and be empathetic all at the same time when you sell to them.

4. Plan for Success

It’s been said that if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there. Selling consulting services requires planning on multiple levels:

•    Generating discussions for the first time with prospective clients
•    Leading individual conversations and interactions
•    Planning outcomes for specific accounts
•    Orchestrating the entire business development process—how many clients you need to gain, how often, and for how much revenue and profit

Great consultants have a clear process that they follow. Each project has a specific objective, timeframe, budget, and resource allocation.

Rainmaking is no different.

Like consulting, selling is a process, and it’s waiting for you to master it.

No matter how you look at it, consulting is a sales business. Every day you are selling your clients on your ideas and your recommendations. So stop letting fear get in your way of selling to new clients and start to embrace the idea that selling is actually a good thing. Prospects are looking for solutions to their problems, and you are the one who is well-equipped to help.

For more tips on how you can make the transition from service provider to rainmaker, we highly recommend you check out the new free report, The New Rules of Selling Consulting Services in 2011.

It’s absolutely the best way to get ahead of your competition in 2011.

Download the new free report here: http://www.sellingconsultingservices.com/newrules.html.

M. Schultz And J. Doerr -
	Mike Schultz and John Doerr are co-Presidents of RAIN Group, a sales training, assessment, and sales performance improvement company that helps leading organizations improve sales results. They are founders of RainToday.com, named the Top Sales Resource site in the world in 2010 and are co-authors of Professional Services Marketing (Wiley, 2009) and Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation (Wiley, 2011). You can reach Mike at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and John at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Read More >>
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