Timeless leadership
It’s 28 August, 1963. Standing on the Washington steps, Martin Luther King Jr delivers a powerful message calling for change and empowering a nation to stand against social injustice and fight for human rights. On the 50th anniversary of this historic event, we took a moment to reflect on the lessons in leadership we can […]
Continue ReadingBadgering into buying doesn’t build business
Among the bad sales approaches peddled out there is a set of activities based on the idea that if you keep at certain prospects often and long enough, you’ll eventually succeed. But mostly, you can’t badger desirable clients into buying, and it’s definitely not the best way to build business. If prospective clients aren’t in […]
Continue ReadingWhen referrals stop
Referrals are a great way for professionals to grow their practice, and there are lots of things you can do to stimulate them. From most sources, referrals are intermittent – they ebb and flow with the cycle of business, busy-ness, and contact. But sometimes referrals slow down – or worse, stop completely – and you […]
Continue ReadingThe 4 Cs of persuasion
We’ve all had the experience of watching a TV commercial and wondering “what was that all about?”, or reading a sales promotion letter and thinking “so what? why should I care?” Or even worse, receiving a proposal and groaning at the thought of reading the whole document. Persuasive messages can be characterised by the four […]
Continue ReadingQuitters’ generation – 8 warning signs of demotivation
Staff retention is an emerging critical issue in a generation where the expected useful life of a job is under three years. Spotting warning signs of demotivation in your work group and addressing them early can not only help improve staff retention, but also boost morale and productivity. Spend 2 minutes evaluating your workplace against […]
Continue ReadingKeys to differentiation
We all know how difficult it can be to differentiate ourselves from our (often very) successful competitors. However, differentiation is critical to a winning proposal – without it, you will simply be one of the pack. Four keys to effective differentiation are: focus on what your client thinks is important – not only on what […]
Continue ReadingMore marketing mindedness
In marketing mindness, we outlined how a tiny amount of time in doing the “little extras” will: increase client satisfaction encourage more work yield referrals cement valuable and satisfying relationships. Here are two more examples to help get you underway with being marketing minded in everyday practice: You need a lengthy personal meeting with your […]
Continue ReadingUnmet, unaddressed, and unrecognised needs are business opportunities
Clients have needs: some recognised, others unrecognised. Among the needs they recognise, some clients may have unmet needs – needs for which they have not yet found a professional service solution. Unmet needs present business development opportunities for an expert professional. By implication, unmet needs can be classed as: unsatisfied – no satisfactory service has […]
Continue ReadingSelling professional services is not a numbers game
“Get out there – make as many contacts as you can – follow them all up – don’t give up on any of them – network like crazy – the more contacts you make the better your chance of getting new business.” This is not sage advice for selling more of your expert professional services. […]
Continue ReadingBe marketing minded
Being marketing minded means investing energy and a small amount of time in doing the “little extras” which, over the long run: increase client satisfaction encourage more work yield referrals cement valuable and satisfying relationships. Here are a few ideas to get you started: You’ve just concluded a major project, transaction, or case… immediately send […]
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Feature article
Tender readability – tips to improve your tender presentation and some tender presentation no-nos
Tender readability remains a problem for some in the 21st century. I still see submission documents that cling to a handful of really old hat tender presentation and formatting techniques. I suspect this is because some of these ‘rules’ are viewed as being more appropriate to a ‘formal’ style of document such as a tender. […]
