As mentioned before in this blog, it is important to stay the course. Things may get worse before they get better; overall sales volume may dip before it goes up. People will complain and look for every possible reason why this selling services thing is a terrible idea. You will need to stick to your guns as people test [...]
Best Practices Archives
Realize the Reality—Step 5 in the 5 Steps to Selling Services Success
Friday, October 15th, 2010Likeability Sells
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010For those of you who have attended my training related to building trust and selling services, you’ll recall that one of the “six trust builders” is likeability. I espouse that things being mainly equal, the person you select to work with is the one you like better. Hence, anything that you can do to improve [...]
From Tactical to Strategic—Shifting Services Priorities
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010When services inside of product companies were seen as tactical cost centers, the mandate was clear: make the product work, keep the customer happy, and manage costs. Smart services executives did their job and kept their heads down.
However, as services have transitioned to strategic profit centers and contribution expectations have increased, the services business is [...]
Common Approaches that Just Don’t Work
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Here’s the scenario: Senior management has bought into seriously selling services and wants to get moving on it. When advised by a services expert that selling services is “way different” from selling products and requires special actions to succeed, they respond that they have a good sales force, and a good sales force can sell anything—just tell them what [...]
Best Practices for Seriously Selling Services
Thursday, August 19th, 2010Here are some proven best practices of executives that have successfully guided the transition to seriously selling services:
1. Create a sense of urgency. When people are reluctant to do something, they will come up with every excuse imaginable to put it off. Change is time-sensitive, and prolonged hesitation only makes things more difficult. Leadership is needed to trumpet the cause [...]
