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 [...]
Organizational Change Archives
Realize the Reality—Step 5 in the 5 Steps to Selling Services Success
Friday, October 15th, 2010Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce—Step Four in Seriously Selling
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Very strong training, as outlined in Step Three in the Five Steps to Selling Services Success, is a vital catalyst, and is a mandatory start for changing selling behavior. Remember, though, for almost all of your sellers, this is a very big change, and training won’t do it alone. Behavior change takes time and support, so be prepared to [...]
Likeability 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 [...]
Align the Services Strategy with the Business Mission
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010As in any business, if you don’t get the strategy right, it is darn near impossible to get the marketing right, the selling right, or anything else right—stuff rolls downhill.
My research in the technology industry confirms this criticality and expands it to the realities of being embedded inside a product company. A key differentiator that separates top-performing services organizations [...]
The Biggest Challenges in Transitioning to Selling Services
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010My services research confirms the critical importance of understanding and addressing the product company culture. I asked this question, which produced the following data:
What was (or is) the single most significant challenge your organization faced (or is facing) in building and selling services?
58% Culture Change
8% Acquiring Capabilities
7% Selling
6% Marketing
5% Senior Management Commitment
4% Obtaining Funding
4% Intra-Service Conflict
2% [...]
10 Common Obstacles to Any Change
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010There are ten common obstacles that occur time and again when organizations and the people who compose them attempt to do things differently are outlined below…
1. Not tied to strategy.
2. Seen as a fad or quick fix.
3. Short-term perspective.
4. Political realities undermine change.
5. Grandiose expectations versus simple successes.
6. Inflexible change designs.
7. Lack of leadership regarding change.
8. Lack [...]
Seriously Selling Services: Accept the Difficulty of the Task
Monday, July 12th, 2010Ponder Point: If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
Let’s face it, for most product companies, getting serious about aggressively building, marketing, and selling services is a big deal—a major change. The troubling truth of the matter is that about three out of four major change efforts fail to achieve and sustain the desired objectives (Alexander, 2004). [...]
