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 [...]
selling services 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 [...]
Tailor Your Training: Step Three in the 5 Steps to Selling Services Success
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010Step Three in the Five Steps to Seriously Selling Services involves training. But, not any run-of-the-mill sales training. To be successful you need to invest in quality, services-specific sales training tailored to the issues and uniqueness of your situation. Generic, off-the-shelf packages have their place. SPIN Selling, Professional Selling Skills, and Strategic Selling are all [...]
Getting It Right the First Time
Thursday, September 30th, 2010There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal called “Getting Fit without the Pain.” Here’s the link.
The article talks about how some individuals desiring to make improvements in their fitness are hiring an expert physical therapist before they get hurt, as often occurs in rigorous training. These highly trained professionals conduct a detailed needs assessment before the individual starts training for a [...]
Improving Personal Productivity with iPhone Dragon Dictate
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010Anyone serious about selling services should be constantly looking for ways to improve their productivity. I have just the ticket. It’s the Dragon Dictate free app for the iPhone.
I don’t know about you, but I hate typing on iPhone’s tiny keypad. Thanks to Dictate I no longer have to! All I need now is a [...]
5 Steps to Selling Services Success—Step Two
Monday, September 20th, 2010Step Two: Align the System with the Strategy
Adjust your sales performance management system (objectives, tools, rewards, consequences, and feedback) to align with your new services selling strategy.
A. Fitting performance specifications. First, make it crystal clear that selling services is now an important focus of the company and an important required responsibility of the sales force. [...]
5 Steps to Selling Services Success—Step One
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010If you want to change selling behavior–in this case, selling services and not giving them away–you must address all the factors that impact seller motivation.
Step One: Remove Excuses
Most salespeople weaned on selling products say that selling services:
• Lengthens the sales cycle, thus jeopardizing their 30- and 90-day numbers.
• Raises the overall price, thus making [...]
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 [...]
Strategic Alignment—Do it Right the First Time
Friday, August 13th, 2010Do it right the first time—conduct a strategic alignment assessment where you consider how services can best contribute to organization success balanced against your existing capabilities, your customer issues and needs, and your competitive position. This is too important to the future of the organization not to get it right. Confirm your services strategic role today, and get the facts to [...]
