Start looking ahead for how to improve business in 2012

As you head toward the end of 2011, you’re probably evaluating what you did well this past year and what you need to improve in 2012.

You may have adapted to the challenges of the struggling economy and seen your business grow. Or your business development and sales accomplishments may have fallen short, leaving you wondering what you need to do differently. If you fall into the latter category, here are some ideas that can help you turn things around.

1. Motivate Your Business Development Team

More firms are asking their principals to develop new business. But with already time-strapped schedules, those principals may be reluctant to give much effort to it. To help them get over that reluctance, Anne Scarlett says business development managers need to increase their desire to do good work for you.

“Make it a point to figure out each individual’s ‘happy buttons,’” writes Scarlett in her article 10 Ways to Keep Your Business Development Team Motivated and Productive. One person may hope that you’ll ask how they are doing on their studies for the LEED exam. Another may want you to take notice of an exceptional graphic that they produced for your presentation using BIM. Still another may respond best to a literal pat on the back.”

Scarlett also says it’s also important to maintain a human connection with team members, especially during stressful times. You should meet in person often and if possible, make your schedule flexible enough to be available at short notice to talk in person.

Further, consider offering rewards as incentives. Their liking you or having pride in their work may not be enough, especially in high-stress situation, Scarlett says.

“Figure out what your team members find the most rewarding (remember point #1, everyone is different) and offer those incentives,” she says.

2. Revise Your Trade Show Strategy

The traditional approach of going to a trade show to collect as many names and email addresses as possible is no longer an effective strategy. People go to shows to learn and connect with people. If you want to be among the people they connect with, you need innovative ways to educate them. Simply handing out collateral won’t cut it.

“You really need to engage with a little more interactive educational experience,” says Todd Schnick in his podcast interview The Trade Show Is Not Dead, but Your Show Strategy Might Be.

You can provide video demonstrations, teach classes, conduct in-person demonstrations, or interview industry experts. To further interest and engage with attendees, take advantage of technology such as social media, QR codes, and geo-location services, Schnick says.

The key is to pique their interest and then initiate a relationship.

“The strategy has to be I want to walk out of there with 25 real honest-to-goodness people who know who I am, care about what I can do and how I can serve them, and are interested in learning more. To me, that’s money versus a thousand meaningless emails or handing out a thousand trinkets,” says Schnick.

3. Get Your Foot in the Door of Large Companies

You might think being a jack of all trades and offering one-stop shopping will capture the interest of large companies that have a multitude of needs, but that isn’t the case, says Jill Konrath in her article The Best Way to Start Selling to Large Companies.

“When you dump your entire offering on them, you’re not connecting with any urgent or compelling business need. With no focus, there’s nothing there for your customers to grab on to,” she says.

A better approach is to focus on a specific business problem their current provider isn’t addressing. That means you need a strategy that revolves around a subset of your entire offering, Konrath says.

To get your foot in the door of large companies, look at existing clients to see if there are any similarities and if the approach used with them will work with new companies. You should also look for gaps in competitors’ offerings and pursue smaller pieces of business rather than go head to head with an incumbent.

Once you’re in and have proven yourself, then you can introduce the company to more of your services.

4. Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams

Failing to align your sales and marketing teams can result in your company being caught in the Sales Trap, writes Eric Keiles in his article The Sales Trap: Know It, Avoid It. Once caught, your sales efforts fail to generate good results and no amount of training, coaching, or support for the sales team will make a difference.

To remedy this, make sure the teams are in agreement with what a good lead is, that the marketing message matches the client need, that the marketing message gets to the real decision maker, and that the sales follow-up matches the marketing message.

“When your sales activity doesn’t match your business’ marketing, your salespeople get left behind,” says Keiles. “Businesses today often switch up marketing strategies quickly as different mediums (such as social networking) become more popular. When the sales department isn’t clued in, the whole operation looks confusing to the prospect, and the sale dies—especially when the competition’s marketing works in harmony with their salespeople.”

Photo by sardinelly

Do you know what it means when a buyer touches their mouth during a presentation?

These days it isn’t enough to throw things out there and hope something sticks or that buyers take a bite. When it comes to marketing your services and developing new business, you need a targeted approach. And that starts with knowing who your buyers are and what their pain points are.

As Vickie K. Sullivan points out in her article Instant Guru: 3 Branding Models that Stand Out in Crowded Markets, everyone has an expert opinion and wants to share it. The result is a muddled wall of sound where few people stand out. One way to get buyers to notice you is to become the leader of a movement or a cause.

“Buyers like causes for two reasons. First, causes give them clarity about what the expert provides and how to use their perspective. Second, it makes the thought leader a “messenger” for a bigger cause that the market can adopt,” Sullivan says.

But before you take the lead for a cause or begin diagnosing a problem and provide advice, you have to know who your audience is. What type of buyers do you hope will follow you?

Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing is always important, but it’s critical when firms are preparing for partners or leaders to step down, says Sharon Berman in her article Marketing: A Succession Planning Tool for Professional Services Firms. As a firm moves towards succession, it needs to develop a strong foundational marketing strategy. Marketing only when you have time is not an option. It must be done consistently, and it must be focused.

That same focus applies to presentations you make. As Tom Kennedy explains in his podcast interview 3 Essential Elements of Successful Sales Presentations, your audience always comes first. You want to know where your audience is coming from and what you can learn from them, he says.

“It’s always about them. The ‘I/me’ talk is terrible. The ‘let’s start with about us’—they don’t care about us. They don’t want to hear about us … unless [it's] about us and what that means to them,” Kennedy says.

Once you know your audience, then you determine what result you want to accomplish and what your message is. Define those things first and then build your presentation around them, he says.

Reading Buyers Correctly

Buyers will accuse sellers of not being truthful, but sometimes buyers withhold information or don’t answer questions truthfully. Often their body gestures provide clues, and it’s up to you to read them correctly, writes John Boe in his article The Truth about Your Prospect’s Lying Gestures.

Sometimes this happens because buyers have difficulty saying no and will tell you they’re interested in order to avoid conflict.

“As the pressure of making a decision builds, prospects will frequently use half-truths or lies to either stall or disengage from the selling sequence,” says Boe. “While their words say yes, their body language indicates no. By being able to recognize the inconsistency between your prospect’s words and his gestures, it is often possible to flush out their concerns, overcome their objections, and make the sale.”

Then there are times when buyers will do something during a presentation that indicates they don’t believe what the person is saying, he says. They might cover their mouth, which means they don’t believe what’s being said, or touch their eye, which means they don’t believe what they see.

“When you encounter one of those gestures during your presentation, it is a good idea to gently probe the subject matter with open-ended questions to encourage your prospect to voice his concern,” Boe says.

Successful selling and marketing starts with knowing and understanding your ideal buyers. How well do you know yours?

Photo by Stuart Pilbrow

Don't confuse buyers. Clearly and boldly state your purpose.

You can have the best looking website, ad, proposal, or email template, but unless you have a strong value proposition and state it clearly and boldly, no one is going to pay attention.

Buyers are deaf to marketing speak. They have no patience for a jumble of buzz words or praise and promotion about what you or your firm has done. They have real problems, and they want to hear how you are different from all of the other providers and how you can improve their lives.

As Michael W. McLaughlin says in his article State Your Perspective As If It Were a Tattoo on Your Knuckles, we look for shortcuts when processing new information. So, if someone visits your website and doesn’t see information immediately how you differ and can help, they will soon be on their way.

“You’ll have more success in all your marketing and selling efforts if you state boldly and confidently what your practice stands for. No one wants to hear boring claims about how you help organizations ‘manage change.’ To grab and hold clients’ attention, show them your compelling sense of purpose,” McLaughlin says.

Beth Carter, author of this week’s RainToday article Does Your Website Follow This Wrong Advice? agrees you need to be smart about what you say on your website. Also important is how you say it, she says.

“Visitors to your website are there for a reason; they’re not there just to browse around. They’re looking for specific information. Maybe they’re trying to determine if you offer the particular service they need. Maybe they want to know if you have the credentials to back up your claim. Maybe they want to know where you’re located or your hours of operation. These are specific goals,” Carter writes. “Your job is to help visitors easily accomplish those goals—with as much copy as it takes to get the job done: no more, no less.”

The need to clearly state your ideas and perspectives applies to conversations as well. Successful networkers are adept at this, writes Ivan Misner in his article 10 Traits that Make You a Master Networker—and Grow Your Business. They know that if they want to receive referrals, networking partners must clearly understand what they do and how they’re different.

“The faster you and your networking partner learn what you need to know about each other, the faster you’ll establish a valuable relationship. Communicate well, and listen well,” Misner says.

Buyers Are Users Before They Are Customers

With prospects’ increasing reliance on websites to do buying research, as well as make purchases. Business owners must make sure they meet the needs of those “users,” says Aaron Shapiro, author of Users Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business.

“We’re at an inflection point that’s happening right now, which is that the majority of sales that are happening are because of digital,” says Shapiro in his podcast interview Why Users, Not Customers, Are Key to Business Success. “What we expect to see is the pace of acceleration is speeding up where all of a sudden companies really need to think about a digital strategy as the way to become successful.”

The need for a strong digital presence continues after the sale, he adds. Online customer service is critical to maintaining customer relationships over time.

Successful Digital Strategy

SingleHop, an Internet-as-a-Service company, understood that the faster their users could get something implemented or installed, the better. So it built a platform where “customers could use an online interface to order the services they needed. Instead of waiting for days for new servers to be manually installed, customers could access services from virtually any computer or mobile device,” writes Gwen Moran in her case study IT Hosting Company Differentiates in a Highly Competitive Market to Propel Growth.

The on-demand aspect of SingleHop’s automated services, which required no human involvement unless the customer wanted it, helped the company stand out among the thousands of other hosting providers. To further differentiate it from the crowd, the company allows buyers to purchase only what they need—an a la carte-like menu.

To get the word out about its services, the company partnered with area businesses. High visibility combined with clear explanations of what it does resulted in 60% of its business to come from word of mouth.

The result: SingleHop grew 7,034% in just three years and landed the #25 spot on the on the 2011 Inc. 500 list.

Photo by Guudmorning!

Firms dealt with the same sales and marketing challenges in the 1980s

Technology may have changed how firms market and sell their services, but the strategies and goals are essentially the same as they were 30 years ago. Today we have online marketing, SEO, SEM, virtual events, social media, smart phones, and email whereas before we had newspapers, magazines, live seminars, snail mail, and regular telephones.

Consider, for example, what we call content marketing—one of the current marketing buzz phrases. Firms and service professionals publish articles, white papers, reports, blog posts, etc. to demonstrate their expertise, educate potential buyers, and attract prospects. This is not new, says marketing strategist Bruce W. Marcus in his podcast interview Professional Services Marketing Enters a New Phase. In 1981, when law and accounting firms were just starting to understand that they had to market their services to succeed, he and other marketing professionals advocated that—only the medium was different.

“[At that time] I began to think there are things [firms] can do that are not in violation of the cannons of ethics. For example, you have a responsibility to educate your partners. So, you can hold seminars and you can give speeches. And if anybody who is not a client hears you and wants to hire you, you didn’t do anything wrong. You just told them how it works. They tried it, and it worked. I said if you write articles, and place them in non-legal or non-accounting publications to inform the public, that’s not in violation of the cannons of ethics,” Marcus says.

Professional service firms continue to struggle with marketing and sales problems that they solved years ago, he points out. But with so many new people entering the field and the lack of B2B educational programs at universities, the problems continue, Marcus says.

Other marketing and sales challenges services professionals continue to struggle with:

* Direct Mail and Email Marketing:
You could run a direct mail campaign, sending sales letters to a prospect list you purchased or compiled from public sources. A better way to use this medium, says C.J. Hayden in her article 7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing, is to “send personal letters or email to people whose problems and goals you have some knowledge of.”

* Prospecting Phone Calls:
You could play the numbers game and make more phone calls. Eventually someone will be interested in what you have to say. It’s more effective, says Hayden, if you follow up with warm calls to people with whom you already have a connection.

Robert Middleton, a marketing strategist, agrees but says even follow-up calls can trip up people. Like cold calls, there’s a method to succeeding with these types of calls.

“The purpose of marketing is to generate attention and interest in your services. Every business identity, website headline, article title, and verbal message needs to accomplish this. The same goes for follow-up calls,” he writes in his article Follow-Up Phone Calls: Get More Sales Meetings Using This 5-Step Process.

You do that by creating an “Ultimate Outcome Statement,” which is a short marketing message that lets your prospect know how you can help them. Only after you do that—and they express an interest—should you provide information about your services and transition into a selling conversation, Middleton says.

* Sales Meetings:
Service professionals know they need to ask questions that get to the heart of prospects’ challenges and listen—really listen—to those answers. Then they can provide a solution based on what they learn. Many of them, however, fail to do that and instead talk about their track record, their market position, and their services. And that’s a top reason why they don’t win contracts, writes Andrew Sobel in his article Letter from a Client: This Is Why You Lost the Contract.

As a one prospect told Sobel, “It’s boring listening to firms talk about their organization, their history, their rankings, their proprietary approaches, and so on—unless it’s directly relevant to me and a problem I have to solve. I want to talk about my issues and their specific ideas for solving them—period!”

* Sales Presentations:
Many people rely on their PowerPoint presentation and bore prospects by relying on that slide deck and going through each and every slide. Imagine how you would feel if you had to sit through several of those. Your better option is to involve the buyers, Sobel writes.

The prospect in Sobel’s article said that engagement was a deciding factor in determining a provider:

“First, they asked us which part of their proposal we wanted to spend time on. So, we picked out two sections that were particularly interesting to us. They created more of a discussion with us about our business, including asking us why we had done things a certain way and how we were thinking about going forward in certain areas. They used some wall charts that we all stood up and gathered around. Frankly, they were just much more engaging than the other three firms.”

What other marketing and sales challenges do you think firms continue to struggle with? What advice do you have for addressing them?

Watch Michael Stelzner's on-demand webinar to learn more about how the marketing rules have changed.

When you look around you, you can’t help but see marketing messages. They are everywhere—websites, TV, radio, email, text messages, vehicles, and even bathroom stalls. We see so many of them that we are tuning them out. The same goes for your prospects and buyers.

On top of that, more buyers distrust companies, says Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and author of Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. The PR firm Edelman conducted a study recently that found only one out of three people trust businesses, he says.

“That means that two-thirds of the people that you as a marketer are trying to reach are likely in a position where they distrust you,” Stelzner says in a recent RainToday.com interview. “When you combine that with the fact that they’re not paying attention, you’re in a big predicament. And the end result is how in the world can you market?”

The answer, he says, is to give people what they want, and that’s help.

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Listen to the complete interview here:

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Your buyers want access to great information and great people, Stelzner says. More than that, however, they want to solve a problem. That means your marketing must help them with that. To accommodate these new marketing rules, you must create content that not only addresses their problem but is something they will share with their peers.

“If you can figure out a way to help people, and you can do it in such a way that you can help tens of thousands or millions of people, then you can get through—you can cut through the noise, you can connect with people. And content is the way to do it because content is very scalable,” Stelzner says.

Consider this example: Social Media Examiner published an article about how to grow your Facebook fan base at a time when a lot of businesses wanted to increase their fan base written by someone well known for her expertise in that area. They shared it with their readers, who shared it with thousands of others.

“At the end of the day, it brought a lot of traffic to SME. And it was a great way for us to build a relationship, if you will, with prospects,” Stelzner says.

All types of professional services firms can use this strategy, he adds.

“If you’re, for example, an attorney, and you’re targeting marketers in the world of social media and you’re trying to help them to understand the ins and outs of sweepstakes and maybe how they’ve been doing it wrong, you can create some great content that demonstrates that you’re an expert, draws a lot of people to you, and becomes very popular,” Stelzner says. “That content could open up opportunities for you to get public speaking opportunities, craft ebooks or books, do webinars, and so on and so forth. It can get you that thought leadership. And at the same time it’s a great form of marketing, but it’s not perceived as marketing.”

B2B professional services sales and marketing are not what they used to be. Where once there was less competition and it was acceptable—even encouraged—to talk only about you and your services, now you must focus on your buyers.

That isn’t breaking news. For some time we’ve been talking and writing about how you need to uncover prospects’ challenges, build trusting relationships, and practice consultative selling. But with buyers’ increased use of the Internet, their incredibly busy schedules, and their abhorrence of being sold to, service professionals need to modify their sales and marketing strategies further. Here are four things they must consider if they want to survive in today’s marketplace:

1. The Heart of a Firm Is the Clients, Not the Professionals Serving Them

Many firms still hold on to the traditional belief that they “exist for themselves,” writes Bruce W. Marcus in his article Relationships Key to Firms Surviving Today’s Changing Marketplace. What they are, however, are structures “to deal with the market it serves,” he says.

Further, professionals must take on the responsibility to bring in and keep clients. Marketing teams can certainly help, but the increasing need to develop relationships with clients requires hands-on effort from the accountants, lawyers, consultants, etc. in the firm.

2. Help Buyers Solve Problems

Not only should your services solve buyers’ problems, but your marketing should also do that. Stop selling and pushing your services, and use content to help and draw prospects to you, says Michael Stelzner in his podcast interview Why You Need to Rethink Your Marketing Strategy.

People are overloaded by marketing messages and very few trust businesses, so if you use typical marketing tactics to reach them, chances are they will ignore you, he says.

“If you know that they don’t want your marketing messages, then what do they want? I postulate that at their core everybody wants help,” Stelzner says. “And they want either access to great information or great people or recognition. More important than that most likely what they want is to solve a problem. And if you can figure out a way to help people, and you can do it in such a way that you can help tens of thousands or millions of people, then you can get through—you can cut through the noise, you can connect with people.”

3. Get Others to Promote Your Business

A referral often means the name and phone number of someone who might be able to use your services. While that can be helpful, a better option is an introduction to potential buyers.

“Your contacts can help you build new relationships faster by introducing you in person to people they think need your services,” writes Ivan R. Misner in his article 12 Ways Others Can Generate Referrals for Your Firm. “Furthermore, they can provide you with key information about the prospect. They can also tell the prospect a few things about you, your business, how the two of you met, some of the things you and the prospect have in common, and the value of your services.”

Your contacts can also arrange a meeting on your behalf, invite you to events and introduce you to people, and distribute information for you.

4. Ditch the Email When Contacting C-Level Executives

Think about what your email is like, especially when you have a day full of meetings. Now think about what a CEO’s email is like. C-level decision makers spend most of their days in meetings, they have at least 40 hours of work on their desk at any given time, and they receive more than 100 emails a day. If your email is among those, don’t plan on getting a reply, writes Kelley Robertson in his article 10 Things You Must Know About C-Level Decision Makers. They simply don’t have time.

Your best option is to call them and make sure you give them a really good reason to take the call or meet with you, he says. And be prepared to call them back if you leave a voice mail, Robertson adds. Executives he has talked to say they rarely call a salesperson back because they have too much on their plate.

What sales and marketing ideas do you have for connecting with and building relationships with buyers?

Photo by Ileana Gonzales

You might dismiss the idea that being likable plays a role in your sales success or even the success of your business. But in fact, it is a key factor in whether people buy from you. For when people like you and your company, they trust you. And when they trust you, they will buy from you.

“The truth is likability is a large part of how we define great service,” says Michelle Tillis Lederman in her podcast How Being Likable Helps You Win Sales. “And often it is that personalized touch in a transaction—being treated as an individual, feeling heard and understood—sometimes it’s that smallest piece of communication that creates that connection. And it’s that connection—that likability—that’s the foundation for trust. And at the end of the day we all know that in business and relationships, trust is everything.”

While there are some people you immediately connect with and like, those people aren’t naturally likable, she says. They happen to easily adopt and reflect likability factors, and anyone can learn to be more likable if they follow what Lederman calls the 11 Laws of Likability.

That starts with being authentic, she says.

“Law number one is the law of authenticity—getting real with yourself so you can be real with others. That’s the overarching theme in all of your interactions. In order to make real connections, you need to be real yourself,” Lederman says.

You also need good conversation skills—to ask good questions, to listen, and to add to the conversation—and to be patient.

“We need to give relationships time and room to develop,” Lederman says. “I’ve been in so many circumstances where you might not have that instantaneous connection or moment with somebody, but yet you see that there’s potential. Don’t network for you from your perspective, but look to grow relationships. Because you know what? You might not get the sale from that client at that time, but you never know where they’re going to go next or who they might tell about you. ”

You Have to Know Your Stuff

While being likable can go a long way toward building strong relationships with prospects and clients, you must also be knowledgeable.

This is particularly challenging if you are a salesperson for a firm and not an actual provider (consultant, accountant, engineer, etc.). Do you understand what you’re selling? Can you describe it in detail? If a prospect asks you a question about the services you sell, can you give them a knowledgeable answer?

When you have a willing and ready buyer on the phone and they want answers to their questions, you need to provide them or you will lose the sale, writes Karen Zhivago in her article An Epic Sales Call Fail. If you can’t answer them at that point, say you will call back with or email the information.

In Zhivago’s article, she describes a sales call in which the caller was completely unprepared to have a real conversation with a prospect.

“I tried asking questions about her services, but she didn’t have any answers. I gave up on that approach. I asked her to send me more information, but instead she promised to send me an email inviting me to attend one of the monthly webinars her company puts on. Then she invited me to call her any time with questions. So far, I knew what kind of service she sells, I knew I might be interested, and all I got for the time on the phone was an invitation to attend a webinar and a promise to answer more questions—even though she hadn’t answered any questions so far,” says Zhivago.

The caller was polite and tried to be likable, but that alone won’t move a sale forward.

Marketing: Do What You Like

Next to sales, marketing causes service professionals about as much angst. They abhor the tactics that they’re trying, which means they don’t put the effort in to do them.

C.J. Hayden says they can improve that by changing one thing: stop using tactics that you don’t like.

“The best marketing and sales tactics are the ones you will perform. If a marketing activity makes use of your natural talents and preferences, you’ll be much more likely to find it enjoyable and easy to do, and you’ll be more willing to do it,” writes Hayden in her article Improve Your Marketing by Changing One Thing.

To determine what marketing tactics work well for you, consider what you like to do in your personal life. If you keep a personal journal, a blog could be your thing. If you like to write letters, email marketing might suit you. If you like to talk with people, prospecting via the telephone might be a successful tactic for you.

“If your marketing plan contains more enjoyment and fewer struggles, you’ll work the plan instead of recoiling from it,” Hayden says. “And when you do that, you’ll stay in business long enough to have plenty of time to learn new sales and marketing skills and expand your comfort zone.”

The Art of the Tweet

Do you enjoy using Twitter to reach out to and stay in touch with prospects and clients? If so, Eric Rudolf has some ideas for mastering the art of the tweet and retweet in his article Develop a Loyal Following Using Content Marketing and Twitter. His three-step system takes some work, but “it is definitely possible to significantly increase the distribution of your posts, articles, and white papers without spending every minute of your free time in front of a laptop at Starbucks,” he says.

If you’re just entering the Twitter-sphere and have a blog or articles published on your website, use those existing pieces of content to kick off your Twitter activity. You don’t have to create new content for your first tweets. Use what you have to start spreading the word about you and your expertise. And following Rudolf’s advice for how to post in Twitter, people will start to notice and begin sharing your tweets.

Then the real work starts: showing re-tweeters appreciation and reaching out to people through direct messages to keep the momentum going.

“If you want to build a community around your content, you have to do some work to develop an active and loyal follower base. But a system like this can get you going in no time,” Rudolf says. “I know this not because I’m guessing, but because this is exactly what I do every single week.”

Photo by JTony

Watch John Jantsch's on-demand webinar Turn Your Marketing into a Powerful Lead Generation System

Plenty of firms employ a multitude of marketing tactics to generate leads. They run campaigns around certain events or the launch of new services, but rarely do firms have a marketing strategy to guide the growth of their business.

That’s because they don’t understand what marketing actually is, says  consultant John Jantsch, author of the bestselling books Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine.

“I think a lot of people tend to look at their marketing as an event or the idea of the week,” he says in his podcast interview, The Most Important System for Your Business: A Marketing System. “For me, the definition of marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like, and trust you. So, in terms of developing a strategy, the strategy is all about gaining that know, like, and trust.”

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You can listen to the full interview here:

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A lot of the time the problem is a person starts a business because they know how to do something, whether it’s accounting, web design, consulting, etc., and they don’t understand this mysterious world of marketing. So, they copy what other firms in their industry do or they jump on the latest tactic being talked and written about. What they really need to do is determine what the best options are for them.

“They get sucked into the doing something of that business. So, this idea of stepping back and saying who makes an ideal client for our business, and how can we absolutely positively differentiate our business from everybody else who says they’re doing what we’re doing [is difficult for them. But] those two questions have to be answered first before you decide on a tactic,” says Jantsch who presented a webinar June 28 on how to set up a marketing system.

It is possible for a firm to appear successful without having a marketing strategy or system, but they’re successful only to a point, Jantsch adds.

“They are growing somewhat, they’re hiring people, they’re making money, but they always seem to sort of plateau or hit up against this ceiling,” he says. “And when you go to look, it is quite often because they were pretty decent at selling their wares or selling their services, but there really is no clear momentum builder. And that’s what great strategy does for you.”

It’s time for a change. Sales and marketing practices of yore no longer pack the punch they once did, especially for professional services firms. And I’m sure you’re seeing that in your business.

Many companies firmly believe in the ABCs of sales—Always Be Closing. They jump on every Request for Proposal (RFP) with the intense hope that they will be selected. They give over-the-top presentations hoping to wow their prospect. And they never work with a competitor on a project that would benefit both of them.

But if you want to succeed in today’s economy with today’s savvy buyers, you need to kick those practices to the curb.

Here are five sales and marketing practices you should try instead:

1. Redefine the ABCs of Sales

In Dan Waldschmidt’s article, Terrible Sales Ideas We’re Addicted To, he points out several bad sales ideas. But the one that stood out the most for me was to “Always Be Closing.” Yes, people still believe the sales process is a series of closes.

I happened to re-watch Glengarry Glen Ross this past weekend in which Alec Baldwin’s character taunts the sales team for their poor performance and screams at them to always be closing. It was a fantastic performance by Baldwin, but the sales team didn’t buy it, and buyers won’t tolerate anyone who tries to bully them. Instead do what Waldschmidt advises, and follow his version of ABC—”Always be Caring and Collaborative.”

2. Don’t Overwhelm or Pressure Buyers

The pressure to close the deal, combined with your desire to tell prospective buyers all about your services and company, will put buyers into fight-or-flight mode, adds Colleen Stanley in her article, Sell to the ‘Old Brain’ and Increase Sales Results. They will either shut down and hope that you’ll soon be out of their office or they will get defensive and object to what you’re saying.

To prevent that, you need to sell to buyers’ “old brain” or their “crocodile brain.” Make them feel safe, and they will be more open to listening to what you have to say. The first thing you need to do: stop using leading questions, Stanley says.

“The old brain doesn’t like leading questions because they are manipulative and inauthentic,” Stanley says. “A better thing to say after delivering your value proposition is, ‘I’m not sure if you are having any of these issues …’ This response is not trying to lead the prospect. The fight-or-flight response is eliminated, and the prospect is more willing to engage with the salesperson.”

3. Reconsider that RFP

An RFP shows up in your inbox. And you need the business. But think twice before you start jumping through the hoops required to submit that proposal. More than likely, submitting that proposal will be a huge waste of time, writes Michael W. McLaughlin in his article, Why You Should Ignore that RFP.

That’s especially true if you don’t know the client issuing the RFP.

“Instead of being a serious contender, it’s more likely that you’re a stalking-horse bidder, and the client will use your proposal to squeeze concessions from the preferred provider. It’s also possible that your proposal is the one that allows the client to meet internal requirements to get three bids for every project. In either case, it’s a waste of your time,” McLaughlin says.

4. Create a Marketing System

I’m sure you have some marketing tactics that you’re using, but do you have a strategy or system that builds momentum and allows your company to really grow? Probably not. According to marketing consultant John Jantsch, very few companies have such a system. They do things to generate leads, but they don’t have a strategy that allows buyers to get to know them, like them, and trust them.

And if they don’t have that, they will struggle to get buyers to “try, buy, repeat, and refer,” says Jantsch in his podcast interview, The Most Important System for Your Business: A Marketing System. They will hit a plateau—a ceiling—in their sales efforts.

“If you can really capture a way that your firm is clearly different and actually in a way that people value you, then first price goes out of the—or at least goes down the list—in considerations,” Jantsch says. “But also, when the buzz becomes, ‘You need to hire so and so because they are the best at x or you will get the experience of a life time,’ all of the sudden marketing momentum really happens because people start coming to you and wanting to buy from you as sort of the supplier, or the vendor or the service of choice.”

5. Collaborate with Competitors

Your competitor is your enemy, right? Not necessarily. While you may compete in some areas, there could be others in which you don’t and you can form partnerships in which you both benefit.

Consider Funding Strategy Partners, which M. Sharon Baker wrote about in her case study, Investment Firm Turns to Partnerships with Competitors to Grow Business. They researched competitors that they felt could help them, and in their calls and emails said “Funding Strategy Partners had customers they couldn’t help and the competitor probably had clients they couldn’t help.”

“I love to look at competitors,” says Dan Page, co-owner of Funding Strategy Partners. “Most people are terrified of their competitors, but to me, they are often the first place I look. Often you compete on one or two levels, but there are other areas you don’t.”

What other sales and marketing practices do you think need to be updated?

Photo by Mike Baird

Do you have a loyal following?

You’ve seen people who have thousands of Twitter followers. Their company Facebook pages have hundreds if not thousands of “Likes.” Their blog posts get a multitude of comments. And you just know that their email list has thousands of names. They have a league of loyal followers who seem to wait with baited breath for their next words.

How did they get such a following?

For one thing, they stripped all of the marketing-speak from their messages. They don’t mention their business or services at all in any of the content they produce. The focus is on content that provides advice, points out issues of concern, and offers strong opinions on subjects.

Removing marketing from content, or “caging” it, is a key component of Michael Stelzner’s formula for business growth.

“What I’ve discovered is that what people want the most—what your prospects and your customers want the most—is they want insight, valuable information, and access to great people. And they want those things before they ever want to be sold anything,” says Stelzner in his podcast interview, The Formula to Rapid Growth for Your Business.

You cannot promote your service and expect to develop a following, adds Stelzner, who recently released his book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. You need to think of yourself as a provider of great content, not a seller of great services, he says. Think “how can I help you,” not “what can I sell you.”

How Do You Make People Feel?

How you interact with people also plays a large role in developing your following. When you make people feel comfortable and good about themselves, they will want to be a part of your circle. They will want more from you, and they will want to do things for you.

One way to do that is to point out and credit their achievements, writes Anne Scarlett in her article, Best Practices for Better Business Relationships. And do it regularly, not just on special occasions.

“Liberally giving credit where credit is due will go a long way toward creating positivity and strengthening business relationships,” she says.

Don’t think your communication has to be all flowers and rainbows. Well-placed constructive criticism will earn you people’s respect as well as admiration. But you must do it with “decorum and a level of discretion,” Scarlett says.

Put Your Marketing on Simmer

If you find that your efforts aren’t generating the followers or prospects you expected, stop what you’re doing and “taste” your marketing. Then do what C.J. Hayden advises and ask, “What is the missing ingredient?”

Rather than randomly adding different marketing tactics to the mix, hoping the end result is a mouth-watering achievement that keeps people coming back for more, carefully consider what you have done and adjust your recipe.

“Too many entrepreneurs approach marketing like careless cooks,” writes Hayden in her article, What’s the Missing Ingredient in Your Marketing? “When they think their mix isn’t quite right, they start adding elements at random. If networking doesn’t seem to be working as a marketing strategy, they say, ‘Maybe I’ll try public speaking instead,’ or ‘Perhaps I’ll just send out a mailing.’ But if they stopped for a moment to taste their cooking first, they might discover that their basic recipe is fine; it’s just an ingredient or two that is missing.”

Don’t Wing It

Your careful consideration for pricing your services adds to the respect buyers will have for you. If it looks like you’re simply winging it, don’t expect them to seriously consider buying your services.

In his article, 4 Pricing Strategies that Work for Small Businesses, Eric Rudolf suggests several method for pricing your services so that buyers feel comfortable with you and have confidence in your business.

One that works particularly well is pricing based on features and benefits. You set a baseline price and then increase or decrease it based on features added or removed. It’s intuitive and it mirrors the decision-making process most customers use when deciding among different providers.

“It also makes the lives of your sales and marketing people easier by giving them tangible differences to point to when potential customers ask why your price is different than a competitor’s,” Rudolf says.

Your Turn

Do you agree with these ideas for creating a following? What else would you do?

Photo by SplodgusMaximus