10,000 Foot View

Why is it that the leader or leaders of a service business are often the only ones capable of getting new clients? Is it because they are better trained? Better educated? More charismatic? More intelligent?

Perhaps, but I believe that the single most important factor is that they RELATE to those who can buy their services as PEERS. Business owners are persuasive not only because of their knowledge, education, passion and charisma, but more importantly because they can tell their story with powerful relatedness.

Clearly the reason service oriented businesses fail to grow is often because of their inability to systematically create new and profitable relationships. The leader of just about any professional consulting or services firm will tell you that their success (or failure) is a direct result of their ability to effectively articulate what they do, and for whom they do it. In plain language this is called “selling”.

Consider the following example of which you may have had a similar experience. You’re thinking about hiring an outsourced human resources company to help you with regulatory compliance (or some such service). You remember reading about a company that provides HR services in one of your favorite trade publications, so you given them a call. The next week a young man arrives for an appointment. You ask him to provide a summary of how his company deals with regulatory compliance. He shrugs his shoulders and says, “I’m not really sure. I’m new with the company and in fact this is my first job out of college. I’ll look into it and get back to you”.

What just happened to your confidence? Unless this kid taps into your soft side and gets you to play your sympathy or mentorship card, it’s probably going to be a pretty short conversation and relationship.

Now imagine that the same kid shows up and you pose the same question. This time he says, “Thank you for your interest. Our company helps a lot of clients deal with regulatory compliance and more. Let’s come back to this in a few minutes. My job today is to ask some very specific questions to determine if my company is in a position to deal with your challenge. Because we have a variety of methods and experts to handle unique situations, I’d like to take just a few minutes to know more so that we can determine if we can help you, or if we’re just wasting each other’s time. If there looks to be a fit, I may need to invite the appropriate experts for our next meeting. If there’s not a fit, however, we’ll be doing each other a favor by not taking the time to talk about the services that we offer. OK?”

How this response is delivered is as important as what was delivered. For his part, the young consultant is just as ignorant as in the first response. Nonetheless, he may have established himself as a component of a complex team and offering. He has a much better chance of relating to you as a peer and professional than by shrugging his shoulders and running back to mommy.

If you think the young consultant would have been better off had he known everything about regulatory compliance, think again. In this situation, you probably would have been deluged with brochures and a full blown data dump. Still no relatedness.

So how does one learn to have a conversation with relatedness? In many respects, experience is a great teacher. Unfortunately, you may run out of time and money hoping that your sales consultants and consultants can gain the selling experience that they need fast enough. That’s where your mentoring, coaching and leadership will pay off. You need to lead your sales consultants so that they can relate to other business owners and managers as peers. If your sales consultants don’t think of themselves as worthy of having a peer to peer conversation with the people they need to be working with, then they will be handicapped from the get-go.

Here is what I believe is necessary to RELATE to others as peers:
Receptive – Do you know how to listen to your audience?
Engaging – Are people comfortable talking with you?
Logical – Can you deliver your message succinctly and orderly?
Authentic – Are you comfortable in your own shoes?
Tenacious – Do you persevere with confidence in the face of failure, resistance and skepticism?
Enthusiastic – Do you believe in yourself and what you are doing?

The days of the traditional “salesperson” are dead. As the leader of your firm, you need to enable your sales consultants to become leaders themselves. You need to set the example, commit to mentoring and training, and know when to cut them loose if they don’t learn how to relate to your clients as peers.

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© 2008 Todd J. Anderson, All rights reserved. You are free to use this featured article in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Make sure to notify us where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

“By Todd J. Anderson of 10,000 Foot View. Visit our web site at www.10000footview.com for additional Business Development articles and resources.”

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Todd J. Anderson is the Managing Partner of 10,000 Foot View. He helps Professional Services Firms and complex manufacturing companies looking to grow by offering part-time and interim sales management. For info on his speaking and services, call 763-522-6365 or email todd@10000footview.com.