Professional Services Sales Training

Working in the professional services sales field can sometimes feel like walking through wet concrete. The challenge of acquiring new clients while maintaining and servicing existing ones is a difficult balance to achieve.

Meanwhile, each client, whether a lawyer, architect, engineer or other professional has their own specific requirements. Rough Diamond believes that the consultative approach to sales addresses all of them. Clients want more adaptable, personalised solutions, in line with the advances now available with technology.

Around a third of professional service companies say that new innovative products are a leading hindrance to business. At the same time, this very same technology has brought down the obstacles to entering the marketplace, enabling new, low-cost operators to add to the already competitive arena. Even these newer entrants are fighting the fast pace of technological developments and automated solutions. Professions that were once thought impossible to automate are quickly experiencing creeping digitisation. Legal, accounting and architectural firms are all being affected, and it is anticipated that millions of employees could soon be replaced by computers, further increasing the pressure for salespeople to clearly demonstrate the advantages and competitiveness of their solutions.

The increased dependency and use of technology has further distanced salespeople from their clients. It is not uncommon for salespeople to become involved in the sales process at a much later stage, if they are involved at all, than was previously the case.

Salespeople may be able to retain their existing clients, but this alone does not support growth. The answer, we believe is using a more proactive, consultative approach.

Sellers must be able to put across a succinct and undeniable message of value. Importantly, the communication must explicitly address the specific needs of the customer. To achieve this result, the seller needs to start the dialogue with informed questioning which exposes the salient points that are specific to that customer.

This consultative method will demonstrate that while the use of digital services may appear quicker, and possibly cheaper, they cannot compete with the depth of relationship and understanding the seller can develop with the customer.

These conversations unveil the real factors beyond the obvious needs and allow the seller insight into the precise ways their solution addresses the customer’s fundamental concerns. The consequence of a real understanding and maturing relationship is trust. While information is available everywhere from advertisements and the internet and comes without charge, it is often perplexing and not always entirely truthful. A consultative approach resolves these issues by helping the customer to identify what is relevant to their own needs and what is unimportant.