Selling Professional Services

Professional service firms are rarely full of natural presenters. How comfortable, confident and effective are your people in pitch situations? In our experience most firms have a few fee earners who do enjoy pitching, they also have a small percentage of individuals who should never be put in front of clients at any cost (you know who they are!). The rest of the firm is then made up of people who have never really been shown how to pitch successfully, and many of these would rather not be part of any pitch – if they could avoid it they would!In these articles we set out a number of the secrets of successful pitch coaching – secrets we have learned through our involvement in many pitch coaching assignments over a number of years.Read and ingest them and learn the art and science of successful pitching.

The secrets to successful pitch coaching – Part 1

pitchcoaching

 

Professional service firms are not usually full of natural presenters. How comfortable, confident and effective are your people in pitch situations? In our experience most firms have a few fee earners who do enjoy pitching, they also have a small percentage of individuals who should never be put in front of clients at any cost (you know who they are!). The rest of the firm is then made up of people who have never really been shown how to pitch successfully, and many of these would rather not be part of any pitch – if they could avoid it they would! Read more here

The curse of ‘how much?’

 

“How many times have I heard this!” said the managing partner of an accountancy firm I met with recently. On reflection I said to him “this is what is constantly being said to me when discussing business development with many accountancy firms, and not just yours, over the last 12 months!” Read more here

How to reel in the right fee

Many clients have become more fee sensitive in the last few weeks and months and are keen to find the most ‘competitive’ offers available. So, do surveyors need to reduce their fees in a difficult economic client in order to win work? Read more here

Money talks

Law firms should not be afraid to broach the subject of fee negotiations for fear of clients baulking at the mention of money. Paul Denvir and Paul Matthews offer advice on how to close a deal with confidence. Read more here

Love me Tender


Responding to invitations to tender can be a costly business, irrespective of whether you can win, but especially if you lose.  So does it make sense to do it, ask Gary Williams and John Monks. Read more here

That’s Too Expensive


At the risk of making a sweeping statement, most professionals have encountered resistance to fees and more often than not most will feel uncomfortable and offer a discount or some sort of concession relatively easily.

From our research and by talking with professionals all over the world, we know that fees/margin/profit (which all mean money) is being left on the table or handed back to clients and prospects every working day of the year – and probably every other day too! Read more here

The right pitch


Many firms in recent years have seen involvement in new business pitches run into several thousands of pounds, sometimes for no return.  This is both a huge waste of resources and de-motivating to all involved, writes John Monks.

Read more here