Customer Reviews

Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business

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I'm sorry, but when an author quotes both Yoda and Yogi, they have me. And, when they quote from books I already admire, they keep me reading. Then, if they don't apologize for being themselves, they end up captivating me. Suzi Pomerantz does all of these things in Seal the Deal!: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business.

It didn't start out that way. I don't like reading business books. For me, the worst day with a good mystery novel is better than the best day with a fat business book.

So, I did what I do with most business books. I stalled. Maybe the basement needed cleaning. Perhaps the attic (do we even have an attic?!) needed more insulation. Anything to delay the inevitable.

I'm not proud that it took two hours in the dentist chair to get me to do more than skim Seal the Deal! But, those were the two hours that made it happen. I found what so many business books are lacking. Beyond the content and practical down-to-earth advice, I found principles and values I could admire.

Let's take an example. It's one thing to write this:

"If you picked up this book looking for tips, tricks, gimmicks, magic, secret formulas or other marketing wizardry, you won't find them here. There will be no manipulative or pressure techniques, fear tactics or slick shadiness of any kind. The system in this book is about honor and integrity, genuineness, authenticity and honesty."

It's another to deliver it on every one of the 335 pages of the book.

I started with her self-assessment quiz that pointed right away to my "growth potential" in salesmanship. It's not that I don't want to sell. It's not that I don't know how important selling is for our own professional services business. It's not that I haven't attended tons of sales workshops, listened to endless selling CD's and read other books about selling. Well, whatever it is, let's just say selling is not what I do best.

So, I skipped right to the chapter "Calling Prospects and Setting Up the First Meeting" and then moved on to the following chapter, "Handling Gatekeepers and Objections." The next day, I did 30 sales calls (which, for those of you with a scorecard, is about quintuple my average gross daily production).

Why was I so motivated? Because those two chapters had stuff to underline and extra worksheets and templates at the end of each chapter filled with practical, down-to-earth content. Content, that's the word. Practical stuff I could do right away - not new systems I had to spend time adopting, new software I had to spend time learning or new stuff I had to buy.

And, she supports her own ideas with the best of the best ideas from other people - books, quotations and support materials. For selling, I'd heard it said a number of ways before, but Suzi quoted Sam Horn's line from TongueFu that "a sole proprietor is a sale proprietor," and that a solo practitioner is a sales practitioner. I don't know, maybe it was the Novocain, but it worked for me.

I also felt at home in this book because some of the references were to books and authors I already knew (like Robert Cialdini's Influence and Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz's The Power of Full Engagement) and some of the quotes were from the greatest business thinkers of all time, like Yogi Berra: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else."

In the end, maybe those 30 calls came from Yoda in Star Wars: "Do or not do. There is no `try.'"

In no small part it's the honesty and humility of Suzi's approach. She believes that we all need to be who we are and to learn how to work best with ourselves. What a concept. She must practice what she preaches, because at the beginning of her book, she thanks Felice Wagner for helping her to "shift my own mindset about sales and selling." She's herself. No apologies; no pretence.

Beyond the practical advice, you'll also find deeper, more advanced business theory. For example, in our workshops we talk about Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and how the Internet is changing everything, especially the playing field of competition. That means, today, it's not as much about competition as it is about cooperation. In her book, Suzi puts it this way: "The idea is one of collaboration with competitors, or turning competitors into partners, by building alliances and joint ventures as a business development strategy."

Her theory of how competition can be transformed into cooperation informs her entire relationship networking approach, and she believes every word of it. She told us in an interview, "The give and take of services with other professionals is the very definition of networking." Wow.

The book says coaching is a "$[...] Billion industry and second in growth only to information technology." In such a high-growth industry, it's hard to know who to trust. Read Seal the Deal!: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business. It's integrity from the coaches' corner - on every page. I know; because I'm starting over on Page 1.

Authors Note: This review was first posted on our Hidden Business Treasures of the Internet blog at [...] on April 2, 2007

Ms. Pomerantz quotes many of the greatest business minds and business books of our times. She practises what she preaches and has the proof that it works - her business is booming! This GREAT piece of teaching/reading knowledge is one for you to pick up and share. What an excellent business book to use as a total teaching tool for ourselves, or a sales team or share with your peers. What a refreshing change, especially in these economic times! It's like going to a class, but on your time, with an excellent, learned professor, who wants to share all their knowledge and experiences. A prof that is a lot of fun and can get anything across to you - You know the kind - you just never want to miss their class!

The author starts you off by asessing YOUR needs! Go figure- she actually has you assess your needs, and then helps you help yourself throughout the book! She makes this easy to read piece a way for you, as she shows you PRACTICAL ways to do it, grow and develop in areas of relationship building, sales, contacting people (the dreaded cold calls, which to her are warm and fuzy ones!)administration, collaboration and much, much more, that YOU need to grow your business or your sales structure and teams.

You don't have to go over things you're already good at though, she has it sectioned off in course chapters, so cover just the essentials that you really need to work on, that's also why you need to do the assessment at the beginning, and you can go back and forth between the lessons too!

Ms. Pomerantz delivers the right ways of getting relationships with clients, and even competition, on the right track - collaborating, to get you the positive, long term results we all need, especially in the economic times we are in. I really have to say, this is not just an good book, it's an EXCELLENT Teacher!

Maxine Karchie

As an Execuitve Coach and Mariage and Family Therapist, I have faced the challenge of building two separate practices. Even after over 12 years of being in both businesses I still sometimes struggle with keeping the pipeline full.
Seal the Deal is exactly the type of book I have been looking for in my quest to become a better marketer and business person. Suzi Pomerantz has a straight forward yet gracious style that cuts through a lot of the nonsense about the best way to market personal services.
Seal the Deal does a terrific job of assisting the reader in understanding what might be getting in the way of making those all important phone calls that lead to the those all important face to face meetings.
Two salient points that the book makes clearly and consistently are essential for anyone to understand if they truly hope to create a thriving, self-sustaining business; 1) Marketing is to a great extent a numbers game; and 2)We all have much more transferable knowledge,skill and experience than we give ourselves credit for. The second point is crucial. It helps the reader surface and deal with the fear of making a call or having a meeting and not feeling like we can make a strong enough case for our own credibility.
For all of us who know we have the "chops" but sometimes hesitate to take the actions necessary to prove it, Seal the Deal is a must read.

Before Seal the Deal!, I had never seen a book so thoroughly cover -- and tie together -- sales, marketing and networking.

Suzi Pomerantz has thoughtfully arranged this book in a way that makes it all flow together in an easy-to-understand format. She covers it ALL, and does so with such grace, expertise and ease.

I'm nominating this book into our book club and I'm confident that the other members will gain as much wisdom (and enjoyment) from Seal the Deal! as I have. It's sure to spark plenty of stimulating conversations.

Great books are so key to our business success and this one goes on my short list of recommended must-reads for any professional service provider. You'll be so glad you read this book. Well done, Suzi Pomerantz!

Are you a coach or lawyer struggling to attract the right clients in these difficult economic times? "Seal the Deal!" by Suzi Pomerantz is a tremendous resource to help you focus all of your networking, marketing and sales initiatives.

I'm a consulting psychologist and executive coach in the San Francisco, California Bay Area specializing in helping companies and law firms assess, select, coach and retain emotionally intelligent leaders and lawyers. A lot of my marketing efforts have been more passive (article writing, website, media interviews etc.). "Seal the Deal" got me to change my mindset to spend a lot more effort in these tumultuous times on sales.

I love Suzi's coach approach to relentlessy set up appointments with potential clients. I am also fully supportive of her high level of professionalism regarding having the confidence to be appropriately paid for your consulting and coaching services and not offering free "sample sessions".

I have been recommending "Seal the Deal!" to many of my executive coaching and leadership development clients. My clients also report that Suzi's sage advice is helping them achieve higher levels of success.

"Seal the Deal!" is the perfect antidote to feeling stressed out about the economy and focusing your energy more productively on getting new business. Suzi's voice goes with me now whenever I make a sales call!

Dr. Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist & Leadership Coach
Trusted Advisor to Law Firm Partners

This book would have been really helpful early on in my career, but it's never too late to change mindsets about growing our businesses. Pomerantz has captured a unique style of conveying this extremely helpful business building advice - through teleclass format and conversation. I felt like I was in the room too, with questions waiting to be answered. What a great study. I highly recommend this as the text book for building business from the ground up. In other words, do it right the first time.
Lee Smith
Seattle, Washington
Co-Author of Legacy Leadership: The Leader's Guide to Lasting Greatness

This book has translated into a complete mindset shift for me!
As soon as I had finished it, I wondered who to call. I picked up the phone to call a lead I thought I had lost 6 months ago. Thirty minutes later I had a deal!!! I would never have thought of calling that person again prior to reading Suzi's book.

What worked very well for me?
It is specific to consultants and coaches (I am a coach).
I can very easily see myself in situation and therefore the format of a teleclass transcript worked very well for me. To give you an example, one morning when reading in the metro I caught myself answering to Jeremy (one of the participants of the teleclass in the book) that Suzi had given him the answer to his question two pages before....
The advices she is giving are very practical and hands on.
France could certainly use a french translation.
Thank you so much Suzi, you made a difference to my business.

This book is written specifically by a coach for life/business coaches and mental health therapists. It is so well written with details and techniques to support the actual sale when seeking new clients. As a coach, I see that Ms Pomerantz knows exactly what I need to have the courage and fortitude to make the calls I need to make to have the meetings I need to have in order to secure the clients I need for my business. I also appreciate the sample scripts and the worksheets provided to support me in designing my own scripts and process for 'sealing the deals'!!

Entrepreneurs looking for a way to differentiate themselves in an overcrowded marketplace have a new handbook, and it's needed by the many service professionals who soon realize that substantial industry expertise and impressive talent are simply not enough.

In Seal the Deal, Suzi Pomerantz takes talented entrepreneurs behind the business-building curtain and gives them a formula for six-figure success. By teaching the reader how to use marketing, sales and networking in strategic concert, and how to weave individual success strategies into a comprehensive, proven success formula, Seal the Deal empowers entrepreneurs with a logical and manageable system for substantial growth.

Jennifer Kalita The Home Office Parent: Raising Kids and Profits Under One Roof

Susi Pomerantz's Seal the DealSeal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business is an excellent resource for any small businesss coach, consultant or trainer who needs to go out and win work from clients.

It's a combination of practical wisdom - a boatload of templates and processes for you to follow and/or adapt - combined with insight from transcripts of group coaching calls Pomerantz lead around this topic. You get a sense of real people expressing real issues - and then getting the practical, useful tools and resources you need to make progress.