Winning the Professional Services Sale: Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain Your Sanity [Hardcover]

Michael W. McLaughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 20, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0470455853 | ISBN-13: 978-0470455852 | Edition: 1

An innovative approach to winning more profitable sales in the growing professional services industry

In recent years, professional services providers have had to rethink their sales methods and adapt to profound changes in the way clients buy services. In response, Winning the Professional Services Sale argues for fundamental changes in the seller's mindset and sales strategies. Rather than pressing the sale, salespeople must help clients buy--the way that works best for each client. This new approach gives buyers what they now want in a services seller: a consultative problem solver, change agent, and solution integrator, all rolled into one. Author Michael McLaughlin presents a strategy for winning new business with a holistic approach to each client relationship. Only by fully understanding a sale from every angle, including its impact on the client's business and career, can salespeople thrive in the new era of the service economy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In recent years, professional services providers have had to rethink their sales strategies because so many of their tried-and-true approaches no longer work. Clients ask tougher questions and demand better answers. They expect to guide the sales process, and they insist that services providers customize proposals and presentations down to the last detail. They won't tolerate false sincerity, artificial deadlines, and preprogrammed sales strategies.

Instead, clients want more certainty about potential results before they commit their resources. Being a good salesperson is no longer enough. You must draw clients to you with your ideas, rather than chase them with outdated sales tactics. You must also identify clients' real problems, persuasively advocate for change, and effectively manage complex sales.

Whether your company sells business services or legal advice, outsourcing solutions, or management consulting, Winning the Professional Services Sale is the ideal guide for anyone who wants to close more profitable sales on a consistent basis. It presents a flexible, dynamic sales framework that suits the needs of the most demanding clients. It's an effective way to organize a client-specific strategy that leads to the sales you want—no matter what services you sell or who you sell them to.

Once you master Michael McLaughlin's innovative sales strategies, you'll learn to connect with clients, collaborate on fulfilling their needs, and commit to getting the job done. Rather than a salesperson, you'll become a business partner. Because of the strength of your ideas and the depth of your relationships, you'll be the first one who comes to mind when your clients need help.

In today's professional services sales, your interests and those of your clients are inseparable. Now more than ever, your clients are the ones calling the shots. With Winning the Professional Services Sale, you'll learn to give them exactly what they want—and take your business to profitable new heights.

From the Back Cover

"Attention rainmakers: this is the book you've been looking for. And if you're not a rainmaker, today is a great day to start."
—Seth Godin, author of Tribes

"The economy calls for bigger, smarter, more realistic, and more effective ways of selling professional services. This book is filled with bigger, smarter, more realistic, and more effective ways. It's just the ticket for the times."
—Jay Conrad Levinson, the "father of guerrilla marketing"

"Michael McLaughlin is a gifted rainmaker who has given us the final word on how to win complex sales. This immensely practical book is rich in the detailed how-to that will enable readers to connect with clients and consistently gain their commitment to mission-critical programs and projects."
—Andrew Sobel, author of All for One and Clients for Life

"Whether you sell services or manage a team that sells, Winning the Professional Services Sale is a must-read book. Read it from start to finish, or just open to any chapter, and you're sure to find insights that will tip the scales toward your offering in any sales effort."
—Jeffrey Fox, bestselling author of Rain: What a Paperboy Learned About Business

"This book clears away decades of confusion and sales mumbo jumbo, simplifying the process into three logical steps: connect, collaborate, and commit. For accountants, lawyers, engineers, scientists, and a whole range of professionals who don't necessarily see themselves as salespeople, this is an elegant, logical way to understand and master the process."
—Tom Sant, founder of Hyde Park Partners and author of Persuasive Business Proposals

"With this book, McLaughlin continues his insightful contribution¿to the under-standing of how to market and sell professional services. It is a practical guide to face-to-face selling for professionals."
—Ford Harding, author of Rain Making and Creating Rainmakers

"This is a timely book that makes a compelling case for taking a much more systematic approach to selling professional services, especially in the current economic climate."
—Fiona Czerniawska, coauthor of Business Consulting and cofounder of sourceforconsulting.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470455853
• ISBN-13: 978-0470455852
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Consulting

More About the Author

Michael McLaughlin is the founder of MindShare Consulting LLC, a firm that helps professional services organizations design innovative strategies to reach more clients, land profitable work, and build resilient businesses.

He's the author of Winning the Professional Services Sale, which offers professional service providers, business development managers, and firm leaders new strategies to identify, qualify, and close any services sale. McLaughlin is also the coauthor of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, the first book to apply the principles of Guerrilla Marketing to the business of consulting and professional services.

For the past eight years, McLaughlin has published Management Consulting News, a monthly newsletter which delivers leading-edge ideas to thousands of professionals around the world. He also publishes a second monthly newsletter, The Guerrilla Consultant, which extends the concepts and strategies in his first book.

Before founding MindShare Consulting in 2006, McLaughlin was a partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he spent more than two decades managing consulting projects, developing long-term client relationships, and building profitable consulting practices. He has worked extensively with clients, from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.

He has successfully built consulting practices from the ground up, and also led a practice of more than 800 consultants as a Managing Partner for Deloitte.

Over the years, he has coached hundreds of experienced and new professionals on how to create a market presence, deliver profitable work, and build the foundation for an extraordinary career. As a result of that work, McLaughlin developed The Path to Profit, a framework for helping professionals and firm owners achieve success in the professional services business.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy read that teaches you a lot September 6, 2009

By M. Rosenthal

Format:Hardcover

I picked this book up to read on a flight home. I have been consulting for over 30 years and quickly found this to be one of the most insightful books written about selling consulting services. I usually skim a book's introduction, but I read this one twice... it lays out a precise framework that McLaughlin will then build around in the rest of the book. His basic Connect - Collaborate - Commit framework succinctly nails how the nature of professional services sales has changed. He consistently takes conventional wisdom and changes how you think about it. The value of this book is how McLaughlin gets you clearly focused on not only what is important, but how to do each step.

Even if you don't immediately read the entire book, each "Sanity Check" tip box is worth reading as soon as you get a copy. These are practical, immediately implementable tips that will quickly improve how you interact with your potential clients. Kudos to Michael McLaughlin for a great business book that cuts through the jargon and gives you perspectives that you can actually apply.

P.S. You also have to love anyone who can paraphrase a Ricky Ricardo / Lucille Ball quote and work it into a business book (page 36)!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't cut through the clutter and get to the meat March 19, 2010

By Susanna Hutcheson TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book argues that times have changed and the prospective client must be dealt with differently. That's true. Using the old presumptive close, for example, no longer works nor should it be attempted. However, I found the book lacked a good deal that actually goes into dealing with prospective clients. And, in some areas, it was just wrong. The part on negotiating, for example --- a good service seller does not cut price without cutting deliverables. That's not the position the book takes.

I have yet to find a book as useful as Harry Beckwith's "Selling the Invisible." I wish I could find one but so far my search is illusive.

However, if you've not read anything on this subject and want to get your feet wet, it can't hurt.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting new clients is more complicated than it used to be December 10, 2009

By John Gibbs TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

"If there ever was a time when professional services sellers needed new strategies and tools, this is it." So says Michael McLaughlin in this book. He says that today's services sellers must be active in the market, offering ideas and solutions that generate client demand, and then they must be able to put together a winning sales strategy to satisfy that demand.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the sequence of events involved in a successful strategy for selling professional services. The sales process is no longer a matter of the seller just presenting its credentials; the seller must now attempt to gain strategic insights into any problem which the client may be facing, and craft a customised solution which provides a demonstrable and measurable advantage to the client.

Most professional services providers have been trained in how to provide their particular professional service; they have not been trained in how to undertake a strategic assessment of a client's business and come up with ideas that add quantifiable value. Accordingly, selling their services is intimidating for them. This book provides a very helpful step-by-step guide to success in the professional services sales process.