How to Acquire More Clients (and Maintain Your Integrity)
We’ve all been manipulated into buying something we didn’t need.
This type of selling behavior is particularly egregious for professional service providers because it is the antithesis of being a trusted advisor.
Not surprisingly, a high percentage of professional service providers — attorneys, accountants, architects, consultants and engineers — don’t like selling. Yet, these same people like using their expertise to improve their client’s condition. Evidently, they see sales as something dirty and in opposition with helping people.
For many people, the idea of sales is irredeemably corrupt, a necessary evil that other people do. For this reason, professional service people should retire the term “sales.” It’s just too loaded with notions of self-interested people pushing and manipulating customers. So why use it?
Help clients acquire more value
But this doesn’t mean professional services people can’t be outstanding at acquiring new business.
Consider the fact that physicians learn how to conduct a patient diagnosis as an essential first step in developing an effective treatment plan. It’s considered medical malpractice not to do a thorough diagnosis before prescribing a treatment plan. Doctors listen to the patient, educate the patient, and tell the truth. They may even attempt to influence and push when, in their professional opinion, they think it’s in the best interest of the patient.
Isn’t that exactly what we want all professional services people to do? The true professional acquires new business by helping clients acquire more value. The best, honest “sales” people have always known this.
Motivation is the key difference
The key difference lies in our motivation, not our title or profession. The doctor who pushes unneeded surgeries on patients is immoral. The used car salesman who walks away from a sale because he knows it’s not in the customer’s best interest is a true professional.
Are you primarily motivated to help your client — or yourself?
Like a doctor, a professional services provider should learn how to diagnose a client’s condition in order to prescribe the best service plan. This means asking good questions and listening to the answers, educating them about the options, and telling them the truth.
Not surprisingly, this leads to the discovery of new opportunities, the delivery of greater value, and the acquisition of more clients. Why aren’t all professional services firms teaching their people how to do this?
(A version of this article first appeared in The Business Journals, April 21, 2016)
