Professional Services

Professional services business development solutions.

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The Challenges of Professional Services

You are probably highly educated and qualified in your field, but how much training do you and your associates receive in how to develop a successful, growing practice?

Does your firm struggle with:

• Marketing and advertising not providing a steady flow of quality clients?

• Exceptional service failing to provide repeat business and referrals that you deserve?

• A lack of prospecting and new business development attitudes, plans, or skills?

Selling isn’t a dirty word.

You can develop your practice in a professional, respectful manner.

Your business operations probably revolve around systems, processes, and principles—but do you use any of these elements for new business development? Chances are, you may not be as comfortable, competent, or consistent ‘selling’ your services as you are delivering them.

‘Selling’ can become a respectable and profitable part of your professional practice, without you or your colleagues sounding like ‘stereotypical salespeople.’ You don’t need to resort to high-pressure, cost-justified, feature/benefit laden presentations, or dance around prospective clients’ stalls and objections, or trying to ‘close the deal.’

You can integrate the same creative, organizational, analytical, and communication skills required by your profession into effective processes and systems to identify, qualify, and develop new business opportunities.

Nobody ever told me that I would have to sell.

It’s one of the top statements we hear from legal, engineering, accounting, and consulting firms. We’ll help your firm create a business development plan that is as effective as you are at delivering your expertise.

At Sandler, we believe professional business development skills:

• Give you more control of your business and career.
• Make you more valuable to your clients and your firms and increase net profits and income.
• Make you a more well-rounded professional and help you get out of the office and the grunt work.
• Allow you to do the work you enjoy and can actually be fun!

Start a conversation.

Learn how to create a cohesive, highly competitive, and productive revenue-generating inside sales machine.

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Professional Advantage Curriculum

Sandler’s Professional Advantage is specifically designed to address the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques essential to productive business development. Our training complements the diagnostic, creative, analytical, and consultative personalities and skills of professional service providers. Selling is a respectable and profitable part of your profession, and a necessary function of marketing and growing your business.

Develop a sales awareness, without the stereotypical salesperson image:

• Sell yourself and your ideas.
• Conduct presentations that will permit the client to say “yes” without pressure from you!

• Learn why people really buy.
• Help your organization develop a larger client base.

• Handle objections and “Buyer’s Remorse.”
• Qualify prospective clients quickly and therefore shorten the selling cycle.

Handle the Pressures of Business Development

Learn how the “buyer’s system” operates and how to avoid unpaid consulting; how to deal with money issues; and how to get a commitment and stay in control without offending your prospective clients.

Sandler’s Professional Advantage will help you with account development strategies, management of existing client relationships and referral development, as well as networking and prospecting activities.

The program includes key lessons to business development success designed for the professional services industry!

On the Frontlines

Take an in-depth look at customer expectations and examine the tactics we employ to meet and exceed those expectations.

Effective Communication

Customer service providers must be professional communicators. Customers and prospects are all different and our ability to establish trust and build a relationship quickly is essential in solving their problems, developing long-term customers, and creating relationships based on loyalty beyond the product or service.

Breaking through Your Comfort Zone

Examine the idea of “comfort zones” – where do they come from and how can we break free to grow beyond them to reach a more fulfilling life, both personally and professionally.

Questioning Techniques

The ability to craft and ask compelling questions is one of the greatest skills we can develop in customer service. Well-crafted questions can cut through smoke and mirrors, clarify concepts for our customers, and get us to the right solutions quickly and directly.

Up-Front Contracts

Explore a simple methodology to put you in control of the conversation, set expectations on both sides, and ensure everyone involved is on the same page.

Telephone and Email Communication

Review phone and email interactions and how we use them as our connection to customers. Focus on ensuring that our communication skills are building the relationships we value, supplementing our sales tactics, and never hindering our growth in the sales relationship.

Formula for Success

Each person’s definition of success in life is different. However, there are certain basic truths in customer service that, if adhered to, can take you to the next level of success.

Up-Selling and Cross-Selling (PAIN)

The most important thing we can do for our prospects and customers is to provide them with the latest information, ideas, and problem-solving tactics to help them uncover specific value adds and reasonable price points to aid them in making good buying decisions.

Understanding Our Customers: DISC

Typically, people are most comfortable interacting with those who are like them. In this session, we’ll examine different communication preferences to improve understanding and communication with both internal and external customers. Using the DISC behavioral profile, we’ll start by examining its four quadrants as well as our own communication styles. We’ll focus on each of the four styles, how to quickly identify a person’s dominant style, and the basis for communicating with individuals who fall into each particular style.

Dealing with Difficult People

How can we use proven Sandler techniques to institute a step-by-step process to resolve conflict without escalating it, and at the same time, fix both the problem and the upset customer while maintaining our own confidence and self-esteem?

Understanding Our Customers: Transactional Analysis

Examine the idea of “comfort zones” – where they originate from and how we break free to try new things and grow beyond them for a more fulfilling life, both personally and professionally. Understand the human dynamics of recognizing our strengths as well as recognizing those areas needing improvement.

Client Development through Sales

Take a look at attitudes around sales and the selling process to examine ways we can develop a “sales antenna”. Once those skills are developed, we can easily recognize business opportunities worth pursuing while identifying and disqualifying the prospects that aren’t true opportunities.

Selling Professional Services

Must-have information for law firm partners and other professional service providers. “Business development,” “practice development,” “client retention…”- no matter what you call it; you need sales skills to do it successfully!

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Take the next step.

The journey to success starts where you are, and it starts today!

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