A key topic SBR Consulting has been discussing with many of our clients and in our online sales community over the last 18 months has been account development, i.e. the process of “landing and expanding” in an existing account. While this is too large a topic to consider tackling in one blog post, my intent is to cover key elements as a series of posts starting with an overview of the key stages. We would define these as: Continue reading
Do you waste the power of your network?
Let’s agree on something, we are all busy. Or is it actually that we are busy fools? At SBR Consulting, we challenge you to try new things out and to start new habits. This blog is about referrals, an often under-used and forgotten source of new business, despite it being both a quick and easy way of getting new customers. So, why is asking for referrals under-used? In most cases, the answer is very simple: because we forget to ask for them. Continue reading
Selling in the Consulting World – tackling the issues consultants currently face as they embark the business development arena. Each month Lars Tewes, MD of SBR Consulting shares a challenge / issue he is working on with his clients, and looks at how it is being addressed for Top Consultant’s, “Consulting Times”.
Client Sales Challenge of the Month: Don’t Rely on Hope – Analyse Your Sales Numbers Properly
Einstein is often quoted for saying, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results’. Whether 2013 is looking like one of your best years ever, your worst year ever or somewhere in the middle, you need to analyse the detail behind the numbers to understand the reason for this performance. Then you can decide whether to repeat or change the behaviours from the start of the year to make 2013 your best year yet. Continue reading
……. , so stop trying to do it!
At SBR Consulting, there is only one person that we know of who can manage time and that’s Doctor Who! For the rest of us mere mortals, who don’t have a time machine, we just have to make do with the 24 hours in every day, or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds if you prefer.
Many years ago, a manager of mine, in a desperate bid to get me to understand the value of time, used the analogy of a bank account in which every morning £86,400 (or 3,888,000 Rubles – I’ve just come back from sharing this with an engineering consultancy in Russia) was deposited. Each midnight, anything that you hadn’t spent the day before would be wiped out and a new £86,400 would be deposited into your account. You can’t transfer it, you can only use it. What would you do with it? “Spend it of course,” I hear you say. He went on to tell me that time is the most important commodity to you as you can never replace it and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Unlike money which you could possibly get back, time is irreplaceable. Continue reading
This article focuses on sales as a key task to becoming a market leader, by using the theory of ‘Value disciplines’, developed by Micheal Treacy and Fred Wiersema.
In their theory, Treacy and Wiersema identify three value disciplines; Product Leadership, Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy, and demonstrate how getting the mix right between these three can propel a business to a leading position within their sector.
Selling in the Consulting World – tackling the issues consultants currently face as they embark the business development arena. Each month Lars Tewes, MD of SBR Consulting shares a challenge / issue he is working on with his clients, and looks at how it is being addressed for Top Consultant’s, “Consulting Times”.
Client Sales Challenge of the Month: De-Risk the Risk of Buying from Your Firm and Close More Business
In recent times, many of our clients have frustratingly found their closing ratio (proposals to win) has increased, particularly for new business. This article looks at how this could be linked to a buyer’s appetite for risk and how to therefore minimise the losses.
SBR Consulting is often asked, “What is the average closing ratio across the consulting industry?” There is no one answer. We have clients who in their large bid work, win 8 out of 10 bids, through to other firms targeting new logoed business who achieve a 6:1 proposal to win ratio. As long as you are improving your own ratios you will have a healthy business. Continue reading
March’s winning idea came from Daniel Shaw of Molten.
Thank you again those of you that sent in your sales ideas. As always there were a number of interesting ones and this month we have chosen an entry based on it being one of the simplest and easiest ways for consultants to get back into the habit of taking care of the top of the funnel. We consistently talk about networking being about, ‘Building mutually beneficial long term relationships with other professionals,’ yet so often people say they do not know who to call. As Einstein said ‘Simplicity is Genius’, Daniel Shaw has shared how he has kick started his business development activity again. Continue reading
At SBR Consulting, we have been using a useful exercise in our training programmes (thanks to Rob Arnold from Thomson Reuters for this) in that we ask delegates (‘Presenters’) to convince someone else in the group to do something that the presenter is passionate about, e.g. skiing (always a popular one at this time of year). Imagine, for a second, how you would do this? Continue reading
Selling in the Consulting World – tackling the issues consultants currently face as they embark the business development arena. Each month Lars Tewes, MD of SBR Consulting shares a challenge / issue he is working on with his clients, and looks at how it is being addressed for Top Consultant’s, “Consulting Times”.
Client Sales Challenge of the Month: Make 2013 Your Year for Becoming More Confident & Successful at Networking – Part 2 of 2 (Click here to read Part 1).
For many people attending networking events would be their definition of a nightmare! This is often due to fear of making conversation with people they have not met before. This article is aimed at helping you gain more confidence, develop a greater awareness of ‘how’ to network effectively and become clear about what you are trying to achieve.
SBR Consulting’s definition of networking is simply, ‘Building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with other professionals. In reality, we are networking all the time without realising it. Some might argue that these days, with LinkedIn and other similar social media websites the need to network is obsolete, as so much business development can be done using these tools. However, we need to realise that we do business with people we trust and face-to-face interaction is the most effective way to build this trust so getting out and meeting people is still an absolute necessity.
As you progress through your professional career there are many opportunities to network effectively and meet people face-to-face to build these trusting relationships: conferences, industry events, business breakfasts, internal corporate functions, dinners and often simply bumping into people on client site.
SBR Consulting has shared the following 5 tips Continue reading
So how do you create buy-in for your idea? In other words, how do you sell it?
Regardless of whether we are working in sales or just generally trying to influence someone in a work situation, we often share an idea too early, without planning it or communicating it properly. First of all, try to regard your idea as something you need to sell in, and not just a message to deliver.
PLAN how you will sell your idea. Ask yourself: Continue reading