Here are a few things I addressed when I recently spoke to the Dean of a university Science Department who feels the economic pinch and knows fundraising/development is necessary today. In fact he’s so committed, he’s training his seven department heads in the skill. Pretty enlightened, huh?

(By the way, I’m going to use the word fundraising occasionally, even though you may refer to it as “development.” )

1. Most fundraisers aren’t very skilled at the art. Most have lists of people they sort through–then call–then ask–then move on. It’s not a very strategic process. And they go to symposiums with a lot of other people who do it the same way–and thus, no new ideas come out. So they all sound the same.

2. Most non-fundraisers–when asked to do so, are even worse. That’s not their competency. And then we put them in a place where they have to summon very different skills–then we’re disappointed when it doesn’t work. The silver lining is that these people are valuable. Find their ’skin in the game’ (what juices them about the cause) and have them tell their story. Stop teaching them closing skills and start teaching them story telling skills.

3. The plan is the thing. One must have a plan that includes many components. What is the message you’re sending? How will you contact them? What, exactly and precisely, will you say when the prospect answers the phone? (It’s amazing how few have thought through this). How will you land the large deal? How do you use your current assets? (Students, faculty, alumni, friends, past donors).

4. Change the thinking. I worked with University of Illinois Technology/Licensing department years ago. One of the things I recall about that is their reluctance to see how much value they had in the ask. Their prospects actually WANTED to donate, but the U of I people felt they had to “sell”. I don’t buy that. The more you try to convince someone to give, the less likely they are to do so.

5. Work exhaustively on the message you communicate, including, why do most people give? What does it do for them? What value are you bringing to the world by doing what you do–and why should they be a part of that?

6. Don’t buy in to market ‘lack.’ We call it the Theory of Abundance in our training. It dictates that there is plenty of money in the market. If it’s not showing up in the quantity you want it to then you must look in the mirror and figure out what you’re doing to cause the stoppage. (One clue is if your pitch is all about you–and not about them. That’s a show stopper!)

7. Have high intent. When you make the calls, make sure your intent is right. As we say in our sales training, high intent means you’re thinking about your prospect. Low intent means you’re thinking about yourself. Make everything you do about them and watch results change.

Bottom Line
Be prospect-focused!! You must understand that there IS something in it for them–the feeling they get when they help a cause bigger than themselves. But the message has to be created correctly. (Advertising agencies don’t usually do well at this. They come at it from the “pitch” angle).

So, if you’re in the development business, you’re in tough times. But if you follow the seven points above, you’ll at least be on the way to changing the game and increasing your results when those around you are crying ‘foul.’

As with most schools who teach some type of technical competency, there isn’t much attention given to how to build a practice–so that was our focus in this 90-minute talk.

For you in medical, law, accountantcy, engineering, all of the 9 tips on this 13-minute audio apply. If you’re in practice-building mode, then you can use some of this.

In short, “yes” they do sell and for those that do it well, they prosper.An Antiquated Way of Thinking:  “The old way of thinking is that when a client needs something, they’ll call.

And it does me no good (as an attorney) to call them when they have no issue at hand.”BS.That presumes a very faulty piece of logic: that a person knows when they have problems.

Of course, when they get sued, that’s a “no-brainer.” But aren’t there many other business problems that would require the competent hand of an attorney to solve? And is it possible they might not know they have them?I worked with a law firm last year and trained a few of their new staff of lawyers.

We made progress in changing their minds, but it was hard work. They couldn’t make the leap from ‘they’ll call me when they hurt’ to ‘I need to proactively help them see if they have issues that could cause problems later.’

Are You Helping Them Recognize Business Issues?

If you’re in a professional service practice of any kind (consulting, law, accounting, engineering, design) the highest service you can be to prospects is to continue to see if they have business issues that you can solve.

Connect with them once in a while to see what’s on their mind in their business. Have an audit/assessment that you run to help them discover for themselves any potential pains they may run into.

And when they have those issues that you can help them with, you’ll be the one to know first.

But in many cases, the PM gets no sales training. Oh sure, they get plenty of training in their discipline of project management: time lines, resource allocation, problem solving, job scoping, etc. But most get no training in the area that means the most in Customer Satisfaction: communication/sales training.  

I just finished an engagement with PMs and Designers at a technology firm. I thought I’d list five of the many lessons we learned. 

1. We live in a world of client expectations.  Regardless of how well we scope the project, there are always going to be things that don’t go right in the job. If you suggest that there will be no problems, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You must first have the attitude that sh_ _  happens. Be ready for it.
    
2. Handle problems preemptively. This is akin to #1. You can’t foresee all problems, but you must project facts: “There will be problems. What will make this job go right, Mr. Customer, is our ability to work through those to mutual satisfaction.”  And then proceed to tell them how you will handle it if we go ‘beyond scope.’
    
3. Go back to the original Project Purpose. People lose sight of the main reason they engaged you in the first place.  It’s easy to get buried in the details and forget the pain the client had which was why he engaged you in the first place. “I think it might help here to go back to the original reason we engaged. Can we do that?” Always be willing to say that.
    
4. Get involved upfront. One area we worked on with my PM group is getting involved earlier in the sales process. So that the first time the client meets you is not in the famed “Turn-over Meeting.” Think of how annoying that is for the client–he works with the AE all the way through the sales process and then, all of a sudden, the AE is gone and the PM is here. It helps to introduce the PM in the selling cycle.
    
5. In the Turn-over Meeting, my client now has POINT 6. In their process there are five steps to a successful project. But POINT 6 is a conversation about the process itself–how they want to be communicated with; how to handle it when there is something outside the scope; how to know when we need to bring others in the process. 

The bottom line of all this is that companies waste millions of dollars doing free work. Some of that can’t be helped–30 minutes here, 2 hours there. But when those two-hour extras turn into 40 hours, then your margins are squeezed (and you become resentful).

And if you always make the mistake of connecting customer satisfaction with you eating big chunks of lost time–billing, then you’ll opt for giving free work away.

And that’s not a good way to preserve margins. If you have PMs in your company, invest in some sales/communication training. Give them some tools so they can do their job better–and create a Great Customer Experience.  

Here are some lessons I learned in my work with them:
1. Accountants are a lot of fun to work with. Each meeting–even the ones in which we role played–were full of energy and stories of ways they had tried to implement the strategies.

2. They need content that doesn’t turn them into sales people. As a trainer, the worst thing for me to do was to “convert” them to sellers. They’re fine the way they are. In fact, they’re better-than-fine. They are great problem solvers so they need to lead with that.

3. They are very coachable. I had peers who said not to take on work for CPA firms because they’re not teachable. I found the opposite. The truth is that if you teach someone to do something that works–and he gets the results he wants–everyone is trainable.

4. CPAs need to find other services to sell. If you’re in a large firm, you had better be abel to sell strategic planning, business planning, business analysis, etc., You can’t survive doing taxes and audits.

I can tell you this: they were so coachable that their business/revenue grew double digits for three years under our engagement. Now, granted, this wasn’t a one day motivational-fest. It was thoughtful, planned, strategic and practical.

And there were plenty of meetings with senior partners to make sure we were on track.

Strategic. Planned. Cerebral.  

But for you CPA’s who want to lear how to sell, find a trainer who won’t turn you into a sales person. Find a trainer who has a strategic way to look at what it means to develop new business. Find a trainer who is there to coach you when you get into deep waters. All will be well.

We work with a technology firm that has a 90-day selling cycle and a 90-day implementation cycle. They sell telecom/networking/convergence technology. But here’s the problem. The customer – at the point of sale, when the contract is signed – is ecstatic – full of excitement.

But by the time the implementation is over, the customer loses interest (by the way, we’re talking about $500,000 solutions here). Why is that?

It might be a problem you have too, so listen up.

1.  
   1. The project managers aren’t good at managing relationships. They are in a “let’s get it done – give me the data” mode. Not always good for the warm relationships that the sales/account people had created.
   2. The sales person, who created the bonding and rapport, and who, following our system of selling, found the pain and the possibility (sometimes this is quite emotional for the prospect) leaves the process. The President of my client company even used the description, “Their jaws dropped when I told them the sales person was moving on and the PM would take over.”
   3. All  of these hours of research on the part of the AE get swept up into a 10 page SCOPE OF WORK. Sorry, but that won’t do.
   4. The Original Pain/Possibility loses attention. The PM’s barely know what it means to solve business problems. All they know is technology. So all of this talk in the sales process about how we solve “business problems” washes away.
   5. Velocity wanes. Referrals are hard to come by. Did you ever wonder why referrals are so difficult to get? Maybe it has to do with the customer’s lack of excitement after the solution is implemented.

So what to do?

1.  
   1. Train your Project Managers (subject matter experts) the art of communication and expectation management. And throw in some relationship skills to the mix.
   2. Have the AE continue in some capacity throughout the implementation.
   3. Don’t talk about the Hand Off (or Turnover) meeting.
   4. Introduce the PM (or whoever will be handling the implementation) PRIOR to the deal signing.
   5. Have a TOTAL REVIEW at the end with the AE in attendance. That’s the time there should be a referral process.

In our consulting practice, we’re starting to hear more about this issue. And we’re starting to do more training for the “back end” people. Not a bad investment since it can cut your marketing costs significantly by getting more referrals on the back end.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to speak to the Greenville Chamber of Commerce to the NEXT Group, a subset of the Chamber specializing in emerging technology companies.   One of the challenges that entrepreneurs face in building their business is that they need to respect, revere and understand what “selling” is and how it can be done most effectively. 

In the technology field, the problem is complicated by the fact that these are custom solutions many times and not off-the-shelf, in-the-box products.  Consequently, it changes how you sell to someone.

There were three major lessons that came from this program, and I hope you can learn something from them. 

1. All Sales Success Starts in The Mind:  The title of this program was “Rewire the Sales Mind.” And the assumption I have is that how you think determines how you act and how you achieve.  Look at the top two percent of sales achievers and you will find they think differently about the role of the sales professional.  The main difference, I suggested, was great sales people don’t look like clowns (average sales people), instead they look like competent problem finders and problem solvers for their customers.  So if you’ve been reading the old books about how to convince, persuade and defend, throw those books out because they don’t work anymore – or at least they don’t work to the level you need them to work.

2. Your Market is Abundant by Its Very Nature:  I believe that virtually every market is abundant; however, we don’t always see them so.  Two reasons the technology market is abundant is because a) the pain that the technology solves is abundant, and b) most technology companies are absolutely pathetic at communicating the value of their solution.  Consequently, many problems remain unsolved because the right vendor has not come along with the right expression of the solution.  So when you’re out in the market, I suggested that you not take just any deal (which is customary for start up companies) but instead take only the deals that are right for you, since we know there is an abundant, never ending supply of them on the back end.

3. When You Have What They Want, You Control The Process:  You see the reason most sales organizations fail to optimize the sales asset and perform at 30-50% of what’s possible, is they lack the perspective to be in control of the sales process.  Your customer has a problem; you have a solution—you have what he needs.  That puts you in control of the process (not of the people in the process, but the process itself). 

Most sales training doesn’t teach this.  Most old, worn-out, antiquated sales training teaches that you’ve got to “do what it takes to get the order.”  That perspective is offensive to me and to the clients that we teach.  Spend your time working on how you bring value and the problems you solve with that value and then go find people that have those problems.  Don’t make it more complicated than it is. 

A final note – thanks to Jim Henderson who set up the program and Brenda Laakso at the Greenville Chamber for organizing the details.  And hats off to the Greenville Chamber for thinking outside the box in creating a learning experience for their members.

But I’d like to share some observations that may make it easier for you to train your PM’s in communication skills. It seems that companies are relying more and more on their PM’s to manage the client relationships and generate referrals so this topic might be relevant for your firm.

One chapter in Same Game New Rules is titled Process Makes Perfect, and it’s about how engineers and technical sellers make the best sales people. Mainly because they are in the right place to bring tons of value.

1. Need for Good Communication. In most projects, there are many tiny details that can spin out of control. Since the relationship is only as good as the project process, then it is necessary for PM’s to know how to communicate issues to clients. The PM must have a “relationship awareness” all the way through.

This includes: bringing up sensitive topics PRIOR to them becoming problems; knowing how and to whom to communicate these issues at the client; knowing how to keep the atmosphere open and honest so bad matters don’t get worse; and having a paper stream of promises so that there is nothing left to memory.

2. Having a Problem-Solving Attitude. I like to think of selling as problem-solving. And nowhere does that get stated like it does in project management. The PM is always solving problems and keeping things on course. It may be that they don’t want to be in front line sales (and they shouldn’t) but it doesn’t mean that they can’t have the same attitude as the top flight sales person has.

3. Referral Generation. Most times, the PM is the exact person who should be cultivating referrals. In most B2B businesses, referrals make up 60-80% of new business. It’s a bit of a stretch to think that a sales person who sold the deal, but does NOT have the relationship, can waltz in and get referrals. It should be the PM. So any training you do for that group, should have ‘how to generate referrals’ as part of the curriculum.

Fewer Sales People-More PMs
Many companies are hiring fewer new account sales people, and relying on their subject matter experts (the PMs) to do more of the value communication. I think it makes sense in certain industries. Just make sure you train those people on the principles of selling and good communication. They ARE trainable. Just don’t try to turn them into sales people.

I want you to think back to that prospect (it’s irrelevant whether it was last week or last decade). Because as of today, that becomes your standard to which all other prospects are held.

The reason is simple: Most sales professionals have very weak standards when it comes to prospects. We let ‘em get away with lying to us, we let them skate the important answers, and we keep calling them back, chasing them like we were pirahnas. In selling, the way I see it, that’s mechanically wrong.

It’s wrong because the person with the solution is the one that should be in control. (That would be you.) And if the prospect isn’t behaving correctly, it’s either bcause he really isn’t a prospect at all. Or, it’s because you haven’t helped him become a good prospect.

So if you find yourself doing the chasing (instead of them chasing you), then you have to raise your standards. And the way you do that is to remember that IDEAL PROSPECT.

What do you do if you’re in front of a prospect who is not behaving correctly? Call him on it.

Say: “Mr. Johnson, usually at this point in the conversation, we’re talking about your problems and we’re discussing solutions. But in this process, all we’re talking about is how great your company is doing without a service like mine. So, it appears that we’re at the end of our dialogue, unless I’m missing something.”

Remember, you are not manipulating him–or trying to make him say something you want him to say. You are simply calling the game on him, and letting him know that he’s not a prospect because he’s not acting like one. And then you proceed to tell him exactly how most prospects act at this time.

This keeps you strong and in control by raising the standard of how ALL of your prospects should act. If they don’t act that way, move on.