2007 was an exciting year for us and our clients. We expanded our team with the addition of 5 new team members. We launched the benchmark research report What's Working in Lead Generation and two new e-guides (The Professional Services Guide to Online PR and How to Write and Market a White Paper). We were published in several publications including Business Week and Entrepreneur Magazine, and spoke at various industry leading events including the Association for Accounting Marketing national conference and the Legal Marketing Association regional conference. And most importantly, we have continued to help our clients reach new heights of revenue growth and lead generation success.
In this special issue of Services Insider, we take a look back to the five most popular articles from 2007. But first, here is just a bit of what you can expect from Wellesley Hills Group in 2008:
- Benchmark research on fees and pricing in professional services.
- Several e-books on the topics of professional services branding, demand creation, and growth strategy.
- New seminars and events focused on marketing, sales, and lead generation for service businesses.
- New posts on Mike Schultz's Services Insider Blog where you will have the chance to stay on top of the newest trends, resources, and ideas in professional services sales and marketing.
- Continued expansion of our flagship Services in DemandSM Lead Generation program that generates and nurtures leads over the short- and long-term, and builds brand for our clients.
- Continued growth of the Wellesley Hills Group team.
- New webcasts on marketing and selling professional services through RainToday.com.
- And more!
Enjoy the articles and happy holidays!
It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way. ~Anonymous
A dog found a bone and held it tightly in his mouth. He growled and scowled at anyone who attempted to take it away. When he came to a stream, he trotted over the footbridge. Looking down into the water, the dog saw his own reflection. Wanting the other dog's bone as well as his own, the dog opened his mouth to bark at the "other" dog it saw, but in doing so, the dog dropped his own bone into the river, where it was gone for good. - Aesop Greek Storyteller 6th Century BC I recently had a conversation with an associate centered on strategies for getting new clients, and in particular, on how difficult it is to unseat an incumbent service provider in the process. Though I hadn't considered the fables of Aesop since I was a kid (and no, I wasn't a kid back in Aesop's day), suddenly his story of the dog and the bone came to mind.
The Wellesley Hills Group Team
The Ten Commandments for Shortening Your Sales Cycle (Over Time)
By John Doerr
I spend a good percentage of my time selling. I also teach selling to professional service providers. And one issue that comes up time after time is, "How do I get prospects to buy faster? Why don't people respond to my proposals, my calls, my emails, or me? How do I shorten the sales cycle?"
My flip answer, "Have more in the pipeline at all times, so the sales cycle just seems shorter."
Of course, that rarely makes anyone feel better. So based on our research and experience, here are my Ten Commandments to Making the Sales Process Move More Quickly.
Read the complete article to learn how you can increase your company's sales and profitability in a shorter amount of time.
How to Unseat an Incumbent Service Provider
By John Doerr
Discover the six common attitudes to avoid with current clients before you become the unseated incumbent service provider.
Four Overlooked Ways of Uncovering Top-Notch Prospects
By Robert Croston
In real estate it's all about location, location, location. When it comes to professional services marketing, it all about targeting, targeting, targeting.
We all work hard on identifying the right industries, companies, titles, and individuals based on our specific targeting criteria. However, in professional services, we do not have access to the large databases that product companies have, which store every bit of consumer information a marketer could ever want. Thus, we must make certain assumptions and hypotheses on what makes the ideal prospect. If these assumptions prove incorrect, our marketing efforts suffer.
Tips for Building Your Brand Through Lead Generation
By Robert Croston
In the recently released report, What's Working In Lead Generation from RainToday, only 30% of over 700 companies surveyed claim to be "very well-known" in their market. Furthermore, 65% of these "very well known" companies report being "good" or "excellent" at lead generation, compared to only 44% of the lesser known companies.
While we may not know which is the chicken and which is the egg, it's clear that being well-known in your market goes hand-in-hand with waging highly effective sales and lead generation efforts.
Read the complete article to learn how you can build your brand while becoming "excellent" at generating new leads.
When "No" Is Better Than "Yes": The Advantage of Sales Rejection
By Sandy O'Dell
Salespeople are charged with, well, selling. And it doesn't matter whether we do it in person, on the phone, or even through email.
When, at any point, prospects say "no" or "call me in a few months," (translation: "no"), we have a knee-jerk reaction: press forward, invoke our services' singular benefits, and gently persuade even the most recalcitrant prospect that our firm is the right solution. Put plainly, "no," to us, is not an acceptable answer.
These rejections, however, actually represent a rich opportunity...
Read more to learn how sales rejection can smooth your transition from Salesperson to Trusted Advisor.