ARTICLES

Below you'll find a wealth of articles written by Wellesley Hills Group consultants offering advice that will help you grow your professional services firm. Topics include marketing strategy and tactics; lead generation; sales strategy, tactics, and conversations; branding; thought leadership; service firm management; and client relationships.

LEAD GENERATION ARTICLES Tips For Building Your Brand Through Lead Generation Forgotten Leads: How to Find a Treasure Trove of Leads Hidden Within Your Firm Git R Done: Executing Your Lead Generation Plan  Making Lead Generation Work for Professional Services: Secret #3 Top 10 Lead Generation Mistakes Made By Professional Services Making Lead Generation Work for Professional Services: Secret #2 Generating Leads, Brand, Relationships, and Trust at the Same Time Inconceivable! 7 Misconceptions About Service Lead Generation Buy Before You Buy - Getting Paid for Lead Generation Marketing Therapy Session: Overcoming Lead Generation Attention Deficit Disorder Legacy of the Three Martini Lunch Sales Lead Generation: Does Yelling Help? Do Cold Call Meetings Really Work for Professional Services? Services Marketing is Moving Online - Are You? MARKETING STRATEGY ARTICLES

The Five Most Important Questions in Services Marketing Marketing Your Services vs. Marketing Your Value: A Tale of Two Firms Marketers Beware: The Story of How Good Recession Advice Can Have Nasty Consequences 6 Professional Services Marketing Predictions for 2009 Are Your Marketing Offers Served A-la-Carte or Prix Fixe? Cookie-Cutter Marketing Strategies Don't Work: 3 Vital Questions You Need to Craft Your Own 6 Keys to a Terrible Professional Services Marketing Strategy Big Marketing Thinking in Tough Times The Seven Deadly Sins of Professional Services Marketing (and How to Avoid Them) "The Dumbbells Cut Back...The Smart People Don't": The Upside of Recession  The Myth of Being Different Is Your Marketing Plan Window Dressing? What's Missing from Service Firm Marketing Strategies Don't Worry About Your Competition Services Marketing Haiku You Won the Client! Now Start Marketing to Them For Success in Services Marketing, Be Careful of What You Offer The Power of the Marketing Pyramid Avoid the Revenue Rollercoaster Trap with Consistent Lead Generation We Don't Do Marketing

BRANDING ARTICLES

Embrace Your Brand: Lessons from a Brand Promise Gone Wrong at the Bubble Room Tips for Building Your Brand Through Lead Generation Three R's of Service Branding: Reach, Recognition, and Reputation How To Create a Brand One Prospect at a Time RAMP Up Your Brand - Sledgehammers and Service Brand Preference Four Key Differences Between Service and Product Brands Laws of Branding: Immutable or Refutable?   On Service Branding, Differentiation, and Market Share Most Powerful Professional Services Branding Of All Five Effects of a Website on a Service Business Brand

SALES STRATEGY ARTICLES

Two Minds Are Better Than One: The Power of Team Selling My Dog Ate My Rolodex: Nancy Reagan and Beyond "I'm Too Busy to Sell": 6 Time Management Tips When "No" Is Better Than "Yes": The Advantage of Sales Rejection Four OverLooked Ways of Uncovering Top-Notch Prospects The Ten Commandments For Shortening Your Sales Cycle (Over Time) The One Piece Of Advice You Can't Sell Without You Can Lead A Horse To Water, But You Can't Make Him Sell...Or Can You? Is There Any Value in Your Value Proposition? Seven Tenets for Creating Sacred Selling Time The Too "Salesy" Paradox Smoothing the Transition from Business Developer to Trusted Advisor I Didn't Raise You To Be A Salesman! When Selling Services, Focus on the Goal Cold to Gold - Getting the Most from Cold Call Set Meetings Sales Call Planning: What to Know Before Every Sales Call Trust and the Building Blocks of Business Development

SALES CONVERSATIONS ARTICLES

Knock 7 Times If You Want Me: Why You Need Patience and Persistence to Turn Prospects Into Clients Dead on Arrival: 5 Deadly Sales Call Sins Three Cornerstones For Cold Calling Prospects When You Least Expect Them RAIN Selling - How Rainmakers Lead Sales Conversations Fifteen Powerful Open-Ended Questions Do You Know What Your Clients Really Need? Clueless, Late, and Inattentive: How Buyers Describe You as a Seller Active Listening and Active Rainmaking Business Developers: Do You Talk Too Much? Communicating the Value of Your Services: Creating a New Reality And Your Little Dog, Too "I Like Them Better" - Bringing Rapport to Rainmaking

SALES TACTICS ARTICLES

Four Things to Do When Clients Pressure You for Lower Fees Sales Software - How To Determine If It's Pushing You Forward Or Holding You Back Staying Top of Mind (Without Being a Pain in the Neck) Steps to Handling Objections That Will Get You Closer to the Sale Four Not So Little Things You Can Do To Increase Your Sales Success A Modest Proposal about Proposals Stay on Target - Proposals With Focus Win New Business Proposal Writing: When it Comes to Fees, No One Likes Surprises To Overcome Lack of Urgency, Ask, "What Won't Happen?" Win More Service Customers: Engage People, Not Prospects Take the Pain Out of Selling Professional Services Five Steps to Getting the Fees You Know You Deserve

MARKETING TACTICS ARTICLES

Super Bowl Commercials: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and What Professional Services Firms Can Learn Cold Calling Works: You Just Do It Wrong Top Five Things NOT To Do When Cold Call Selling Services Marketing: Do You Tangibilize? Five Elements of an Effective Website Landing Page: How to Turn Your Website into a Lead Capturing Tool Telephone Selling: Five Steps to Overcoming Telephobia Papayawhip, Peachpuff, or Peru: Graphic Design Advice That Could Save Your Life Marketing and Planning Seminars: Seven Tips to Increase Attendance Utilizing Databases for Professional Services Marketing Is Direct Mail Dead?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ARTICLES

A Paradigm Shift for Your Articles Beyond Proofreading: The Real Way to Edit and Brand Your Writing  How To Become A Thought Leader: RainToday.com Interviews John Doerr Six Pieces of Expert Advice on Becoming a Thought Leader Six Tips for Getting Your Articles Published How Many Copies Do Business Books Sell? The Effects of Selling More Copies of Your Book

SERVICE FIRM MANAGEMENT ARTICLES

From Poor to Perfect: 6 Steps to Launching a New CRM Application Crafting a Rainmaking Firm: A Window into Sales Performance Tighten Lead Management - Small Improvements Yield Big Results in Revenue and Profit Service Business Management: Nine Common and Difficult Challenges For Service Businesses, Passion Boosts Profit Seven Sales Coaching Tips Leadership: It's Not About You Support the Best Sales Reps

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP ARTICLES

Keeping Your Clients Loyal - Nine Questions You Need Answered The Formula for Lasting Client Relationships - Respect and Passion How to Unseat an Incumbent Service Provider "No Really, How Did We Do?" Five Tips for Interviewing Your Clients From Client Satisfaction to Client Loyalty: If You're Delivering Services, You're Selling