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Marketing Strategies more »
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Marketing Automation in 2012
Marketing automation is a sweeping trend in a variety of industry verticals. Service organizations are -
Are You a Saint or a Sinner?
Research shows that only 13 percent of business executives are fully satisfied that their salespeople
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Opportunity Management more »
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Enterprising Company Sends Dead Grasshoppers
Getting edible grasshoppers in the mail will either gross you out or pique your curiosity. -
B2B Email Is Not as Effective Anymore. Why?
Email newsletters for B2Bs has lost its luster. Does that mean we should give up
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People Management more »
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Employee Reciprocity
If you read Employees Value More Than Raises, then you know you can do more -
Taming a Temperamental Superstar Employee
Back in the early days of my career, I remember an employee who had incredible
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Personal Leadership more »
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How to Be a Great Mentor Without All the Fuss
Some mentor-mentee relationships just happen. They meet, they talk and they stay in touch. But -
The Long Era of Lackluster Leadership
Many businesses have seen little progress in leadership development. Research has two insights into the
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Service Performance Pillars more »
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The Next Generation of Professional Services: Service Productization
The what, why and how of productizing services by Dave Hofferberth and Jeanne Urich, SPI -
The Effect of Culture on Performance
The development and maturity of cultures in professional services by Dave Hofferberth and Jeanne Urich,
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What Is Your Best Advice? more »
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Social media = cool. Results = not cool
My small company decided to invest in social media and encouraged employees to interact with -
Caught red-faced in bad-mouthing
My team recently contacted a client. We reached his voice mail, so I left a
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Other Recent Articles
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I don’t want to be a voice mail or email stalker
I’m having trouble getting callbacks or email replies from a few potential clients. I leave messages in their voice mailboxes or send emails, yet they don’t reply. My company offers a great service that I know would help them. How will they know this if I can’t tell them about it? I don’t want to [...]
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Making Needed Updates to Your Company Facebook Page
ook company pages now have the timeline format. Gone are the familiar tabs on the right side. They’ve moved to the top part of the Facebook page. What does this mean for your company?
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Turning Box Pushers into Sellers of the Invisible
Five steps to selling services success by James “Alex” Alexander, Ed.D. This is the third of an ongoing Seriously Selling Services series. How do you get your product sellers to quit discounting or giving away services? These five “gotta do” steps will help make this a more effective and smooth transformation. However, be prepared! Some [...]
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Cure the Seasonal Sales Blues
Professional services “flu season” hits our sales team four times a year, and it’s returning with a vengeance because it’s the first of the year. This is the worst one yet for our professional service organization. We tie our services to product sales. A consistent stream of sales leads turns over every 90 days when [...]
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Caught red-faced in bad-mouthing
My team recently contacted a client. We reached his voice mail, so I left a message and hit the phone’s flash button to end the call. My team continued talking about this client and shared our frustrations in working with him. Then we heard his voice mail disconnect. We were surprised and red-faced. We knew [...]
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The Executive Role in Selling Services
With all the potential benefits of selling services, why don’t more product companies do it? Several factors can hinder or stop this initiative in its tracks. Certain obstacles can be predicted to be a part of any significant change. However, there are several aspects unique to selling services that make this transition a tad more trying.
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New Service Offerings for a New Year
If new revenue is your goal — read this. by Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group As 2012 unfolds, what do you see on the horizon? Are you excited? Do you envision opportunity? Are you anticipating great things? Or will you just hold on for another year and hope that this dreaded recession will finally end? [...]
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Previous Dilemma: How do you deal with crying in the office?
Recently, a supervisor I manage invited me to a performance review of one of his staff. The employee remained silent while her immediate supervisor delivered a list of performance problems. I started to provide recommendations on how to improve. Before I got halfway through the list, the employee shed a few tears.
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Current Dilemma: The CEO won’t support company’s new directives
Despite the many proclamations that our company wants to increase professional services sales and social media use, the CEO blocks every idea I propose to make this happen. Furthermore, we can’t get more funding for sales and social media training. It doesn’t make sense that the CEO and upper management would buy in to these proclamations, and yet not support the efforts to make these directives happen.
How can I convince the CEO that none of this can happen without action and training? Or am I stuck doing business as usual and trying to do what I can with what I have?
— Jamie, VP of Services -
Current Dilemma: Need a cure for the professional services flu
Flu season hits our sales team four times a year, and it returned the first
of the year with a vengeance. This is the worst flu season for our professional
service organization. We tie our services to product sales, and every 90 days,
when products sell well, a consistent stream of quality sales leads turns over.
However, when product sales dry up, so do our service leads. -
Why Sell Services Anyway?
Most customers view your products as commodities! Blasphemous, I know! Regardless of how unique or elegant or innovative your products are, in most all buying situations, customers see no meaningful difference in the top two or three products in any category, across all industries, across all geographies.
