Improve your selling techniques to increase your revenues

I think it was a famous Mr Barnum who suggested that there is a sucker born every minute. If we are to believe him then picking up new business and increasing fee revenue in a professional practice shouldn’t be too difficult. The fact of course is that our clients and potential clients are far from being “suckers” and they are always looking for ways to improve their business.

As a professional business coach I am always looking to increase the efficiency and efficacy of my instruction manuals and ability to facilitate my client’s business development. As part of my own improvement I regularly attend conferences or seminars dealing with business development. One the key topics for many speakers relates to the negative effect of ‘comfort zones’.

I see this most often when I deal with professionals, who are highly competent accountants, solicitors, engineers, architects or surveyors, who, however are not prepared to face the many extra challenges that running a successful practice involves.

In my experience one of the most avoided challenges is that of selling. Yet selling is without a doubt a key requirement for growing your practice and even more importantly, good selling techniques can turbo-charge your revenues.
So if you want to see your practice improve in the critical area of revenue – you will have to step outside your professional comfort zone and start to sell. Like everything in life it will take practice but, it is well worth the time. For example here are four ways that you can increase your fee revenue. They each require you to sell. Succeed in just one of these ‘strategies for growth’ and you will be pleasantly surprised. Succeed in all four and you will be amazed at the dramatic growth they produce.

1. Make more sales

It sounds obvious - to increase revenue, simply make more sales and expand your client base. However do you have in place a plan for making more sales? Do you employ a range of techniques such methods for example including converting cold calls for survey proposals, generating referrals from your client base, developing related alliance partners, and more.

2. Sell more often

Some professionals make the mistake of thinking that once a client has been gained, the need for selling is over. The truth is that the selling has just begun. We need to keep selling our enthusiasm and professionalism to keep the business. However the most positive way to maintain a strong and growing client relationship is by finding more and more services we can offer. In short, we need to look for ways to increase the number of times to sell to them. A simple approach is through a structured client management system with regular personal contacts. Listen to their needs and also look to develop more services that can be presented to them.

3. Sell more services

In addition to increasing the number of transactions to our clients, you might also be able to sell additional services. If you have a surveying practice you might offer a one stop shop featuring engineering, project management, town planning or architectural services through your own practice or by using alliance partners.

4. Increase the perceived value of your services

The easiest way to boost revenues is to increase fees. While such increases can often be justified based on the cost of living or the cost of people – the most satisfying way of increasing fee revenue is with a demonstrable rise in the value you offer. Perhaps it is through a greater use of technology that speeds up delivery and provides greater accuracy. The key is to accompany fee increases with positive benefits.

Making the sale

Most professionals with whom we deal register very few complaints from clients about the quality of their service or the fees they charge. However one of the most common and in most cases, negative selling techniques involves the discounting of fees. So let’s take a look at how we can improve our selling performance without throwing away the profit margin. Always remember that clients that don’t make a profit are simply not worth having.

Before the sale

If you are serious about selling then you need to set goals and action plans. If you attracted four new clients in 07 through luck – why not look at eight new clients based on actually trying to sell this year. Set revenue objectives from your existing and new business.

Next, you need to start thinking positively - use my ‘3 benefits technique’ for example.

Start by identifying 3 clear benefits that you can offer your potential new client (e.g. timely completion and certainty of decision making) and 3 benefits of your firm (e.g. 20 years of experience and the use of current technology). Also what related services can you provide which facilitates cross selling and up selling. With these develop a 1 page sales system that you can apply whether you are talking to the potential client or writing to them or using your website to communicate why your practice is the best for them.

During the Sale

People love to buy for their reasons and not be sold. So talk about what they want and show them how you can meet their needs.

Our job is to help them achieve their needs. That means we must:-
1. Listen to everything – empathise
2. To elicit information, ask: ‘So that I can help you the best, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?’
3. Give away ideas – (the law of reciprocity – give something for free and they will feel obliged to reciprocate by buying)
4. Follow-up and return phone calls promptly to keep the level of enthusiasm up to combat buyer’s remorse.

Buying is built on trust. Show that you are interested, demonstrate solutions to their problems, offer greater value and most of all deliver. Good clients are those that trust you. Work to develop that trust even before they become clients.

Learn from each and every sale opportunity

Whether you win or lose the sale - Invest a few minutes to debrief yourself on what worked and what didn’t. Revise your sales plan accordingly – always look to improve your technique based on experience. Keep up the selling side of your practice and soon selling will be a part of your comfort zone.

Your Steps to Go Forward

At the beginning we remembered Mr Barnum who suggested that you could always do well out of a ‘sucker’. In reality here was a man who worked hard to present a great product and then sold hard to make it a success. He often stepped out of his comfort zone to become a great impresario.

As professionals we need to keep developing our product and be a positive committed achiever by developing our selling skills. Incidentally there is a word for those who don’t quit …… successful.