How Clients Buy

Chapter 8The Secret to SellingNever Say Sell

I actually don't think you can sell professional services. I think you have to help clients buy them. Clients have problems and they need help in discovering, understanding and tackling them. Once people realize you helped them solve problems, then they will come back.

—Walt Shill, formerly of McKinsey and Accenture

At 8:15 a.m. on Thursday, May 21, 2015, Sylvia Senaldi sent an email to Dr. Peter Tyre:

Pete,

Meet Mac Shields. Mac attended your presentation recently and wanted to see if you would be interested in meeting up for coffee.

Mac is an old friend, a business associate and a smart guy. He has done great work for me in developing our go-to-market business strategy.

I'll let you guys take it from here!

Sylvia

Sent from my iPhone

Mac had heard Pete speak at a business conference the week before. He'd never heard of Pete's laser technology firm, LiDAR (basically radar with light waves instead of radio waves), before and found it fascinating. Also, Pete said something during his presentation that piqued Mac's interest: he was struggling to find a viable commercial opportunity for his firm's technology. Mac genuinely felt there was a real possibility that he could help Pete solve this business problem.

But Mac had never met Pete before. He looked him up on LinkedIn. There he saw that Pete was connected to his friend Sylvia, someone he had known for about twenty years. He asked Sylvia if she'd be willing to introduce them. Graciously, ...