Professional Services Marketing: How the Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success, 2nd Edition

21

RAIN Selling

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

—Henry Ford

Up until now we have discussed the marketing of professional services. Although many professional services providers still use the terms marketing and selling interchangeably, we hope by now you have a good grasp of what marketing truly is, what it can do for you, and how to go about implementing successful marketing and lead generation efforts.

Let's assume your marketing efforts really start to pay off. You have RAMPed up your brand. You have seen a pickup in revenue per client. Just as important, you have started to generate new conversations that have taken you far beyond referrals. Now it is time for you to start selling and making rain.

Selling is often more challenging for professional services firms and providers. It's easy to understand why. First, full-time salespeople sell all day. They can go from rookie to retiree, and all they need to do is sell to be successful.

“The Dog Ate My Rolodex”

At professional services firms, we know that marketing, selling, and delivery are deeply intertwined. It would be so much easier to find time to sell if we didn't have to deal with that pesky client work clogging up our days.

Alas, we do. So we need to find a way to make selling fit into our schedule.

First, let's get some of the most common excuses out of the way:

1. I'm booked for at least six weeks. I couldn't handle another deal if it landed on my desk.

2. My business development discussions, ...