Your people are lacking a reason to do anything more than their work.  They dont get it that their work is to also position you for more work.  Youve lectured them and even put it on their objectives schedule, yet few seem to comply.  Some actually believe that if you do good work, you will get more business.  Well the converse is true.  If youre work is done poorly, you wont get the next job, but getting more is a proactive, stand alone initiative.  Even if your people were so inclined to sell and do, they wouldnt know how.  Most who try come-off as either pushy and annoying or begging and desperate.  Then there is also the confidence issue.  These are trained professionals and selling was not part of their education or job requirements.

No one has time to be making sale calls.  What they are missing is that they are making sales calls every meeting they have.  However, they are not prepared to hear the interests of the clients.  Their minds are like Teflon as customer issues and your opportunities slip past.  There is a system to spot upcoming sales and determine if you will fit while doing your billable work. 

Nobody ever wanted to sell until they realized their income depended on it.  Since your doers dont know how to sell without being pushy or telling why the client should want to have you, they are constantly rejected.  So who wants to sell under these conditions?  What doers dont understand is that there is a science to selling that enables one to be welcomed by clients.  What they dont know how to do is work the science.  If they did, theyd be selling constantly because there is nothing more rewarding than a client wanting to know more and then asking how fast they can get it.

There is a wealth of additional business that is far easier to close in your existing clientele than in the world of public bidding.  However, even in the public bid sector, there are bids and then there are bids that win.  Business Development people have to know what to go after, and more importantly, before it becomes a bid.  Again, there is a method to being properly positioned to see upcoming work and deciding if this is going to be the right opportunity for you to maximize your chances of winning.  BD people should close 70% of the deals they decide to pursue.  Otherwise they dont have a good selling system.

Developing professional relationships with the right people is the key to becoming preferred.  Preferred doesnt get all the work with many public agencies, but they get more than others.  If the leaders dont personally see you as a resource to protect or enhance their individual careers, then you are a commodity.  Anyone of your competitors can do the job in their minds.  So you have to be special.  Understanding what it takes is easily understood, yet not obvious and this is whats shown in our programs.

Many times youve been low and lost and many times youve been higher and won.  There is a rationale to each of these instants.  Learning how the price issue evolves is critical to understanding what to do about it.  Price is not the reason, but it is used as the reason all the time.  So what is the ultimate reason?  Why will you and your clients pay more?  How can they justify paying more.  The answers are all there, if you know how to dig them out.  If you dont, all youll have to work with is price.

Like price this is an excuse, but will be used convincingly if there is no good reason to give the work to you.  So you have to give a compelling reason, but its not that your firm is so wonderful and youve done this and that for so many others.  Good reasons usually are revealed when one has professional relationships in high places.  Getting to that level, developing these working relationships and using them to both your advantages is the focus of TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER$.