While I did work in a stand-alone, boutique consulting firm for a time, most of my career has been in embedded services organizations within software companies. In these organizations, the companies typically have a dedicated, product sales team who is also expected and compensated to sell professional services (PS). The Services Practice Manager and some senior consultants often support the Product Salesperson to sell PS. Let’s face it, selling product and selling services are different, even for a “consultative” salesperson. Products have features and functionality that can be more easily compared to competitive solutions. Products can be demonstrated, they can be touched, and the value can be illustrated visually in the sale process. OK, its not quite that simple, but the fact is, when you buy PS, you are buying access to people. You can’t illustrate the value of PS by demoing a person. Or can you?
I believe that while consultants are not salespeople in the traditional manner - they don’t carry a bag and are not paid on a commission basis, they are salespeople. (I am not speaking about partners in stand-alone consulting practices, by the way.) The way we sell as consultants is through being a solid consultant and demonstrating what we know and our approach to the consultative process..
Whether its in a pre-sales capacity, supporting the product sales team, or in post-sales delivery, consultants need to sell the prospect or customer on the fact that she knows the space and has the expertise needed by the customer to meet their needs and objectives. One way we do this is by joining the product sales team in pre-sales meetings to understand the customer’s pain, learn about their success criteria, and start discussing a model that can be used to ease that customer’s pain and drive to full attainment of their success criteria. We build credibility during pre-sales that should drive the deal and set up a successful engagement. What we do in pre-sales is very similar to what we do in post sales: We ask insightful questions, listening (a lot), and provide some amount of consulting throughout the conversations, giving the customer a strong impression that we can help.
We, essentially, provide a demonstration of our model and approach as well as highlighting the specific skills of our consultants through this process. The customer is most likely speaking to multiple organizations and will determine which consulting team is best equipped to help them meet their objectives through their people, process, and technology.
Inevitably, potential customers do not view the consultant who sells as a salesperson. This works to our favor, of course. For right or wrong, there are often negative connotations of “salespeople” and, even though the consultant is on the call to help scope and close a deal, we are viewed as subject matter experts, not salespeople. If we play our cards right, we will foster a strong, trusting relationship with the the customer, and the customer will be willing to share concerns, pain, and needs with us in a way they won’t with someone in a traditional selling role.
“Selling” doesn’t end when the ink is dry on the contract, though. Once we start a project, we will get introduced to new stakeholders - folks who were not part of the pre-sales process, who don’t know us. We need to convince them that we can do the job, that we can help them meet their objectives - we are back to "selling." Then the consulting begins. Throughout the engagement, we learn, we listen, and we advise. In the words of Peter Block, we “help our customers ask and answer their own questions,” and we show the customer a vision for a better and less painful future. Throughout the engagement you will, at a minimum, be selling your ideas and your vision for their future.
As a consultant becomes more senior, she is expected to help drive follow-on PS and product sales. Again, we are not “the” salesperson, but we are trusted advisors who work with our customers more closely than a salesperson ever really could. We have the ability to not only ensure “this pain” is addressed, we have the ability to learn about other pain the customer has that “we are able to address” through our products or services.
A colleague of mine, who once worked for a Big 4 consultancy, shared with me that his previous firm offered a training program they called something like, “Helping Your Customers Buy.” Notice that the word “sell” is no where in the title of this class. This is because, for many consultants, being perceived as a salesperson is seen as a negative. The message of this training, though, is that if you knew your customer has pain that you can address, why would you not talk with them about that, even if it means they have to sign another Product Order Form or Statement of Work?
Think about it, when you are not feeling well, and you go to see your doctor, the doctor works to diagnose the source of the pain you are feeling. If he identifies another health issue while investigating the pain you had when you came in, he doesn’t refrain from saying something simply because the new issue is not the pain you came in to discuss and/or because it could cost more money to get the health issue resolved. Rather your doctor speaks with you about what he found, the concern and/or risk, and what next steps he recommends. You, of course, have the right to a second opinion, or to ignore the problem, but knowledge is power - the doctor knows this - and you now have new information to help you improve your overall health.
So how do you “sell” without “selling”? It is actually easier than it seems in my opinion and experience. Years ago, one of my company’s customers was struggling. They were using all aspects of the product they purchased - 100% utilization, but they did not feel like they were really getting value from their spend with us. They were questioning whether they should renew the contract. (Think of the guy at the gym who goes faithfully but is not losing the weight he wants to lose.)
The Account Manager (salesperson) suggested that they meet with Professional Services to see if there was anything we could do to help them get value. They knew they should be getting value, and they were open to talking with us. The Rep asked me to join a call with the customer. We had a preliminary conversation about what they were doing and why they thought they weren’t able to get value. I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot. I felt strongly that if one of my consultants could work with them for 2-3 weeks, we could develop a "path to value" for them. They agreed, and we got started with a three-week, billable services engagement designed to find that path.
In the first few days, the consultant realized that many of the things they were doing with our product were redundant and not adding value. Her first recommendation was to turn off a slew of things they were doing with us - a scary thought for a SaaS company that makes money on consumption of the product. Still, she knew it was the right thing to do. The customer complied, consumption went down, and the customer instantly trusted the consultant to do right by them.
Over the next week or two, the consultant identified a number of things they weren’t doing with our product that they really should do. She made recommendations and help them set up those things. Unfortunately, they didn’t buy enough of our stuff to do everything that she was recommending. The end result was that the customer called their Rep and bought more of our stuff - more than doubling their spend with us. The consultant was not in “selling” mode at any point in her work. She was acting as a highly-skilled consultant, understanding what they needed, and advising them of how to meet their needs. Success!!
So, worry less about whether you are “selling” and worry more about listening to your customers, understand where they have pain you can address, and help them buy when that is the right thing for them to reduce their pain.
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