Posted tagged ‘referrals’

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How Buyers Buy Professional Services

January 8, 2009

The editors of RainToday.com, an excellent site for those who market and sell professional services, recently released their 2009 benchmark study on how clients buy professional services. In their nine minute podcast, they talked about the top 5 ways buyers find their professional service providers.

The research involved asking 200 buyers of professional services (law, accounting, consulting, technology, training, among a whole range of services). The sizes of the buying firms were small to a billion dollars in revenue. The survey identified 27 different methods by which buyers choose professional services.

Here are the top five:

(1)   Referrals from colleagues (79% of respondents)

(2)   Referrals from other service providers (75%)

(3)   Personal recognition or awareness of the buyer / brand / reputation (73%)

(4)   In person seminars (66%)

(5)   Presentation at a conference

Here’s what the findings mean to me.

(1)   Your own client base is your greatest source of leads. It tells me that I’d better have the kind of support that keeps them happy and I’d better find opportunities to keep talking with them.

(2)   People in the industry talk. Sounds like it would be prudent to look after our professional relationships

(3)   Having a presence is important and being known is very important. This means that speaking engagements, writing articles and sharing and helping others is critical toward developing a prominent brand.

If you’d like some unique ideas about seminars, drop me a note at david_blumenthal@msn.com and we’ll set aside some time to talk about some unusual and really effective seminar development approaches taht will generate immediate opportunities.

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Categories: Sales, Strategy
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What I’m Telling My Clients – Part 2 (or how they can create their own economic stimulus package)

December 23, 2008

So what would a client referral meeting look like?  Here’s one possibility.

The underlying context to this meeting is the recognition that the greatest challenge that any business owner faces, particularly in these challenging economic times is to drive new business to the company. The second greatest challenge is to fix a problem or capitalize on an opportunity that they might see but don’t quite know how to address.

Each of these referral meetings would last an hour. Only a small number of clients, perhaps six to eight clients, would attend each meeting. Ideally, they would have complimentary businesses.

Each client would  discuss

  • What values his or her company provides,
  • Its ideal client and
  • A particular problem or opportunity that it is facing.

The idea is to try to get each a client new business via referral or find them a company that can help them meet a pressing need or opportunity.

That’s the whole agenda.

The only thing that is required is that each company approach the meeting with a mindset to offer a warm referral to any of the companies represented in the room. By doing so, this gathering of leadership would create more growth and value.

And each company will get more business and / or be able to grow its business more effectively.

Categories: Leadership, Sales, Strategy, Visioning
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What I’m Telling My Clients – Part 2 (or how they can create their own economic stimulus package)

December 18, 2008

As the bailouts and their discussions whirl about us and as the list of companies laying off or employees or shutting down operations grows longer and longer, I began to wonder if there wasn’t a small business version of an economic stimulus package that could be implemented.

And if there was a version of economic an economic stimulus package for small businesses, who could and would provide it?

It appears to me that there is such a “package” out there and the ones that can provide it may be small business themselves.

Arguably the greatest challenge that any business owner confronts, particularly in these testing economic times, is to drive new business to his or her company. Fundamentally speaking, as it always has been, the key to long term growth is to “grow the pie” and attract more business. Provide more appropriate services that make a difference and you will earn more business and a greater share of the customer’s wallet.

Many companies provide services to organizations and businesses that are in related fields. Others provide services to companies in a wide range of industries. What if, each company leveraged its customer list to grow their clients’ businesses?

Imagine, if you will, a meeting of six or seven of your clients who work in one industry but provide different services within that industry. More than likely, each of these clients knows other companies within the particular industry. Because each of these companies is your clients, you are related to them and a reservoir of trust has been established.

Suppose next that each one of your clients attending this meeting was asked to participate with the intention of referring one of its customers to one of the businesses represented in the meeting. The economic impact of these referrals would be profound.

Referring clients to one another would create a reciprocal relationship built on real economic value. Additionally, in effect, because your business would be in the upper parts of the minds of your clients, the number of people selling and promoting your value and services would grow geometrically as the trust that you have demonstrated in them would be returned in their discussions with their clients.

In a short time, you might discover that you have an army of salespeople selling your value.

In the next post, we’ll take a look at the structure of such a meeting and how to make it work for you.

In the meantime, please write and share some innovative ways you are growing or helping others grow their businesses.

Categories: Leadership, Sales, Strategy
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