By Mel Lhttp://wwwester –.bizedge.biz/Special to the Design and Construction Report
Over the years, one of my chief objectives has been to So if we’re going to unlearn those bad habits, we need to
help technical professionals become more comfortable with become more uncomfortable with traditional sales and mar-
the sales role. My reasoning is easily understandable: Dis- keting. That was the big turning point for me as a business
comfort with sales keeps many professionals from getting development professional. I took off my rose-colored glasses
actively involved. More involvement, logic would suggest, will and realized I needed to shift the characteristic focus of my
lead to more sales. selling from myself and my firm to the client. That was the
That makes perfect sense, but is getting reluctant techni- genesis of what I’ve come to call Service-Centered Selling.
cal professionals more engaged the best route to increased
sales? Or would it be more productive to help those already
Principles of Service-Centered Selling
in lead sales and marketing roles to improve their approach? Service-Centered Selling is the application of service ex-
Having worked with many marketing professionals and seller- cellence to the way we develop new business for our com-
doers in our industry, I see a lot of room for improvement. panies. Remember, great service happens in the context of a
And ironically, a good place to start with this group would strong relationship with the client. Selling is essentially how
be making them more uncomfortable with selling. Here’s we initiate that relationship. It’s courtship. Naturally the way
why: Most people don’t like being on the buyer’s side of the we start the relationship sets the tone for how it will develop.
sales transaction (precisely why many technical professionals If we want the client to value the service difference we offer,
don’t care to be cast in the seller’s role). Think about your own we should begin demonstrating it during the sales process.
impressions of salespeople and marketers. Do you appreci- That difference likely then becomes the key factor in our
ate calls from telemarketers, television and radio commer- being selected for the work.
cials, junk mail, spam, or pop-up internet ads? How do you Service-Centered Selling is more than an approach or
think your clients feel? strategy. There are numerous excellent books and seminars
Of course, you would never equate selling professional that teach similar methodologies—in fact, I’ve incorporated
services with telemarketers and spam, would you? But the many of them. But it wasn’t technique alone that got me over
similarities are greater than we’d probably like to admit. I have the hump, nor does that seem to work for most technical pro-
accompanied numerous engineers, architects, and other fessionals either.
technical professionals on sales calls over the years. Interest- What I needed was a new attitude, a new mindset. That’s
ingly, they commonly default to the very model of selling that why Service-Centered Selling pushes us to re-examine both
they resent: Talking too much, focusing on themselves and the how and the why of the way we develop new business.
their companies, not listening well. Why? Because that’s the It engages both the head and the heart. Here are the core
approach to selling that we’ve all experienced. principles behind Service-Centered Selling:
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