Laurie Stafinski Articles

YOUR FEES ARE TOO HIGH STEPS TO HANDLING OBJECTIONS THAT WILL GET YOU CLOSER TO THE SALE - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous How many of us, as professional service providers, have heard from prospects, "your fees are too high," "someone else will do it for less," or "I don't see why I have to pay all that money just to have you do an audit, write a brief, create a marketing plan, etc?" And, more important, how many of us have been able to resist the urge to simply lower our fees to get the work?

YOU WON THE CLIENT NOW START MARKETING TO THEM - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz Answer: More often than you think. Question: How often should I send marketing messages to my current and recent clients? In How to Market Training and Information, Don Shrello wrote, “Regardless of how often you contact your clients and prospects (those who have already…purchased something from you), you're probably not contacting them enough.

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER BUT YOU CANT MAKE HIM SELL OR CAN YOU - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Recently, we presented to a group of firm leaders across a range of service areas on how to sell professional services. During the Q & A session, one leader of an engineering firm asked, “This is all great stuff, but how do you get them (my engineers) to sell? I mean, I have tried everything, but they still would rather do just about anything but sell.” Well, short of walking around with a large stick and a menacing attitude, we suggest you will inspire more of the professionals in your firm to sell by helping them get into the right frame of mind to become a rainmaker. It is not just a question of telling them to go out and sell; you need to take care of the following six areas to get the activity you want.

WHATS MISSING FROM SERVICE FIRM MARKETING STRATEGIES - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz Ask 10 professional service firms to see their marketing strategies and you will get an interesting mix of answers. You might get a 50 page document that would get an “A” in any business school class. Some firms might give you a few pages on the tactics they plan to implement by month or quarter. Many firms would say, “Marketing strategy? We're working on getting it down on paper this year.”

WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING SERVICES: WE DON'T DO MARKETING - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr As we speak with leaders of professional services firms and ask them, "What do you currently do for marketing?" a certain percentage of them reply, "We don't do marketing." What we find, however, is maybe they do more than they think.

TOP 10 LEAD GENERATION MISTAKES MADE BY PROFESSIONAL SERVICES - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr Williamson: [handing Roma lead cards] I'm giving you three leads... Ricky Roma: Three? No, I count two. Williamson: There's three leads there… Ricky Roma: I'm waiting for the new leads. - Glengarry Glenn Ross, David Mamet 1992 Leads, leads, leads. It seems it is all about leads once the referrals and the circle of family and friends aren’t enough to keep our firms growing. Yet, when it comes to generating leads, most professional services firms get it all wrong in ten very common ways.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR SHORTENING YOUR SALES CYCLE OVER TIME - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr It usually takes a long time to find a shorter way. ~Anonymous I spend a good percentage of my time selling. I also teach selling to professional service providers. And one issue that comes up time after time is, "How do I get prospects to buy faster? Why don't people respond to my proposals, my calls, my emails, or me? How do I shorten the sales cycle?" My flip answer, "Have more in the pipeline at all times, so the sales cycle just seems shorter." Of course, that rarely makes anyone feel better. So based on our research and experience, here are my Ten Commandments to Making the Sales Process Move More Quickly.

THE TOO SALESY PARADOX WHY PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CANT SELL AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr The distress is obvious. The complaints are frequent. The clear disdain for the activity is surprisingly unfiltered. What are we talking about? Selling, or more specifically, selling professional services. In conversation after conversation as I work with clients, conduct seminars, or network with my professional colleagues, I hear the same comments: Selling conflicts with my values as a professional. Selling gets in the way of building strong relationships. You have to have it in your genes - like a used car salesman. I don't sell professional services - I work with my clients to create the best solutions. People won't respect me as a professional if I am selling to them. I can't sell to them. What will they think of me? It (selling) is not what we do around here.

THE THREE R’S OF SERVICE BRANDING: REACH, RECOGNITION, AND REPUTATION - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston Think about your most recent branding campaign. Were your television ads as successful as you'd like them to be? Perhaps the billboards didn't create the recognition that you were looking for, but your online ads on Yahoo! and AOL worked quite well. Did you pick the right professional athlete to represent your firm's services? If you're reading this far, and you work at most service businesses, you probably think I'm nuts. You don't do any of this. Well, maybe you're a big firm and you do (kudos to you), or you've tried something here and there. But in most of our service business realities, advertising-as-a-primary-branding-vehicle is not the norm. And it shouldn't be.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr The science and art of professional services marketing have come a long way in the last few years. It is no longer impossible to find examples of marketing efforts planned well, executed well, and measured well. Yet, in spite of these great strides, I continue to see the same marketing sins committed over and over again to the detriment of the firms and the people steering the marketing ship. What’s frustrating about these sins is that they are all made by intelligent people who have the good sense and ability to avoid them.

THE POWER OF THE MARKETING PYRAMID - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” - George Orwell, Animal Farm 1956 Imagine this scenario: you are at a professional services firm that has just come off a fairly good year of growing revenue and profits. You want to continue this growth going into the coming year and have decided you are finally going to take some of these profits and invest in marketing. You have accumulated a list of 1,000 clients, former clients, and prospects to target. Everyone turns to you and asks, “Well, how are we going to invest our hard-earned profits?”

THE MYTH OF BEING DIFFERENT - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz One is the loneliest number. - Three Dog Night I got a bad grade on my final paper in Entrepreneurship class in graduate school. The professor said, "The business you're proposing to launch...it's not different. Other people do it. While the plan seems well-thought-out, due to the simple truth that this business has been largely done before, and there doesn't seem to be anything truly unique about it, I wouldn't advise launching the business." (So long, stellar GPA...) Being different and unique seems to be highly regarded by folks that think about, write about, and teach business.

THE DUMBBELLS CUT BACK THE SMART PEOPLE DONT THE UPSIDE OF RECESSION - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston and Patrick Cahill The market drops 370 points in a single day, corporate earnings disappoint and housing prices continue to sink. We are in uncertain economic times. We may be in a recession right now, or could slip into one next week... or next month. As optimists, we don't like forecasting difficult economic times. But, even optimists have to come to grips with the realities of our uncertain marketplace. With economic anxiety looming, many of our clients are asking: how should I position and market my firm in the year to come? Assuming yours is a healthy company, here are our general recommendations.

STAYING TOP OF MIND WITHOUT BEING A PAIN IN THE NECK - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr “And if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with, love the one you're with, love the one you're with, love the one you're with.…” - Stephen Stills Why does it seem that our clients (and prospects) too often take the advice of seventies rock stars when selecting their professional services providers? Perhaps the following story will shed some light.

SERVICES SELLING I DIDNT RAISE YOU TO BE A SALESMAN - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys Don't let 'em sell siding or drive them big trucks Have 'em be consultants and accountants and such. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be salesboys 'Cause they'll never stay home or they're on their cell phone Even with family around. With all due apologies to Willie Nelson, I am sure this was the sentiment of most of our parents. Yes, be a lawyer or accountant or even (heaven forbid) a consultant, but please don't ever come home and declare, “Mom, I found my calling. I am going to be a salesperson!”

SALES CALL PLANNING WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE EVERY SALES CALL - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr A good part of business development success is, as some say, just showing up. But show up prepared and success is what you will get.

RAIN SELLING HOW RAINMAKERS LEAD SALES CONVERSATIONS - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Sales Conversations for Services To advance in their careers and become Rainmakers (those people at services companies that bring in the new clients and revenue), professionals such as accountants, lawyers, management consultants, and technology consultants eventually need to excel at selling professional services. Rarely, however, are these poor souls given a primer on rainmaking, especially when it comes to leading sales conversations and sales meetings. As a result, they often just 'wing it' and learn by doing, making many avoidable mistakes and losing opportunities to win new clients.

PROPOSAL WRITING STAY ON TARGET PROPOSALS WITH FOCUS WIN NEW BUSINESS - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz Like a Poor Marksman You Keep…Missing…The Target! - Admiral James T. Kirk If you don't know your destination, any road will get you there. When prospects for your services ask for a formal proposal, they are telling you their desired destination: a business relationship with you. And they're asking you to answer the question, “What road do we take to get there?” Since it's your job to give directions, you want to tell them the straightest, shortest, and easiest route. After all, you don't want them to get lost along the way, or so tired on the path that they give up before they get to the end.

RAMP UP YOUR BRAND - SLEDGEHAMMERS AND SERVICE BRAND PREFERENCE - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Swing the Hammer Imagine the strongman game at the carnival. You lift the sledgehammer over your head and swing it down onto the platform. When it strikes the target, a metal cylinder rises up and up—20 feet up the pole until it rings the bell. On its way down the pole the cylinder passes the same words it passed on the way up: strongman, tough guy, athlete, junior, and weakling. In a way, establishing a services brand follows a similar process. You swing the hammer (your marketing tactics, the marketing mix you employ, and the quality of your company's services) and the strength of your efforts determine whether or not your brand moves up the pole and makes it to the top to ring the bell. The question is, “What stages must your brand pass through in order to ring the bell?”

ON SERVICE BRANDING, DIFFERENTIATION, AND MARKET SHARE - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr To maximize profit, managers have pursued the Holy Grail of becoming number one or two in their industries. Recently, however, new measures of service industries like software and banking suggest that customer loyalty is a more important determinant of profit. - James Heskett, et. al., Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work, Harvard Business Review Product companies seek to become market-share leaders. To do this, they look to launch and manage a portfolio of differentiated products that have specific features most appealing to a specific target audience for a reasonable (but as high as possible) price.

IS THERE ANY VALUE IN YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION FIVE TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING THE REAL VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr Are You Different? In the course of my work with all manner of professional service firms, I hear a very common lament. “We are becoming a commodity. The prospects just seem to buy on price. We are really good. How can I possibly separate myself from the crowd?” My usual response is, “What can make you special? Why are you different?”

INCONCEIVABLE! – 7 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Vizzini: Inconceivable! Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. - The Princess Bride As service firms begin to awaken from a long recession-inspired hibernation period, they are again beginning to think about proactive lead generation. If your firm is stepping-up your outbound marketing, your first step should be to re-examine your firm's thinking about what works and doesn't work. Consider the following seven service lead generation misconceptions. Destroying these myths can lead to more production and better return-on-investment for your marketing time and dollars.

HOW TO CREATE A BRAND ONE PROSPECT AT A TIME - Click To Read Article
By Robert Croston Having spent longer than I care to admit pursuing traditional brand development through advertising, I recently became fascinated with the prospect of building brands using direct response marketing and lead generation activities. (I wonder what my colleagues at the ad firm would think if they knew!) Traditional wisdom has always told us marketing types that our marketing communications are either 1) emotionally oriented and image based OR 2) direct oriented and response based activities. You simply can't do both at the same time. Or can you?

GIT R DONE: EXECUTING YOUR LEAD GENERATION PLAN - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz Question: On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being "always" and 5 being "never", how often do you stick to project schedules and keep commitments you make to clients? I'm guessing that most of you would give yourself a 1 (or a 2). Of course you make commitments and keep them. What kind of professional would you be if you didn't? (I don't know about you, but many a service provider has made commitments to me and not kept them. A topic for another time...)

GENERATING LEADS, BRAND, RELATIONSHIPS, AND TRUST AT THE SAME TIME - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz Relationships. Trust. Delivery of superb value. These are core ingredients of a successful service firm. Talk to 100 service firm marketers and leaders, and they'll all tell you (and most of them believe it, even if they're wrong) that their firm is in the top of their industry in each of these categories. Why, then, do service firms typically do such a poor job of bringing relationships, trust, and value into their marketing mixes?

FIVE STEPS TO GETTING THE FEES YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr One of the most common laments I hear from service business executives goes like this: "Our services are becoming a commodity. Everyone is out there saying they can do the same thing we do, pushing fees further and further down. Prospects are just buying on price." Unfortunately as service providers, there are aspects of what we provide that have become commodities. Price competition is rampant. However, if you follow these five steps to provide value before, during, and after the sales process, you will get the fees you know you deserve.

DONT WORRY ABOUT YOUR COMPETITION LET THEM WORRY ABOUT YOU - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz What, Me Worry? - Alfred E. Newman Who are your closest competitors? How are you going to beat your competition? What makes you better than your competition? What are the differentiating factors between you and your competition? You get asked these types of questions all the time from your prospects, your clients, and your internal staff. Don't overdo trying to answer them.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CLIENTS REALLY NEED - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr Ray Kinsella: So what do you want? Terence Mann: I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy. Ray Kinsella: No, I mean, what do you WANT? [Gestures to the concession stand they're in front of] Terence Mann: Oh. Dog and a beer. - From the movie Field of Dreams, 1989 All too often it seems I am stuck in this great scene from the movie Field of Dreams (one of my all time favorites) when I ask professional service providers what needs they fill for their clients.

COMMUNICATING THE VALUE OF YOUR SERVICES CREATING A NEW REALITY - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr “…but I know it when I see it.” - Potter Stewart, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court In writing his ruling on pornography, Justice Stewart probably sounded like so many of the clients you work with as a professional service provider. Since you are selling something clients cannot see or touch, they have a hard time knowing exactly what they are buying and what value they will get in return.

COLD TO GOLD GETTING THE MOST FROM COLD CALL SET MEETINGS - Click To Read Article
By John Doerr Like King Midas, as I was told, everything he touched turned to gold. - Joseph Simmons and Daryl McDaniels “If I could just get a meeting with my target prospects I am certain I could close five (or six or eight) out of every ten.” How many of you think the same thing? You know that when you get in front of the prospect you can wow them. Every time a lead comes into the firm and you go on the sales meeting, it's a slam dunk. Made-in-the-shade. Can of corn. You know you'll get the gig.

BUY BEFORE YOU BUY - GETTING PAID FOR LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Free is Fine, but Can I Pay Instead? Marketing is expensive. Especially when you sell complex products and services, your investments in brochures, websites, ads, direct mail, and PR can be steep. After all, you need to educate your prospects and seduce them with your solution and its benefits. This is a bit more involved than grabbing people's attention with a free sample for an impulse product like a cube of bubble gum with a gooey surprise in the middle

AVOID THE REVENUE ROLLERCOASTER TRAP WITH CONSISTENT LEAD GENERATION - Click To Read Article
By Mike Schultz and John Doerr Many consulting, professional, and technology service businesses find themselves trapped in the following vicious, no-growth cycle. The firm is either: Heavily marketing because they don't have enough leads and new business, or Heavily billing and delivering, and thus have no time for marketing, lead generation, and selling. We call this the service revenue rollercoaster. It's a common trap for many professional service companies because when they get busy they can't sustain their marketing momentum...they're too busy with client work. Then, when the client work slows down, they must start marketing from square-one all over again, as all momentum from previous marketing efforts has stalled.


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