3 Simple Tips to Help Technical Staff Meet Their Sales Goals

Professional service firms are expected to deliver a quality product, provide top-notch customer service, and maintain competitive prices. To stay within tight budgets, technical staff must work fast and efficiently.  Also, it’s not unusual for staff to be held responsible for hitting sales goals. This can be a paralyzing thought to many non-sales employees who are hesitant to ask for the sale. For most, business development efforts are reactive and inconsistent because the technical staff is consumed with daily routines of emails and deadlines; principals are preoccupied with operations, and marketing staff is consumed with proposal deadlines. Unfortunately, these short-term deliverables may be hindering your firm’s sales.

Here are 3 simple tips to help your staff prioritize business development and meet sales goals without jeopardizing billable project work.

1. Build upon existing relationships - Spend 15 minutes each day on client outreach. This can be as easy as calling an existing client to ask how you can help them with a demanding project.

2. Focus on customer service - 80% of businesses think they provide “superior” customer service. In reality, only 8% of customers believe they received superior customer service from those same businesses (Shankman |Honig, 2013). If you think you’re doing enough, do more. An email to a client thanking him for his business would be an easy start.

3. Be a do-gooder - Help someone else without asking for something in return. Provide a project lead to a current client. Offer to host a networking event among select industry professionals.

Source: http://www.shankmanhonig.com/