What is selling? Simply defined, selling is the process of influencing a buying decision. That’s it.
And guess what? Your sales people aren’t the only ones who do that. Everyone at your firm has the opportunity and responsibility to do that – particularly in regards to ensuring repeat clients.
Take your client-facing project managers, for example. They work closely with your clients on projects and are in a key position to influence that client’s future buying decisions. For example:
- If they do bad work, it’s unlikely that client will come back with another project.
- If they are unresponsive, unprofessional, not helpful or lack the necessary expertise and knowledge, they will influence – negatively – that client’s future buying decisions with your firm.
On the flip side, if they do great work, are helpful (and responsive, professional, proactive, etc.), you can feel pretty confident that their client will be back with more work in the future.
And you thought only sales people were in sales!
Think about your customer or tech support teams… same thing. If they’re not helpful, professional, responsive and (maybe most importantly) easy to get in touch with, your clients will likely find another supplier who provides a higher level of support.
“OK, but what about our accounting team? Surely, they’re not in sales!” While prompt billing and ease of payments are expected and likely won’t help you attract any new clients… what do you think will happen if your billing is frequently late or incorrect, complicated or beholden to some arcane company policies set in the 1970s?
Answer? Potentially lost clients (or at least some really pi**ed-off ones!).
Bottom line: It’s a buyer’s world… and if everyone in every department and at every level in your firm is not delivering a top-flight customer experience, your clients will go elsewhere. And why not? There are plenty of options for them to choose from.
As we started out saying, we’re all in sales. Nearly every day, every one of us is put in a position to influence a client’s buying decisions. The question is, “How will we respond to that opportunity?”