“We are a
professional services organisation, and a sales force is an anathema to our
clients.”
Actually, there are
two kinds of people in the senior levels of the professional services
organisations, the grafters and the getters. The grafters do the top end work, the surveying of the work of the other
people in the organisation, and the checking of the delivery to the
clients. The senior law partner who
does the last review of the big contract, or the actuary who does the final
review of the estimation data, the audit firm partner who reads the file, and
because they have trained the staff, and know and trust them, signs the audit
opinion, are all grafters. They are
important people making the guts of the operation tick.
Then there is the
partner who seems to be at a lunch a lot, spends a lot of time talking to
people, and while they know the business, they are the ones working on the new
business proposals, taking the lead in the presentations at the client site,
and so on. These are the getters. The revenue of the firm to some extent
depends on their ability to keep the client happy, fix any problems, and make
sure that any work that is available is coming to the firm. It is not the grafters job to bring in the
new revenue, and it is not the grabbers job to complete the execution of the
work. Now, I would be the first to
agree that the roles are not so clear cut in reality, but if you want to make
to a senior level in a professional services organisation, then you will have
to get good at selling new business and protecting your existing
relationships. Otherwise, your revenue
levels will gradually slip, and your business will decline. Consider, also, that one of your key sales
messages will be that you are honest and have great integrity. Not all sales are driven in miasma of
dishonesty, not matter what the stereotypes may say.
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