Unlesson Six: "Selling is an Anathema in Professional Services"

“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.