In the competitive world of professional services, showcasing your skills is key to success. Let's delve into why selling yourself is crucial and discover effective strategies to turn this challenge into a triumph!
Professionals selling themselves: the problem
Most professional services firms, whether they be accountancy, legal, property, or another business where the service is delivered by people, have a dilemma. Even if they principally operate on a B2B basis, they are in the business of selling the expertise of their people – to other people. When conducting client listening, we will regularly hear that what clients want is an advisor who they can get on with, who gets them, and who has that X factor. The what – the technical expertise – is taken as read. It isn’t a differentiator and it isn’t a reason to choose.
Professional services firms face a fascinating dilemma! They have talented teams in marketing and business development who excel at building brands and showcasing expertise. However, they also need to focus on building relationships and ensuring that the right people connect with potential clients. The challenge lies in the fact that these professionals are not just selling services; they are essentially selling themselves.
Most people – and of course, there will be some exceptions - find it difficult to ‘sell themselves’. Professionals tend to be critical overachievers and fear of failure is a constant concern. Rejection is personal. Self-promotion feeds numerous anxieties. Imposter syndrome is something we have written about before. More than two-thirds of us have experienced thoughts of ‘being an imposter’ - so it is fair to assume that a fair share of professionals do too!
Making yourself vulnerable, and putting yourself in line for failure, is uncomfortable. If you can get over that, you then need to navigate how you can achieve success when you have been brought up ‘not to be arrogant’ and ‘not to be a show-off’. Putting yourself out there seems wrong on multiple levels.
How to get comfortable with self-promotion
Coaches often work with clients to get them to reframe their thoughts. This area is one where reframing can be helpful. Reframing offers a fresh lens through which to view challenges, reducing emotional barriers and opening up new solutions. The reason selling ourselves is hard is due to emotional complexity, which is why we believe reframing is a good place to start if you want to get comfortable with self-promotion.
Three ways to reframe the problem of selling yourself
Think about it as selling the team. The reality is that it is unlikely you will be delivering all of the service yourself. You might be the client facing part of the team, but you will have an infrastructure around you that will help you deliver. Remembering that you are not only selling yourself, but also promoting your team, can help you step out of some of the discomfort you will be feeling. Not only that, the enthusiasm with which you speak about the team will be contagious and help to demonstrate what sort of leader you are.
Think about it as building a relationship. There are few who like the word sales in professional services firms. There are even fewer who would describe themselves as being in the business of sales on the service-delivery side.
Sales gets a bad wrap because it is misunderstood (see point 3 below). What clients want isn’t a salesperson – they want someone they can get on with, someone who gets them. They want a relationship. Once this is understood, you can put the pressure of selling to one side and focus on building a relationship with the person in front of you. Relationships take time and they require effort. They also require very human skills, which we are all capable of learning and developing.
Consider the value you bring. What is sales really? What it isn’t is pushing what you do, or have, onto an unsuspecting buyer. It is not having the ‘gift of the gab’ and blindsiding them into walking away with something. Sales is about value. It is about understanding what someone needs and then meeting that need. Inherent in that understanding of sales is that there will be times where you cannot provide what the person needs – and that is okay. To be successful you need to listen and think about what value you (and your team) bring.
To understand how our unique approach to sales training can help your professionals, get in touch. We combine coaching psychology, tools such as Lego Serious Play, and business development experience to help your professionals unleash their potential.
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