Selling processes and sales skills for marketing and BD professionals
Increase your contribution to firm and fee-earner sales success. Develop essential sales and selling skills to transition from marketing to business development roles effectively. Many professional services marketers have not benefitted from formal B2B sales training and may lack selling experience. Subsequently, many are locked out of client meetings and sales situations except, perhaps, in tenders. Yet selling skills are key to building commercial client and referrer relationships which lie at the heart of strategic business development. Many MBD professionals are expected to coach fee-earners in targeting, nurturing new relationships, identifying opportunities, converting leads and navigating long and complex B2B sales cycles. This intensive half day workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to sales processes and selling skills in professional services to enable them to perform their roles and achieve great outcomes for clients, fee-earners and the firm.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand the sales processes in professional services and know where and how to add value
- Assess and develop your sales and selling skills to support effective business development
- Acquire frameworks and tools to enable you to support fee-earners in sales enablement
- Collaborate more closely with fee-earners to achieve sales success
- Know how to improve the sales processes and outcomes in your firm
Topics covered
Module One – Sales processes
• Integrate marketing, selling and relationship development through sales pipelines
Exercise: Sales challenges in professional services
• Client journeys, decision-making and buyer behaviour
• Developing business relationships – insights from case studies
• Role of MBD in sales enablement and selling
• Compare popular sales methodologies used in professional services
Module Two – Selling Skills 1 (Connect and secure a meeting)
Exercise: Assess selling skills of fee-earners
• Core consultative selling skills
– Targeting tools
- Research (with AI) and coaching
- Develop hooks and messaging (value propositions)
- Initiate contact and nurture relationships
- Prepare for meetings
- Add value and insight in client conversations
- Curiosity to identify needs
- Plan follow up
Module Three – Selling Skills 2 (Perform at client meetings)
• Mindset and behaviour shift required by fee-earners
• Sales management: Plan and prepare sales meetings (goal setting)
• Empathy, rapport and trust – adaptive behaviour
• Drive commercial conversations and share stories
• Identify needs: structured questions and active listening
• Commercial thinking and identifying opportunities
• Develop solutions: differentiation and value proposition
• Psychology of selling and persuasion techniques
• Tips on price negotiation, objection handling and closing
• Information sales systems/measurement and metrics
Exercise: Develop your sales plan
Why PM Forum training?
PM Forum workshops are designed and delivered by qualified and experienced
MBD professionals who:
- – are subject matter experts in strategy, marketing, business development, selling, client relationship management, digital technologies and interpersonal skills who – through ongoing practice – are familiar with the latest developments
- – understand the nature of professional services marketing at large corporate firms and smaller partnerships across law, accountancy, property and consultancy in a variety of client markets
- – have substantial experience working with both senior and junior fee-earners and MBD professionals
- – possess psychology credentials and/or years of experience in learning and development to ensure an optimum learning experience
- – regularly talk to CMOs and management leaders to keep abreast of the emerging needs of their teams
Delegates receive a productive learning experience because:
- – There is a balance between knowledge transfer and active learning through interactive discussion and group exercises (sessions are not recorded to promote openness)
- – Training is experiential – idea sharing, networking and collaboration are encouraged
- – Progressive – sessions are graded for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels
- – Whilst platform-independent, sessions signpost systems and technologies used most often by professional services firms
- – As well as copies of course materials, delegates receive work sheets and supplementary resources with guidance for further learning (including other PM Forum events) and application
- – Course leaders are experienced coaches who understand and promote career development
- – Certificates of completion are issued for use in Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- – Dialogue can continue after training through members-only LinkedIn communities
- – Participation is restricted to PM Forum members
Pricing
First attendee £270 +VAT
Second attendee £260 + VAT
All subsequent attendees £250 + VAT
Book now
Cancellations/Substitutions
Due to the restricted number of places, refundable cancellations are only accepted up to one month prior to the event (a cancellation fee of £25 + VAT will be incurred per person). Substitutions can be made at any time. PMI reserves the right to cancel with no liability beyond refund of fees paid.
Eligibility
This training course is open solely to member firms of the PM Forum, a worldwide group of over 3,000 marketers in professional services firms.
Speaker
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Kim TassoRedStarKim LtdKim Tasso has worked within and for over 200 professional partnerships in the legal, accountancy and property sectors for over 20 years and continues to do so as a management consultant.
She also has direct client exposure from working with organisations in the technology, education, creative, media, real estate and not-for-profit sectors.
Unusually, she combines psychology, marketing and business qualifications so is effective as both a professional trainer, facilitator and coach and also as a subject matter expert in a variety of strategy, marketing, selling and relationship management topics.
She is highly rated as a trainer and coach for lawyers, accountants and surveyors and also lectured on Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) professional marketing qualifications for Cambridge Marketing College.
She is the author of books on soft skills, growth strategies, business development, media relations and business development and a prolific conference speaker and journalist. She is also a member of the PM Magazine Advisory Board.
