Acuity: Evaluator for Professionals

SALES EVALUATOR: NO-SELLING PROS

Do you share these thoughts about business development issues?
In order for us to more effectively address your needs, please check any statements listed below that you find yourself or your staff saying.

Client Development Process

We need to sell and develop new business, but we don’t want to be perceived as "pushy salespeople".

We have a very narrow window of time we can devote to selling each week, and we need to know how to be effective during that window.

We have no systematic way of selling that allows us to remain in control of sales calls and/or analyze the results.

We perform too much "unpaid consulting" for prospects that don’t buy.

Our prospects want to "check the competition" or "Think it over" before deciding.

We waste time with prospects because we make presentations and then discover that:

			They mislead us about their reasons for seeing us in the first place.

			They have no problem we can fix, or the prospect has no compelling reason to want to fix a problem.

			There is no money, or there isn’t enough money.

			There is a hidden decision maker.

Prospecting

We struggle to get in front of enough new prospects on a regular, consistent basis.

We have no efficient and effective process for making cold (or even warm) calls.

We don’t know how to get past "gatekeepers" to get to the real decision makers.

We are uncomfortable in networking situations, especially where we don’t know others.

Referral Generation

We don’t receive enough high-quality referrals.

We don’t know how to comfortably ask for and get referrals.

We work with some clients for years, and never receive a referral from them.

Our referral sources are very limited; we don’t have a broad network of contacts that can refer us business.

Our Salespeople want to believe what their prospects tell them about their chances of getting the business and, as a result, our sales forecasts are often overly optimistic.

For Managing Partners / Associates

We have to wear a dozen different hats to run our business and have no time to motivate, coach or train our associates on business develpoment.

Our associates feel that they need to be liked by their prospects and as a result they:

			Do too much unpaid consulting.

			"Bail out" when they feel pressure and lower their hourly rate (and our profits).

			Accept it when someone says "I’ll think it over."

			There is a hidden decision maker.

Our associates want to believe what their prospects tell them about their chances of getting the business and, as a result, our sales forecasts are often overly optimistic.

We train our associates, but then they leave and develop their own firm.

Our sales cycle is too long -- the cost of finding new clients is too high for one or more of these reasons:

			Our associates spend too much time doing proposals and not enough getting the business.

			Our associates spend too much time in front of people who have no money.

			Our associates spend too much time in front of people who aren’t decision makers.

			There is a hidden decision maker.

We’ve spent a fortune on marketing seminars and, after a month, everything is forgotten.

I have no one to coach my associates through difficult client development situations.

Other Issues

Please let us know about other issues you are experiencing that need addressing:

Please provide as much information as possible. Thank you.

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