PS Decision-Makers Must Sell
While dealing with a portfolio of challenging projects, it can be difficult to motivate ourselves to go win more of them. Regardless of the type of services that you are involved in (pure play or embedded), helping Sales win more deals is a part of our job. If we don't keep selling, we can't keep making money. As PS decision-makers, this is how we can assist our team in acquiring more business.
A Differentiated Pitch Deck
The first thing we can do is to create pre-sales material that differentiates us from the competition. Unfortunately, most Services pre-sales material is indiscernible from the next. This is because we tend to focus on either our people (which our competitors also have) or our methodology (ditto). Instead, our pre-sales materials should distinguish how our methodology will help the customer overcome specific obstacles they are likely to face on our journey. The combination of the obstacle and the necessary solution to overcoming it (process, template, tool etc.) are the critical components in selling professional services value. If there aren't any obstacles on the journey then it doesn't require paid guidance. If there aren't solutions to the obstacles we will face, then the journey is too dangerous to take.
A great pitch deck makes use of our collective wisdom assets as evidence that we know how to keep the customer safe as they take this journey with us. Customers know that projects are dangerous. We can use of this general fear to our advantage by identifying the specifics of how you will prevent it from being an issue. Of course, for obstacles that you do not have an answer for, you will need to either avoid discussing them or use the usual general responses to placate the customer until the deal is sold.
An Exciting Estimation Process
Our second focus is to recognize that project estimation is a part of the sales cycle, and as such, must excite the customer. Unfortunately, most project estimation meetings are full of a big spreadsheet with a barrage of tedious questions that the customer can't answer. The result is customer frustration and usually the development of a detailed solution that isn't what the customer actually wants. Rather than discover this in detailed design, we recommend the use of a top-down model, rather than a bottom-up model of estimation.
While there are studies that suggest that there is not a lot of difference in the accuracy of adopting either model, a less complicated top-down approach gives us some advantages once the project begins. The first is that we never pretended that we knew it all. We have openly agreed that we need to drill down into the detail even further. When we estimate bottom-up we have less plausible deniability of why the estimate wasn't accurate because it makes it seem as though we have covered everything.
The second, is that a simplified estimation process buys us time to invest in the pre-sales "show". We can make the estimation process more visually appealing and present each component with recommendations and best practices that can be used to keep the customer's complexity (and hence price and likelihood of success) down. We can guide them towards the use product's capabilities rather than ask how they would like to use it.
A Guiding SoW
We mentioned in the March newsletter the lack of industry standards for SoW's. Again, we should use this to create differentiation. Our SoW should distinguish us from our competitors by displaying our deep knowledge of the journey sparks. This includes identifying the exact resources the customer must make available to secure a success project and the exact accountabilities of those. In some instances, simply retitling the "Assumptions" section of an SOW and correctly titling it, "Customer Responsibilities" can go a long way to getting the customer to buy in to their responsibilities on a project.
Our SoW should also be clear that the customer is committing the resources to the project in order for it to continue as planned. Should the customer resources not engage as required, then we as the service provider reserve the right to go work (and generate revenue) elsewhere. While you might think of this as an aggravation to closing the deal, we have found that simply having this conversation as a part of the sales cycle helps customers recognize how deeply committed we are to making their project a success. When you demonstrate a deeper understanding of project dynamics such as this, the customer will start to see that taking this journey with you is their best chance at achieving success.
Expect Misalignment
Regardless of the three key areas above, the best thing we can do during the sales process is recognize that it is not a "sales" process but a "buying" process. The customer is in charge and our sales team has little influence on a competitive nature where the naked truth could cost us the deal. The three steps above are aimed at helping you generate trust through truth in order to facilitate a faster and better sale, but even with them, the SoW and resultant customer expectations are bound to be flawed.
