Whether you are an engineer or an architect, or a doctor, lawyer, investment advisor or even a dentist, business development is a necessity you never studied in school. We all know the importance of business development to our professional success. In this webinar recording, Michael Krauss, a seasoned professional services executive with more than 30 years of business development and service delivery expertise talks about the skills and steps we each need to take to sell work and grow our individual practices and our firms.

 

In this webinar, you’ll learn about:

Whether you are an engineer or an architect, or a doctor, lawyer, investment advisor or even a dentist, business development is a necessity you never studied in school. We all know the importance of business development to our professional success. In this webinar recording, Michael Krauss, a seasoned professional services executive with more than 30 years of business development and service delivery expertise talks about the skills and steps we each need to take to sell work and grow our individual practices and our firms.

Defining Capabilities – Know what you know and what you can effectively deliver. Understand your own unique expertise. Assembling your own and your firm’s capabilities is the first step to business development success. Many firms start with a brochure. Krauss says that’s a waste of time, start with a sales call. Krauss explains how to do it and provides a model and template.

 

Segmenting the Market and Targeting and Qualifying Prospects – Once you know what you want to sell, identifying the markets to serve and the prospects you want to reach is the next step. Krauss provides a set of questions to ask and a tool kit for building target lists of prospects and scoring or grading them. Krauss says, “Life is too short to work for the wrong clients.” Learn how to target and win the right clients.

 

Knowing Competitors Messages – You may not know what your competitors are saying but your prospects sure do. Krauss provides approaches for keeping alert to competitor’s sales approaches to increase your own effectiveness.

 

Calling on Prospects, Building Awareness While Understanding Needs – Krauss describes how to research a sales call and how to gain introductory meetings, especially in highly competitive and saturated markets. Krauss provides a checklist for assessing and qualifying a prospect and a set of guidelines for approaching an initial call. His methodology balances “needs-based selling” and understanding buyer’s requirements with the importance of presenting your compelling sales narrative.

 

Growing the Relationship, Demonstrating Qualification – Selling professional services is a multistage process built on trust and mutual understanding. Krauss presents a longitudinal method for increasing a prospect’s knowledge and understanding of your capabilities over time to assure you and your firm are always on the short list when major projects are being considered. Krauss discusses the critical “moments to be present” and how to identify them and be visible.

 

Getting Selected, Closing Work – Krauss discusses methods for moving you and your firm to the position of the preferred provider. Buyers select service providers using a variety of criteria. Winning work is a complex formula that is both rational and fact based and also emotional and psychological. Krauss explores both sides of this equation and provides tools to assure you and your firm are well prepared for presentations and sales meetings.

 

Maintaining Retention Levels, Selling While Delivering – The best new business comes from current clients. Yet services professionals frequently stop selling when they start delivering. Krauss provides tips for creating a low key but high impact continuous selling approach once you’ve been hired and retained by a client.

 

Opportunities & Pitfalls – As a final step, Krauss provides a checklist of 10 opportunities and pitfalls services providers face when it comes to business development. These tips can keep you on your toes and selling effectively and professionally on a 24/7 basis to assure your firm achieves profitable growth.

Michael Krauss is president of Market Strategy Group, a Chicago based consultancy that helps organizations catalyze business growth. Michael has a deep background serving professional services organizations. He serves on the board of directors of global A/E firm Ellerbe Becket, and his clients include Accenture (technology services), Aon (risk management services), Jones Lang LaSalle (real estate advisory services), and other leading global services providers.

 

Michael has served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and he currently serves on the board of the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship. Michael co-chairs Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Council of Technology Advisors. He is a former columnist for the Chicago SunTimes. He currently authors the "@ C Level" column for Marketing News.

 

He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He earned a CPA certificate in the State of Illinois.