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hey guys rich got here with another quick video today we're going to talk about the 8th step sales process for professional services today when we're talking about a professional sales process this is really the whole cycle from choosing who our client is all the way to selling to them marketing to them servicing them collecting and having them stay with us and promote us ongoing so when I use the term sales process and specifically a an intentional sales process for professional services what I'm referring to is the whole process so we're going to use this kind of as a model if you think of a staircase and I just meet somebody I bump into them in a restaurant and I say hey how are you would you like to get married I mean that that's ridiculous yet oftentimes that's what I see people doing their professional services practice when they're trying to get business they might be at a networking function they might bump into somebody they were referred to them and all of a sudden they just want to jump in and do some business with them and they really haven't developed any sort of rapport with them any understanding of what that person needs so this 8 step process is really just to give you kind of an overview of the things that you should be considering all the way through your relationship with a prospect or with a client so right out of the gate number 1 choose I know it seems kind of simple kind of odd but the first step in a professional sales process is to actually choose who you want to have as a client there's some people that maybe need what you do but they aren't a good fit for you or for your organization and for your philosophy and how you do what you do right so obviously those aren't your clients but who is your client who's your ideal client who do you want to go after where are you going to go if you want to have a great client 5 7 8 10 20 years down the line it all starts by choosing who you want right now so step number one is choose once you've chosen step number two is connect if you know who you want to have as a client then the very next step is actually go connect with them introduce don't sell but just connect with them maybe that's an email maybe that's face-to-face visit maybe that's a phone call maybe that's through social media or online but ultimately that's the next step is you just connect with them with no agenda but just start actually having a relationship and that starts with the connect number three is conversation once you've made a connection with someone ultimately then we just start a conversation in a later video I'm actually going to talk about four sort of strategic questions that you can use to actually find out if you can serve that person and direct it to an opportunity whether it's with you or maybe somebody else but number three is have a conversation number four is kind of a logical progression for somebody having a conversation that if there's kind of a fit you verify that yeah maybe what they're looking for is something that you can help them with then the next step I suggest is I actually kind of have a clarifying discussion or a clarifying meeting and all we're talking about there is is that what that person has told you as something that they need is it in fact something you can help with and is it something that they're looking to solve now so instead of trying to jump in waste a bunch of time doing a proposal doing a quote trying to push them into buying with you let's just have a meeting or conversation that clarifies what they want why they want it when they want it and what the value is so that fourth step is a clarifying meeting or clarifying conversation okay so step five once we've clarified that it what they want is in fact something we can help them with then the next logical step is to go a little bit more in-depth and actually kind of dive into it figure out how you're going to do it not if you can and ultimately sort of compel some sort of action whether that is to book another call to book another meeting but ultimately nothing changes nothing improves nothing happens until somebody takes some action so that fifth step I kind of describe as a compel to take action meeting maybe that's action right now maybe it's action later but ultimately we want to have something happen and that's what that meetings for so the next step step six is client we ultimately while we're going through these things is we're hopefully looking to try and find a good fit somebody that we can help with somebody that's looking for what we do and to have them become a client but becoming a client doesn't have to be everything all over night it could be just simply starting an engagement with us buying something but ultimately having them engage with us in some facet to start the client relationship number 7 continue once we've got a client ultimately as Peter Drucker said the whole purpose of a business is to get and to keep a client number seven is continue once we've got them as a client we've kind of done the hard part up to that point we've done six steps just to get them to a client we really want to focus and keeping them and developing them so step seven is continue step eight is the holy grail it's really what I refer to as the champion we don't want to just have average clients that just stick with us we want them to be a little bit more so that's different in every type of business but ultimately by setting it as a goal we can kind of define well what's a champion look like in our business do they buy a certain type of services do they spend certain dollars with us annually do they give us referrals do they give us better than average reviews are they promoting us to other people now again those are just some sample things that you might measure what a champion is for you but ultimately without defining it probably aren't going to be able to build it into your process to take just a client that continues with this to the heights of becoming a champion so step eight is actually having a client turn into a champion so hey guys hopefully that was helpful today we covered the eight steps to a sales process for professional services right off the top number one that we identified is you got to choose who you're going to go after it is actually part of the sales process number two is you got to connect with them have some strategies to connect with the people that you've chosen to be your ideal clients that whole purpose is just to connect with them step three once we've connected is we can actually start a conversation it's not about business it's just about who they are in a later video we'll talk about the four questions that maybe bring up opportunities you can serve but number four is clarify if there is an opportunity to can serve let's have a conversation specifically to clarify what that is and how you can help then ultimately number five is compel to action meeting now that could be a proposal a presentation but ultimately if nothing changes if they don't take action nothing changes okay so number six is they become a client big or small number seven we actually have a strategy and as part of our process to make sure that they continue with us that they buy something they continue to buy we we keep them happy and we keep them for a long period of time everyone knows the lifetime value of a client is pretty substantial and number eight is ultimately the holy grail we get them to turn into a champion where they're buying multiple services they're flying our flag they're a hero of ours and they're promoting people to us that's kind of the way that I look at champions so hopefully that was helpful I would love your feedback on this tell me how you maybe see this fitting into your business some things that may be work for you some questions you might have or some areas the applicants some concerns or where you might be stuck I would love to answer and continue the conversation below until next time I'm Rich Scott and thanks again for listening you