Building a strong professional identity

  Advanced Consulting & Sales Skills

If you are experiencing pressure on fees, client hesitation and/or high cost of sale, this page is for you. These 15 skills are tangible expressions of self-worth in action, building a strong professional identity as a trusted advisor.

Pre-sales

1. Context questioning vs. content questioning: gathering essential info about value before you propose anything. This is a foundation skill for everything that follows.

2. Sharing insights, co-creating new insights with clients. Adding value in advance of any solution, establishing the relationship as partnership vs. servitude. This is the skill that differentiates you from other providers and builds trust, credibility and engagement.

3. Reframing requirements vs. meeting requirements. Differentiating your approach on a value basis (rather than on a cost- or service- basis). Establishing “trusted advisor” status before proceeding further.

4. Compelling presentations and emails, building consensus and common ground, senior-level communication. Harnessing the key intelligence established so far and presenting this with authority and impact.

5. Facilitation skills e.g. opening up and wrapping up meetings, ensuring vital voices are heard. This will be a vital skill when exploring options and budget, see 7. below. Also adds value throughout delivery stages of the project.

6. Influencing skills e.g. overcoming objections, impact at board level, getting decisions. This is a useful skill at all stages of the project lifecycle. The ability to convince others is an important consulting skill.

7. Discussing money & resources, articulating value and the risk associated with low-quality solutions. Drawing on the skills above, this is the ability to defend premium fees/prices, overcome objections and still win the deal.

8. Doing proposals with the client, not just for the client. Deepening engagement at every step. The biggest mistake in proposal writing is not involving the right people. When these eight skills are blended together, you are on a pathway of trust.

During Delivery

9. Exceeding expectations: the difference between “satisfactory” and “outstanding”. It’s not enough to be outstanding at selling, you  need to be equally outstanding in delivery, particularly in the early stages.

10. Boosting / maintaining project momentum. Anticipating the low points in engagement and countering these. Projects are often very visible before they start… and then become “part of the furniture”. This is the skill of maintaining visibility and the support of senior management.

11. Anticipating the next step of the journey during delivery, being ahead of your client. This is the art of “seeing around corners”, i.e. anticipating pitfalls, spotting opportunities and building consensus early on.

12. Building rapport and empathy, the human side of all engagement. Even in the digital age, people do business with people that they like and trust. All successful consultants need to excel at human engagement, just as much as they do with intelligence and insight.

13. Uncovering & communicating value e.g. success stories, insights and testimonials. Value often lies hidden. This is the art of collecting success stories, using these to illustrate insights and communicating the value of the work you do.

14. Boosting client career-success, getting referrals, sharing insights from the marketplace, nurturing ambassadors. Without ambassadors, you will be forever stuck doing your own promotion. With ambassadors, your professional identity is both sustainable and enjoyable.

15. Juggling competing commitments… because nobody “gets it all done”. A strong sense of self-worth helps to deal with the imperfections, the ups-and-downs, the stresses of competing commitments and still find joy and satisfaction in professional life.

To tailor requirements for your sales or consulting team, email john@selfworthacademy.com 

These topics are also available for events.