Professional Services Marketing & Selling
By RainToday.com
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Power Questions that Get Prospects to Pay Attention to You | Clients can't stand it when your meeting with them turns into you talking at them for 15 or 20 minutes. PowerPoint presentations are just as bad. What they want is to have a conversation with you where you uncover and discuss their situation and how you can help. You initiate that by asking "power questions," says client relationship strategist Andrew Sobel. | 2/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Become a CEO's Trusted Advisor | If you want a CEO to consider you a trusted advisor, you have to approach the sale differently. You can't be simply a salesperson looking to sell something. You must instead work with the CEO to understand what's going on within the organization, explore the benefits and risks of a solution, and develop a change management plan, according to sales expert Adrian Davis. | 1/31/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Best Way to Get New Salespeople Up to Speed and Generating Revenue Quickly | There's a myth that you can hire a great salesperson and on day one they'll be able to bring in millions of dollars of revenue. The truth is companies need a process to bring new-hire salespeople up to speed so that they can begin generating revenue. Listen as sales management strategist Lee Salz explains how to get started with an onboarding program and the benefits companies can achieve as a result of having one. | 1/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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A Key Component to Winning More Sales | You can have all of the passion and enthusiasm in the world, but unless you really listen to your prospects and clients, selling will be a challenge. Pay attention to verbal and non-verbal cues to make sure you pursue appropriate prospects and that you know definitely what drives those buyers, sales sales strategist Dan Waldschmidt. | 1/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How Your Business Can Succeed Despite Tough Economy | A difficult economy can mean the downfall for many businesses. But if your firm enters that atmosphere with a plan and a process, it can not only survive but succeed. Listen as performance management expert Sandy Blaha explains what such a plan looks like and the process she created to help businesses grow no matter what the economic climate. | 1/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How Publishing a Book Can Generate Business Revenue | Publishing a book is a challenging process, but the increased business and opportunities you get as a result are worth the effort. Listen as Stephanie Chandler, author of Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business, discusses how publishing a book generates business revenue and how to get started writing your first book. | 1/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Automated Marketing and Sales Tools Help Drive Business Growth | The market for automated marketing and sales tools is expanding, and their costs are dropping. It's easier than ever to take advantage of them to generate and nurture leads. And companies that use those tools will have a significant advantage over—and will grow more than—firms that do not. Listen as Mike Schultz, co-author of Rainmaking Conversations, discusses sales and marketing trends firms should be aware of and how to adjust to them and grow revenue in 2012. | 12/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Top Challenges of B2B Firms—and How to Address Them | Professional services firms face plenty of challenges these days. Unfortunately, however, many are so busy working in their business to work on their business, according to a new survey conducted by Lisa Nirell at EnergizeGrowth. Not only that, but 66% of the people who say that also say they're unwilling to invest in or don't know where to invest to resolve the problem. Listen as Lisa Nirell discusses the top three challenges facing B2B firms and what they should do to address them. | 11/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Trade Show Is Not Dead, but Your Show Strategy Might Be | Trade shows today are more than handing out brochures and hoping someone stops by your booth so you can get their email address. If that's your strategy, you're setting yourself up for failure. These days you have to make a concerted effort to connect with people who have a true interest in what you offer. Listen as Todd Schnick, founder of marketing and consulting firm The Intrepid Group, discusses how to improve your trade show strategy and develop quality leads. | 11/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Trait that Causes Salespeople to Fail | When it comes to sales success, attitude is everything. But as you achieve success, you have to be careful not to let arrogance creep in, for it will ultimately be your undoing, says Harvey Mackay, author of The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World and Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive. Listen as Mackay discusses how arrogance can cause salespeople to fail, the need to humanize the sales process, and how social media has become the new mega center for sales. | 11/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 Essential Elements of Successful Sales Presentations | Before you give a presentation—before you even think about launching PowerPoint—you must know three essential things: audience, result, and message (ARM). Listen as communications coach Tom Kennedy explains those elements, as well as the biggest mistakes people make when giving presentations. | 11/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why Users, Not Customers, Are Key to Business Success | Aaron Shapiro, author of Users Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business, discusses how B2B services firms are growing their business via a user-focused approach in the digital online space. | 10/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Professional Services Marketing Enters a New Phase | If you think marketing professional services is challenging, consider what it was like more than 30 years ago when firms were just learning to do it. Partners in firms didn't know how to do it, and they fought against ideas marketers presented to them. But marketers persevered, and the methods they came up with are alive and thriving. Listen as Bruce Marcus, author of Professional Services Marketing 3.0, discusses the evolution of professional services marketing and what firms must do today in order to succeed. | 10/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Are You Meeting Your Client's True Needs? | You know you have to understand your client's needs in order to give them the best solution to their problem. But are you digging deep enough to uncover the real issues? When you do that, you can present your solution in the context of what you discover, create urgency, and increase the likelihood of their buying from you. Listen as John Doerr, co-president of RAIN Group, explains how to use needs discovery techniques to get to the root of your client's problems. | 10/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Be More Productive | Have you ever found yourself exhausted at the end of the day, but you haven't made a dent in your work? You aren't alone. Every day we are bombarded with distractions and pulled away from the important things we should do. In this interview Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes, discusses the biggest distraction that prevents us from being productive and what you can do to ensure you stay focused on the things that matter most. | 10/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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90% of Sales Training Fails—but You Can Fix That | Ninety percent of sales training fails. When you consider how much a company spends per person on sales training, a company can lose as much as $500,000 a year on failed sales training. Those are frightening figures, but companies can improve them, says John Doerr, Co-President of RAIN Group and co-author of the new report Why Sales Training Fails. Listen as Doerr discusses why sales training fails for so many companies and what they can do to fix that and start generating more money, not lose it. | 9/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why You Need to Rethink Your Marketing Strategy | Want to get prospects to pay attention to you and trust you? Then you need to create marketing that isn't perceived as marketing. You need to create content that helps people solve a problem, says Michael Stelzner, author of Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. Listen as Stelzner discusses why content marketing is the better strategy and what you can do—no matter how large your firm—to create content and grow your business. | 9/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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SEO, SEM, and Advertising, Oh My! | Generating leads online can be challenging, especially when SEO rules frequently change. But if you know who your idea client is, know what websites and blogs they visit, and produce content that they want and need, you can better target them and drive traffic to your site. Listen as Duct Tape Marketing's John Jantsch discusses how B2B firms can best use online advertising, SEO, SEM, and social media to increase lead generation | 9/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How Being Likable Helps You Win Sales | Being likeable helped Sally Field win an Oscar ("You like me! You Really Like me!"), and it can help you win more sales. That's because people buy from people and businesses they like. You might provide the best service, but unless prospects and clients connect with you, you will not win their business. Listen as Michelle Tillis Lederman, author of The 11 Laws of Likability, explains how to increase your likability, strong client relationships, and win more sales. | 9/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Sales Is Not a Dirty Word | For many, including service professionals, thoughts about sales conjure up an image of the typical bad salesperson. That combined with self-limiting thoughts such as "I hate sales" can severely hinder your sales efforts. As much as you like doing your services work, you need to like doing sales. Listen as John Doerr explains how to get over your reluctance to selling, as well as best practices that generate new business. | 8/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Are Mind Viruses Destroying Your Sales Efforts? | Do you ever think, "All prospects are skeptical," "I'm afraid I'll be rejected" or simply "This day is going to suck." If you do, you have what Randy Gage calls a mind virus—a bad one that can destroy your sales efforts. The good news is you can eliminate such bad viruses and create good ones. Listen as Gage, a prosperity expert, explains how, as well as discusses how to remain positive when prospects reject you and how to grow your firm into a prosperous business. | 8/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Best Way to Sell Professional Services | Contrary to popular belief, there is no one way to sell. In fact, the best way to sell professional services is your way. Use your individual strengths and talents to succeed, says Tony Rutigliano, co-author of Strengths Based Selling. Listen as Rutigliano explains how people with different talents, including those not considered strong sales traits, are succeeding in sales. | 8/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Don't Convince and Coerce Prospects, Influence Them | Often salespeople think they have to convince prospect to buy their services, and they won't let up until they finally say yes and they get their money. That is not how you develop longtime clients that sustain your business over the years. You want to influence them: ask questions, make recommendations, and take them on an emotional journey where they see how their lives will be better if they work with you, says RAIN Group co-president John Doerr. | 8/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Networking Mistakes that Hurt Your Business | When it comes to networking with buyers, service professionals make two common mistakes. They either talk only about themselves while trying to get things from other people or they do the opposite and are afraid to toot their own horn. What they need to do is teach people about themselves and listen generously so they can give to other people, says Lynne Waymon, co-author of Make Your Contacts Count. | 7/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Win the Heart of the CEO and Win the Sale | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdExcepti | 7/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Avoid this Mistake When Asking for a Referral or Testimonial | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdExcepti | 7/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why You Need to Stop Trying to Beat Your Competition | Telling customers you do something better than your competitor will only fall on deaf ears. They don't want to hear it. What they do want to hear is how you can make life better for them, says Ron Karr, author of Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way. And that means creating new alternatives that are going to produce better results for your customers. | 7/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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A Ridiculous Way to Get Referrals | When you ask about how to get referrals, most people say all it takes is good work and a willingness to ask. But that's not enough. Your client is doing more than giving you a name and number. They're putting their reputation on the line, and they need to feel comfortable with you before they give you any information about a potential client. You cannot put them on the spot, and expect them to come up with a high-quality prospect for you, says Paul McCord, a leading authority on lead generation. | 6/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Keep Wired and Dangerous Customers Happy | Over the past few years a perfect storm of customer service has formed. Customers are given self-service features that frustrate them, they are demanding value in ways they've never done before, and they have incredible reach and power via social media. Buyers are "wired and dangerous," and professional services firms need to keep them satisfied. Listen as Chip Bell and John Patterson, authors of the new book Wired and Dangerous, discuss how B2B customers have changed and how firms should handle this "perfect storm." | 6/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Most Important System for Your Business: A Marketing System | When it comes to marketing, most service professionals shy away from it unclear how to create a system. But without a clear marketing strategy and system, you limit your firm's growth. Flitting from one marketing tactic to the next simply won't work. You need a strategy that gets buyers to "know, like, and trust" you and to then "try, buy, repeat, and refer" your services. Listen as John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine, discusses how to get started creating a marketing strategy and system that drives sales and produces long-lasting results. | 6/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Formula to Rapid Growth for Your Business | Many companies are struggling to get their messages heard and to grow, and that's because they're using outdated marketing techniques. Instead of promoting their services, they need to build a following. And you do that through content marketing says, Michael Stelzner, author of the new book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. Listen as Stelzner explains how content marketing benefits businesses and his formula for rapid growth. | 6/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Do You Have What It Takes to Lead a Successful Business? | Anyone can become an executive at their firm, but to be a true leader—one that motivates and inspires staff—you need more. You need executive presence, says Sally Williamson, author of the forthcoming book The Hidden Factor: Executive Presence … How to Find It, Keep It and Leverage It. Listen as Williamson explains what executive presence is and how it contributes to one's personal success, as well as a business's success. | 5/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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2 Forces that Drive Professional Services Sales | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdExcepti | 5/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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When You Know Your Buyers' Personas, You'll Sell More | Don't make the mistake of thinking all buyers are the same. Each has their own buying preferences. But if you take the time to understand their persona and adjust your sales process so that they're comfortable, they'll be more inclined to buy from you, says Mike Schultz, co-author of Rainmaking Conversations. | 5/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 Things that Sink Most Companies | Look at a company that's struggling to make sales, and chances are three things are holding it back. One of those things is selfishness. Focus less on what you can get from buyers and more on what you can do for them, and success is inevitable, says sales trainer Dan Waldschmidt. | 5/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Getting Through to Your Buyers' Crocodile Brains | Oren Klaff, author of Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal, explains the six rules for communicating with buyers' crocodile brains, how to take control of sales meetings, and how to attract buyers to you. | 5/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Get Prospects to Come to You—Start Podcasting | Chasing after prospects is hard work, not to mention miserable as you try to get through their gatekeepers. But when you produce podcasts, interviewing people in your target market, something changes—prospects come to you. Listen as Todd Schnick, founder of The Intrepid Group, discusses how businesses of any size can—and should—use podcasts to develop new business. | 5/3/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What Top Rainmakers Do that You Probably Don't | You might have all the skills needed to develop new business for your firm—excellent conversational skills, fantastic follow-up strategies, and the right way to do proposals–but unless you apply those skills your pipeline will remain dry. Applying those skills is just one thing rainmakers do that set them apart. Listen as John Doerr, co-author of Rainmaking Conversations, explains what you must do to be a top rainmaker. | 4/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What to Say to Get More Sales Wins and the Biggest Deals | Many service professionals have an abundance of value to offer, yet often their conversations with buyers prevent them from ever achieving great success. Listen as Mike Schultz, co-author of Rainmaking Conversations, discusses how to conduct sales conversations so you get more wins and the biggest deals. | 4/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Marketing via LinkedIn: Opportunities You Might Be Missing | With more than 100 million users, LinkedIn is becoming a larger force in marketing B2B services. But using this social network means more than simply putting up your resume or a list of your services and hoping people find you and call you up. Listen as Kristina Jaramillo, founder of GetLinkedInHelp.com, explains what you need to do if you want to get new clients via LinkedIn. | 4/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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One Sure Way to Get New Clients | Selling professional services can be tricky. Services are purchased based on emotion and how well a prospect likes and trusts you. Plus, prospects don't always have an immediate need for your services. You need to do something over time that keeps you top of mind AND develops trust and likeability, which means ditching any semblance of a sales pitch. Learn from Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, what to do so that prospects turn to you in their time of need. | 4/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Dealing with a Client Objection? Don't Do This | When dealing with client objections, there are many dos and don'ts for how to respond. But the biggest mistake that can block a sale is not addressing the objection. The worst thing you could do is leave it on the table and not respond. Listen as Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group and author of Turning No into Yes: How to Handle the Most Common Client Objections, discusses the importance of unearthing all objections, outlines the five steps for overcoming objections, and gives examples for how to respond to common objections. | 3/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Marketing's Role in Generating Revenue Increasing | If you're a marketer, has your CEO asked you what you're going to do about revenue? If not, get ready for it. Thanks to changing buyer behavior and the new economic climate, CEOs are taking a harder look at marketing's involvement in generating revenue. Traditional marketing is giving way to revenue marketing where marketers play a larger role in bringing in new business—and are able to clearly state how they did so, says Debbie Qaqish, author of the upcoming book The Rise of the Revenue Marketer. | 3/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Lead Generation: Prospects Need a Human Touch | Marketing automation tools are becoming increasingly important to today's lead generation efforts, but firms cannot abandon the human element of working with prospects. It's that human touch that shows prospects you care about them and leads to greater sales success, says Dan McDade, author of the book The Truth About Leads. | 3/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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It's Time for B2B Firms to Be More Like Publishers | Paul Gillin, co-author of Social Marketing to the Business Customer, discusses why content publishing is the key to business success and how firms are benefitting from this approach. | 3/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Email Now the Number One Prospecting Tool | Don't count email out as a marketing tool. In fact, lead generation expert Kendra Lee says email is now the number one tool for prospecting, surpassing cold calling. But email is effective only if it's written with your prospect in mind. Listen as Lee discusses what should go into the body of an email, gives tips for effective email subject lines, and explains how to best manage an email lead nurturing campaign. | 3/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Leader? | You've been promoted to the head of your department. Congratulations—now stop what you were doing that got you the position. Your get-things-done way of thinking needs to shift to how to get your team to do things. It's a whole different mindset, says Kevin Eikenbery, co-author of From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership. Listen as Eikenberry explains the leader's mindset and steps you can take now to become an effective leader. | 2/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What C-Level Executives Want from Sales Meetings | If you have a meeting with a CEO and think you're going to win him over with your PowerPoint presentation, think again. C-level executives want you to come to them with ideas and new perspectives on the issues they're dealing with, not a presentation of your services. Approach the meeting as a consultant and give them an opportunity to discuss issues important to them, and you'll start to develop the trust necessary to turn that prospect into a client. | 2/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Secret to Effective Voice Mail Messages | All effective voice mail messages have one thing in common: they focus on a potential problem that the prospect might have. Stay away from talking about you, your company, or your services, stresses Kelley Robertson in this excerpt from his webinar Ditch the Sales Pitch: How to Master Sales Conversations and Win More Deals. Listen as Robertson describes what goes into a good voice mail message and offers advice on how to conduct effective sales phone conversations. | 2/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Marketing Doesn't Get You Clients. Trust Does | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false" | 1/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Most Important Thing in a Successful Sales Organization | When you look at successful sales organizations you'll see they all have one thing in common: strong sales management. As Ken Thoreson, author of the Sales Management Guru book series, explains, strong sales management ensures that the right staff is hired, that staff receive the right training, and that there's a strong culture that everyone believes in. Listen as Thoreson explains how sales managers can develop and maintain strong organizations. | 1/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Mistakes that Keep You from Getting the Referrals You Deserve | Referrals are the preferred strategy for getting new business, and yet many service professionals struggle to get them—and to get new business from them. What are they doing wrong? For many it starts with simply not asking for referrals or for not asking correctly. Listen as Colleen Francis, President of Engage Selling, explains the mistakes people make, what a referral system should consist of, and the success one firm has seen from using a referral system. | 1/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why Consultants Must Embrace Selling | The economy is beginning to turn around, but that does not mean consulting firms can go back to what they used to do to get new clients. Referrals and waiting for the phone to ring will not cut it, says RAIN Group President John Doerr. Consultants must follow the new rules of selling services, which includes embracing selling and going after their ideal clients. If they don't, success will be difficult if possible at all. | 1/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How Professional Services Firms Can Benefit from Entrepreneurial Thinking | Leonard A. Schlesinger, President of Babson College and co-author of Action Trumps Everything, talks about how professional services firms should use entrepreneurial thinking, such as "creation," to solve problems. | 1/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Content Marketing: Share or Solve Problems, Don't Shill | Every business has to focus on content marketing--publishing articles, white papers, ebooks, podcasts or webinars--to attract new clients and become the go-to provider in their market. But they have to do it right, warns Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, authors of the new book Content Rules. They need a strategy: plan what to do, share information, solve problems, and be human. | 12/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Accelerated Lead Generation via Virtual Events | Virtual events, while similar to other online lead generation tactics, differ in one unique way: they allow you to generate and qualify leads early on, speeding up the sales process. Forget about generating a lead and then handing it to sales to qualify, says Dennis Shiao, author of Generate Sales Leads with Virtual Events. People enter your virtual booth, and you interact with them and qualify them on the spot. Listen as Shiao discusses the benefits of virtual events, gives examples of organizations that have succeeded with such events, and explains how to get started using them. | 11/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Don't Let these Myths and Misperceptions Derail Your Cold Calling Efforts | We've all heard the rumor: cold calling is dead and doesn't work anymore. Nonsense, says Wendy Weiss, the Queen of Cold Calling. It's actually the perfect tool for today's economy she says. The problem is most people do it really badly. Listen as Weiss explains some of the myths and misperceptions that cause cold calling efforts to fail. | 11/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why You Must Resist the Urge to Take Any Client | During tough economic times, you may have to take on less-than-ideal clients to keep the lights on and generate the revenue you need. But you must not make that a habit if you want to attract higher-paying ideal clients and grow your business. Listen as Randy Shattuck, President of The Shattuck Group, explains why pursuing ideal clients should be a top priority and how to get those clients. | 11/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Metaphors: Don't Leave Home to See a Buyer without One | We all speak in metaphors: "It's cold as ice," "I don't have the bandwidth to handle that right now," "The room looked like a bomb hit it." It's imperative now that services professionals strategically use them in sales conversations to get prospects to pay attention them. Listen as Anne Miller, author of Make What You Say Pay!, explains how to use metaphors to effectively describe your services, how your services help businesses, how to address client objections, and how to get your foot in the door of a new client. | 11/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Perk Up Their Ears: Sales Techniques that Get Prospects to Take Notice | Every sales call is met with initial resistance. But by following a few key practices, you can weaken that wall and get prospects interested and willing to meet with you. Listen as Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling, explains what you must do within the first few seconds of a sales conversation to get—and hold on to—prospects' attention. Learn More: Attend Kelley Robertson's webinar, Ditch the Sales Pitch: How to Master Sales Conversations and Win More Deals, on Nov. 4. | 10/26/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The One Thing Every Professional Services Website Must Do | Want to get buyers to notice your website over your competitors'? Then stop making it look like theirs and stop trying to make it all things for everyone. Follow basic marketing advice and uncover the one thing you do different from everyone else, and use your website to clearly explain that one thing, says Ben Hunt, website consultant and designer and author of Save the Pixel: The Art of Simple Web Design. (RainToday.com listeners can save 30% off the cost of the Save the Pixel.) | 10/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Uncover Hidden Pockets of Profit in Your Business | Chances are 40% of your business is unprofitable, and you aren't even aware of it. Thanks to antiquated accounting systems, this information goes unnoticed. The good news is that it isn't difficult to uncover those trouble areas, and it's easy to solve the problems and significantly increase profitability, says Jonathan Byrnes, author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink. | 10/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Turn Client Objections into New Sales | How many times has a prospect objected to your price? How often have you heard people say it isn't a good time to buy your services? Client objections are a way of life, but they aren't the end of a sales conversation. They are, in fact, a good thing because they show there's an interest. Following the strategies RainToday founder describes in this podcast, you can get past client objections and make the sale. | 10/5/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Ditch Your Boring Bio and Attract More Clients | Think your bio isn't important? Think again. It can make the difference between winning clients and watching prospects walk away. With millions of people doing business as independent professionals, you must lead with information that compels people to want to engage. Forget the traditional boilerplat bio. Listen as Nancy Juetten, author of the second edition of Bye-Bye Boring Bio, explains the four essential elements of bios, describes the biggest mistake people make with bios, and gives examples of compelling bios. | 9/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Use Your Value Proposition to Stop Competing Against Price | Why do people buy from you and not your competitor? Is it a higher level of service? Is it a diversified level of service? Is it a complex niche that you're in that because of your experience or industry will give you a leg up and help your clients? When you can answer that--explain your value proposition--then you can build out your marketing plan, target your ideal clients, and grow your business, says Mike Schultz, President of the RAIN Group. You won't have to compete against price. | 9/21/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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New Rules for Marketing Professional Services | As clients and prospects become more difficult to reach, you might be tempted to make your marketing louder. But don't. It will only annoy them, says Adrian Ott, author of the new book, The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy. Instead focus on strategic marketing that fits into the "ebbs and flows" of their time. Listen as Ott outlines how to embed yourself and your services into clients' habits and routines and some of the new rules for marketing services. | 9/14/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Setting the Foundation for a Strong and Wealthy Company | The up and down of the economy has many professional services firms concerned about their business and often taking on any client that comes their way. It is possible to grow your business, however, without having to resort to desperate measures. You start by developing a growth plan that allows you to establish the foundation of a strong company. Listen as marketing strategist Lisa Nirell explains the struggles firms are dealing with and what it takes to get your business to grow and thrive. | 9/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Stop Practicing Random Acts of Content | Effective thought leadership—the kind that attracts prospects that eventually become clients—requires a strong platform that your entire company adopts, not "random acts of content," says Craig Badings, author of Brand Stand: Seven Steps to Thought Leadership. Listen as Badings explains how to develop a strong thought leadership platform and the success organizations can see from implementing it. | 8/31/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Attract Clients and Make Money Using Webinars | Webinars are a great way to build your brand, demonstrate thought leadership, and generate leads. They can also fill the gap when companies are not able to send staff to training. But for them to succeed, whether they're free or paid, you have to have a strategy. Listen as Lee Salz, author of Stop Speaking for Free, explains how to pick a topic that draws viewers, how to create a title that grabs people's attention, and the type of content you must provide if you want people to pay to attend your events. * Full Disclosure: the link to purchase <i>Stop Selling for Free</i> is an affiliate link. And while the authors offered to pay us a small commission for anyone who purchases the book through us, we wouldn't promote it if we didn't think it was an excellent resource. | 8/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tap Into the Power of Blogs to Grow Business | You know blogging is a powerful way to establish yourself as a trusted expert and grow business. But it can happen only if you manage your blog properly. If you're not seeing the results you hoped for, chances are you've made one of the many mistakes people fall for. Listen as professional blogger Chris Garrett describes the two biggest mistakes bloggers make, the worst thing you could do with your blog, and how to get people to notice and comment on your blog. | 8/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Is Your Body Language Hurting Your Sales Efforts? | You know body language can affect personal relationships, but have you stopped to consider how it and other non-verbal communication can affect your sales results and your client relationships? People respond on a primal level to how you say and do things, says Sharon Sayler, author of the new book What Your Body Says, so it's important you do things that draw people to you, not push them away. Listen as Sayler describes the two main things that hinder business relationships and what you can do to get people to respond positively toward you. | 8/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What Sales Training Program is Right for You? | A sales training program might be just the thing to help your sales team improve their skills and sell more. But how do you know which program and vendor is right for you? To help you figure that out, Dave Stein, CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, discusses some of the findings of the company's Sales Training Vendor Guide. | 8/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Avoid Becoming a Commodity in a Buyer-Centric World | Sales has change significantly over the years, particularly for B2B services firms. These days everyone plays a role in helping to grow the business, and firms must have a client-centric approach, says Matt Heinz, author of Successful Selling. Listen as Heinz explains mistakes firms make with lead generation, how firms can win complex sales, and how to avoid becoming a commodity. | 7/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Secret to Turning Browsers into Buyers—An Interview with Scott Ginsberg | Thought leadership might be considered a buzz word in the world of professional services sales, but it's an absolute necessity if you want to attract prospects and convert them into buyers. Listen as Scott Ginsberg, aka The Nametag Guy, talks about key aspects of thought leadership, mistakes people make, and how to overcome the biggest challenge of attracting prospects willing to pay for your services. >>Learn More: Attend Scott Ginsberg's Webinar How to Build a Thought Leadership Platform So Clients Come to You with Money on Thursday, July 29 | 7/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Solve Business Problems and Think Creatively Using Freewriting | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="L | 7/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Get Prospects to Sit Up, Pay Attention, and Buy Your Services | Want to sell more? Stop talking about you and your services. Prospects, who are busier than ever, don't want to hear it. Jill Konrath, author of the new book SNAP Selling, says to instead focus on your prospects and their challenges, demonstrate your value, and tell them something that will grab their attention and hold it throughout the decision process. | 7/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Right Way to Market Technology Services | Marketing technology services effectively requires a systematic approach. Unfortunately, however, many companies go about it in an erratic and tactical way that doesn't allow them to demonstrate the value of their services. And as a result, few buy their services. Listen as Laurie Young, author of Marketing Technology as a Service: Proven Techniques that Create Value, explains what successful companies have done to market their services and mistakes to avoid. | 6/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Employee Happiness Key to Driving Profit and Growth | Happiness as a business model--you might doubt its effectiveness, but Zappos is proving that it helps drive profit and growth. Listen as Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and author of Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, talks about how a strong company culture that centers on employee happiness leads to better customer and client service, which leads to more sales. | 6/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What You Must Do to Keep Your Sales Pipeline Full | If you've ever been trapped in the cycle of having a lot of client work and then having none, more than likely, it's because your marketing efforts weren't continuous. You have one marketing push followed by all-out work only to lift your head at the end and discover you don't have any leads. You can avoid such trials of feast or famine when you make marketing part of your everyday life. Never stop marketing, and you'll never have to worry about filling your sales pipeline. | 6/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Are Your Sales Lagging? Poor Leadership Principles May Be the Cause | Even when you have a sales organization that has the right processes and does things perfectly, you can still get low returns. That's because core leadership principles within a company can have a negative effect. Listen as Danita Bye, author of Leadership Shift: Paradoxical Wisdom for Transformational Leaders in These Times of Change, discusses leadership paradoxes that can significantly impact sales force effectiveness and should be evaluated if sales efforts are lagging. | 6/9/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What Firms Must Do to Achieve Sustainable Growth | In the past all you needed was a pulse and few clients and your firm could survive. With the "new normal," however, that isn't enough. The CEO can no longer be the sole rainmaker and top sales person, and you must have a plan for running your firm. Fail to change your approach and you limit how much your firm can grow and run the risk of watching it fail. | 6/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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You Might Be a Trust Killer—and Not Even Know It | Often service professionals kill any trust that might be developed with prospects with their sales and marketing tactics--and not even know that they're doing it. | 5/26/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why You Must Invest in Existing Clients | Often firms spend a lot time and money wooing perfect strangers to become clients only to stop paying attention to them after the project is complete. But it is through existing clients that firms can generate more business, says Joseph Jaffe, author of Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones. Instead of following the traditional marketing funnel, flip it so that you build on existing client relationships and use those to draw new clients to you. | 5/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Best Way to Generate Referrals and Get More Leads | If referrals are the best way to generate leads and grow business, then why don't more firms do this well? It all starts with being referable and trustworthy, says John Jantsch, author of the new book The Referral Engine. When you establish trust and provide a great client experience, you set the stage for building a powerful referral system that generates leads and often eliminates the sales cycle. | 5/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Preferred Lead Generation Tactics for Professional Services | With all of the marketing tactics available for professional services, five have risen to the top in terms of preference, including email marketing and thought leadership, according to recent studies by The Shattuck Group. Listen as Randy Shattuck, senior marketing executive and founder of The Shattuck Group, reveals some of the findings of those reports and give a preview of his upcoming webinar. | 5/5/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Social Media Marketing Better than SEO for Web Traffic | If you're not doing social media, you need to rethink that. Not only are millions of people using social media networks, but using those networks to market your firm can create greater awareness and generate more web traffic faster than SEO tactics, says Michael Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com. | 4/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Economy Recovering: What Firms Must Do Now | Mike Schultz, President of Wellesley Hills Group, talks about the state of the professional services market and what leaders must do to navigate their firms through the recovering economy. | 4/21/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How a Strong Brand Helped Accenture Withstand the Tiger Woods Scandal | Teresa Poggenpohl, Executive Director of Advertising and Brand Management at Accenture, explains how Accenture built its strong brand, how it handled the Tiger Woods incident, and what firms of all sizes must do to build a strong brand. | 4/14/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Turn Your Firm into a High-Performance Machine | If your firm isn't performing at high levels, it may need an alignment. Start with your vision and then determine if your culture matches your vision, if your strategies advance your vision, and if your client experience advance those strategies. Only when all of those are working in concert will your firm achieve high performance levels, says Joe Calloway in this interview with RainToday Publisher Mike Schultz. | 4/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Client Objections: No Doesn't Have to Mean No | Believe it or not, it's often a good thing when a client or prospect voices objections. It gives you an opportunity to ask questions and understand what the true issue is. Then you can explain and perhaps offer another solution and get them to say yes. As John Doerr, founder of RainToday.com, explains in this interview, no doesn't have to mean no. | 3/31/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Best Path to Profitability for Professional Services Firms | Acquiring new clients doesn't necessarily lead to profitability. Often it's better to sell new services to existing clients than it is to sell existing services to new clients. But getting clients to buy additional services means signing on ideal clients who believe you offer great value. Listen as Randy Shattuck, senior marketing executive and founder of The Shattuck Group, explains the importance of building your value proposition and your brand and what you must do to attract ideal clients. | 3/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why Clients Leave and What You Can Do About It | Because a client bought from you once, it doesn't mean they will continue to buy from you. You must nurture that relationship and build trust. Listen as Colleen Francis, President of Engage Selling Solutions, explains the two essential pieces of a client retention strategy, the most common reason why clients leave, and the best thing you can do right now to start successful relationships with clients. | 3/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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So, You Want to Become a Thought Leader? | Listen as Tom Davenport, 13-time author of books such as Thinking for a Living and What's the Big Idea and Babson College professor, talks about the benefits of thought leadership, what it takes to become a leading expert, and how to set yourself apart from others trying to do the same thing. | 3/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Is the Traditional Website Dead? | For professional services firms, blog websites work better than traditional websites for cultivating client relationships and selling services, says Ian Brodie, owner of The Rainmaker Academy. | 3/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Do You Have What it Takes to Compete? | The competition for clients is fierce—even more so these days as a growing number of firms vie for fewer budget dollars. You need to differentiate yourself and give prospects a reason to choose you. How can you do that? With competitive analysis, say Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart, principals at Cascade Insights. | 2/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Using Case Studies to Build Trust and Facilitate Sales | Case studies are fantastic tools to facilitate professional services sales, as well as share with the world client success stories. But like anything, their success requires following certain best practices. In this week's podcast, Casey Hibbard, founder and president of Compelling Cases and author of Stories that Sell, reveals some of the best practices of creating case studies and how to use them to build trust with prospects and win clients. | 2/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How Search Engine Marketing Can Improve the Sales Cycle | Professional services firms traditionally have done business by developing relationships and networking. While that's still an important part of how you develop business, more and more people are turning to the Internet to find and research service providers. And firms that know how to take advantage of the power of the Internet and search engine marketing definitely have a leg up on the competition. Mike C***h, founder and CEO of Everon Technology Services, explains in this week's podcast. | 2/10/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Get Prospects to Notice You: What Every Marketing Campaign Must Have | You may not think it, but when you deal with your public—your prospects and clients—you're doing PR. You are developing relationships with them via traditional and social media. That's why it's important to include a PR strategy in your marketing campaign. Listen as Drew Gerber, CEO and founder of Publicity Results, discusses the types of media outlets professional services firms should reach out to, what's required for a good PR campaign, and the success firms can see as a result. | 2/3/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Want to Attract New Clients? Think Like a Publisher | If traditional marketing methods no longer get clients' attention, then it's time to consider content marketing. You want to think like a publisher and create compelling information that's educational, not sales-related. Listen as Joe Pulizzi, founder and chief content officer of Junta42 and co-author of Get Content Get Customers, explains what content marketing is, describes how to develop a content marketing strategy, talks about how to measure content marketing efforts, and gives an example of a firm that is doing content marketing right. | 1/27/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Number 1 Sales Mistake People Make | When selling professional services, you're bound to make a mistake at some point in your career. The biggest mistake, however, is selecting or going after poor prospects, says Dan Seidman, sales coach and author of Sales Autopsy. Listen as Dan talks about how to find the perfect client, explains the importance of the "dairy queen", and shares some sales horror stories. | 1/20/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Don't Let Bad Presentation Skills Cost You Clients | It doesn't matter if you're giving a keynote, talking in a meeting, proposing ideas to a client, or talking one-on-one with someone, you must have good presentation skills. Listen as Tim Wackel, founder and president of The Wackel Group, explains how good presentation skills help prospects and clients trust you, outlines the two-step process for giving good presentations, and reveals the worst thing he's seen happen as the result of a bad client presentation. | 1/13/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Firms Must Break Down Marketing and Business Development Silos | Professional services firms must break down marketing and business development silos if they want to be effective and productive. They must shift from doing a craft to running a business, and that requires making cultural and structural changes. Listen as Suzanne Lowe, author of The Integration Imperative: Erasing Marketing and Business Development Silos – Once and For All – in Professional Service Firms, explains what executives must do to break down barriers and grow their firms. | 1/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Modern Marketing Strategies for Professional Services | Traditional outbound marketing methods are becoming less and less effective. Society is tired of being marketed to, and people are better at blocking such things as email and cold calls. So, what's a marketer to do? Pull people toward you with inbound marketing tactics, says Brian Halligan, co-author of Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. Take advantage of the modern way in which people learn and shop. | 12/9/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Become a Marketing Success on Twitter | Demonstrating your thought leadership is one of the best marketing techniques for service professionals, and Twitter has quickly become one of the tops platforms for doing so. It's a great way to do lightweight marketing, says Sarah Milstein, author of The Twitter Book, as well as to network with prospects and clients. Listen as Sarah reviews how to get started using Twitter, what you must do to get people following you, and the business benefit of using Twitter. | 12/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How a CRM System Can Improve Your Sales Efforts | You can throw a sale off track is by starting an inappropriate conversation with a client. Prevent such conversations by keeping records on clients and prospects in a CRM system. Listen as David Taber, author of Salesforce.com Secrets of Success: Best Practices for Growth and Profitability, explains the benefits of various CRM systems, how to implement such systems, and tricks to getting people to use the systems. | 11/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Embrace New Emarketing Strategies or Lose Sales | The B2B buying process has changed, and that means your marketing and sales tactics must also change. No longer can you simply say you're the leading provider. Buyers want you to prove it. Listen as Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, explains why traditional sales prospecting and marketing methods no longer work and discusses tactics firms must use instead. | 11/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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107 |
Acquire the Ideal Client, Not Just Any Client | Acquiring new clients is a top priority among services firms, but you want to make sure you acquire ideal clients. Do not take every and any client no matter how difficult things for your firm might be, says Randy Shattuck, President of The Shattuck Group. Determine who your ideal client is and then decide the best pull marketing strategy to attract them. Firms that do so will see greater revenue and profits. | 11/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Stop Pitching Your Services and Facilitate the Buying Decision | Selling your services involves more than getting prospects to like what you have to offer. It also involves the buyer getting agreement from all parties and agreeing to change. To overcome this roadblock, Sharon Drew Morgan, author of the new book Dirty Little Secrets, says salespeople need to learn how to facilitate the buying decision. Do so and you can dramatically shorten the sales cycle. | 10/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Improve Your Value Proposition with Performance Benchmarking | Professional services firms that have strong unique value propositions (UVP) grow faster, produce higher margins, and sell at higher prices. One way to offer such a strong UVP is to include performance benchmarking, says Paul Collins, founder and managing partner of Equiteq LLP. Listen as Collins explains how a value proposition that includes performance benchmarking helps you stand out among competitors and leads to greater sales. | 10/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Cold Calling: 7 Tips to Help You Get Meetings with Prospects | Cold calling--the phrase strikes fear in many sales professionals. It is challenging, but it isn't impossible. With these tips from Colleen Francis, Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions, you'll learn how to prepare for cold calls, as well as techniques to engage prospects and get them wanting to hear more. | 10/14/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Using Pictures to Solve Problems and Engage Clients | The moment someone picks up a pen to illustrate a point, the people around him pay attention. So, why not use pictures to solve problems and engage clients? Listen as Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin, explains how services professionals can do just that. | 10/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tap Into the Power of Social Media | By using Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and other forms of social media, you can build your credibility and have people, including journalists in traditional media, seek you out for your expertise, says Dan Janal, Founder and President of PR Leads Expert Resource Network.. | 9/30/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Marketing Tactics that Grab People's Attention | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="fals | 9/23/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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What Makes People Buy? | When people buy professional services, their purchasing decisions are made at an emotional level. Something in a firm's presentation or values strikes them on a subconscious level. That is why it's imperative that services firms not only present themselves well with their websites and marketing materials, but they also differentiate themselves from others in the field. In this podcast Martin Lindstrom, CEO and Chairman of LINDSTROM Company, Chairman of Buyology Inc., and author of Buyology—Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, talks with RainToday.com Publisher Mike Schultz about his research into people's buying decisions, how service firms must make good first impressions on potential clients, and how service firms must set themselves apart from their competitors. | 9/16/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Speaking Engagements: How to Get Big-League Gigs | If you've been speaking at local events and getting rave reviews from attendees, you might be thinking about joining the circuit of big-name speakers. Before you take your speaking material to that level, however, listen to what Vickie Sullivan has to say. Speaking in the big leagues is very different, and you need to step up your game. In this podcast, Sullivan, President of Sullivan Speaker Services, explains the important aspects of a speaker's platform—and what should be included in that platform, talks about how publishing a book can lead to big league speaking engagements, and discusses the pros and cons of speaking at trade shows. | 9/9/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Achieve Marketing Success with Social Media Networks | Social media networks are excellent tools for marketing your services, but it isn't enough to simply sign up to use those tools. It takes work. You can't confuse the tool with doing something meaningful with the tool, stresses Paul Gillin, writer and content marketing specialist and author of the book Secrets of Social Media Marketing. You have to have something interesting to say, and you have to be willing to respond to people who want to comment on what you say. Listen as Gillin advises beginners on how to get started using social media, explains some of the advanced things people are doing with social media, and discusses how you can incorporate social media marketing into your traditional marketing plan to create a symbiotic relationship between the two. | 9/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Use a Universal Lead Definition to Find Ideal Clients | Too often professional services firms practice "random acts of marketing." They don't have a real strategy for marketing the firm or for generating leads, and as a result leads get lost or are discarded. To successfully generate leads, service firms have to do three things: identify the companies they should be working with, identify the right people within the companies, and nurture an ongoing dialogue with them and build trust. Before you can do that, however, you need to identify what is a good lead. Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, talks with Mike Schultz, Publisher of RainToday.com, about the importance of having a Universal Lead Definition. Build a profile of the ideal client, then marketing can use it to identify quality people and certify when someone is ready to talk to a partner, and sales management can use it to nurture a dialogue. (Time: 17:06) | 8/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Cold Calling Dos and Don'ts | In this day and age, when the Do-Not-Call list is so often put into action, you might think phone sales are things of the past. Not so, says Colleen Francis, Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions. In fact, she says the phone is still the most effective sales tool. To succeed at cold calling, however, you need to have a different mindset and you need to follow certain best practices. Think about cold calling as new business development or opening a relationship. Listen as Francis offers advice for leading successful conversations and points out statements that will kill relationships before they even have a chance to get started. (Time: 11:56) | 8/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Don't Let Your Sales Proposal Turn into a Horror Story | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/ | 8/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Best Practices for Making Cold Calls | If your referrals run dry, chances are you're going to have to turn to cold calling to bring in new business. That may seem daunting, and you might consider hiring an agency to make the calls for you, but it's better if you do it yourself. John Doerr, Founder of RainToday.com and President of the Wellesley Hills Group, offers tips to ease the cold-calling process and help you establish good practices that will lead to sales. Advice John offers: • Whether presidents of companies should make cold calls • How to conduct a cold call • If a prospect agrees to meet with you, how to prepare for that meeting • What to do if a prospect says he isn't interested (Time: 12:54) | 8/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Reality of Selling Professional Services | Services professionals know everything they need to sell their services. It's how they organize that information and how they approach prospective clients that determine whether or not they make the sale. Michael McLaughlin, author of Winning the Professional Services Sale, talks about how services professionals can convert a sales lead into a paying client. | 7/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Turn Your Marketing into Internet Sensations | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="fa | 7/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Save a Difficult Client Relationship | Chances are you've had difficult client relationships. Communication stops, the client doesn't give you what you need, and you don't get the results you want. Before you throw in the towel, you should make every effort to resolve the problems and get the relationship back on track. In this podcast, Andrea Howe, founder of BossaNova Consulting Group, talks with Mike Schultz, President of Wellesley Hills Group and Publisher of RainToday.com, about how to identify a relationship that's falling off track and what you can do to set things right. (Time: 13:24) | 7/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Expand Your Consulting Services into Global Markets | Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="fa | 7/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Use Triggering Events to Improve Your Chance of Making the Sale – With Jill Konrath | Changes to a prospect's internal or external business environment could be just the thing to get you in their door and gain their business. Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, explains the importance of tracking such triggering events, how to use them to engage prospects in conversation, and techniques for contacting prospects. Questions Jill answers: * How much time should you spend researching companies and trigger events? * How can you use trigger events to move a sale along? * How often should you contact people after a trigger event? * What language should you use when you talk to someone after a trigger event? (Time: 12:04) | 7/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Strategies that Stick: What it Takes for Firms to Embrace and Execute a Marketing Plan - An Interview with John Doerr | Service firms oftentimes have no problem creating marketing plans. They have problems implementing them. John Doerr explains what it takes to get things done. Service firms oftentimes have no problem creating marketing plans. They have problems implementing them. And, even when they do implement them, they often stop prematurely, before the results have a chance to materialize, and declare, "Marketing doesn't work!" John Doerr, president of Wellesley Hills Group, founder of RainToday.com, and co-author of Professional Service Marketing, explains what it takes for firms to implement a strategy, wait until the returns arrive and more. (Time: 11:26) | 6/24/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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3 Keys to Forming Partnerships with Your Clients - With Andrew Sobel | Every consultant wants to form solid business partnerships with their clients, but many things can get in the way. Andrew Sobel, author of All for One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships, explains how to address some common challenges consultants face when trying to partner with their clients. Questions he addresses include: How do you relate to clients as trusted advisors when you're an expert in your own business and not theirs? How do you move past the function executive to the executive who makes the buying decisions? How do you increase your skills at forming partnerships as well as the chance that you will? (Time: 11:26) | 6/17/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tips for Creating a Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your Firm - With Dana VanDen Heuvel | Many professional services firms see their competition winning new business by blogging, connecting on social networks, and launching podcasts and online videos. And they want to know, "How can I do the same?" Dana VanDen Heuvel, founder of the Marketing Savant Group, explains how firms can create a social media marketing strategy. Topics he addresses include what questions firms need to ask themselves and how firms should integrate a CRM system into their plans. (Time: 10:54) Interested in hearing more? Watch the full presentation with Dana. | 6/10/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Tips for Marketing on LinkedIn (Without Upsetting Your Prospects) | Millions of business professionals have a LinkedIn profile. So how does a marketer tactfully and effectively use this resource? Jason Alba, author of I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What, explains the finer points of netiquette (Internet etiquette), the best way to build a list from your connections, and what your personal profile should look like (Time 08:32) Interested in hearing more? Watch Jason Alba's on-demand webinar. | 6/3/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Making Change Happen: Insights for Creating Remarkable Things at Your Firm - An Interview with Dr. John Kotter | The strategies for marketing and selling for professional services firms aren't that complicated. But getting the leaders together and choosing a strategy often is. In this podcast we look at what leaders can do to make change happen at their firms with Dr. John Kotter, professor of leadership at Harvard Business School and author of New York Times bestsellers A Sense of Urgency and My Iceberg Is Melting, as well as the world's most influential book on organization change, Leading Change. He says people fail to successfully make change not because they lack capability and intelligence, but because they simply haven't been through a lot of big changes. The good news is you can learn it. You can do it. You can make some remarkable things happen. You just have to think in a different way. (Time: 11:58) | 5/27/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Breakthrough Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships for Life - An Interview with Andrew Sobel | In this episode, Andrew Sobel, author of the book All For One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships, reveals approaches to building long-term trusted partnerships with flagship clients—those key clients that provide a disproportionate share of revenue and profits. Andrew provides research-based strategies for individuals and institutions to develop these trusted partnerships and shares examples from his book. (Time: 14:29) Interest in Hearing More?: Reserve a seat a Andrew's upcoming RainToday.com webinar, From Vendor to Trusted Partner: Breakthrough Strategies for Developing Clients for Life. | 5/20/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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How to Transition from Hourly Fees to Value-Based Fees - An Interview with Alan Weiss | In this episode, we talk about how your firm can transition from basing its fees on hourly rates to basing its fees on the value your firm delivers. Alan Weiss, author of the seminar book, "Value-Based Fees: How to Charge and Get What You're Worth," explains why firms should use value-based fees, how firms can start adopting them, and how to respond to client objections. (Time: 09:30) Interested in hearing more? Sign up for Alan's upcoming teleseminar, Getting Paid What You're Worth: How to Use Value-Based Fees at Your Firm, on Thursday, May 21. | 5/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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133 |
How to Make Yourself Memorable in Networking Conversations - With Scott Ginsberg | Most people automatically say, "So, what do you do?" at networking events, but don't care what the answer is. Scott Ginsberg, "the authority on approachability," explains how to create a "soundbite" that will have people actually take interest in what you do. Listen as he offers tips to opening a whole new world of business opportunities, in this excerpt from Scott's recent webinar with Raintoday.com. (Time: 8:07 ) Hear the rest of Scott's advice by visiting the RainToday store and watching Scotts webinar Networking for New Business: 7 Ways for Becoming More Referable. | 5/6/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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134 |
The Importance of Building Relationships with People Committed to Your Success - An Interview with Keith Ferrazzi | Everyone needs two or three people who will tell them the truth, who will push and encourage them, and who will hold them accountable. Everyone needs two or three people who are committed to their success. Yet, most people, when ask, "Who's got your back," aren't sure that anyone does, particularly in a professional context. Listen to this podcast with Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone and the forthcoming book Who's Got Your Back?, as he explains the keys to forming these vital relationships. (Time: 14:21) Interested in hearing more? Reserve your online seat for Keith Ferrazzi's May 7 webinar, Through Thick and Thin: How to Build Relationships with People Committed to Your Success. | 4/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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135 |
Keys to Becoming More Approachable and More Referable in Business - An Interview with Scott Ginsberg | In this podcast interview with Scott Ginsberg, the authority on approachability, Scott discusses how to become more approachable, how to connect with people about their passion, and how to break through the barriers which stop us from initiating conversations. Becoming a more personable professional is vital. Clients choose service providers they like, and rarely those who only serve their needs. (Time: 13:31) Interested in hearing more? Register for Scott's upcoming webinar, Networking for New Business: 7 Ways to Become More Referable. | 4/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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136 |
How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business | Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook have marketers abuzz. The tools can generate exposure for their firms, increase website traffic, and result in new business partnerships, but marketers still don't know how to best use them. Michael Stelzner, who just published the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, discusses how marketers can tell if social media is paying off, what they should think about before diving in, how much time they should invest in it, and much more. (Time: 11:09) | 4/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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137 |
Building Up Your Brand in a Downturn - An Interview with Mike Schultz | In an economic downturn many service firm leaders turn to marketing, and specifically brand building efforts, as the first place to cut. When in fact, your brand building activities (when done right) are the ones that can help generate leads, relationships, and trust—all key ingredients to winning new clients both in boom and in gloom. Listen as we talk about building up your brand in a downturn with Mike Schultz, the publisher of RainToday.com, president of Wellesley Hills Group, and co-author of the forthcoming book Professional Services Marketing. Specifically, we're going to revisit a Q&A session I had with Mike in a recent RainToday.com webinar. (11:40) Want to hear more? Become a RainToday.com member to watch our archive of on-demand webinar and one year of live events. | 4/8/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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138 |
Using Social Media for Marketing and Selling Professional Services - An Interview with Paul Dunay | Where does a professional services practitioner, marketer, or salesperson start with all the social media out there? The choices can be overwhelming and many people choose to ignore the social media landscape altogether. We talk with Paul Dunay, author of the forthcoming book FaceBook Marketing for Dummies, and discuss what social networking is worthwhile and how to have a blog and content that is relevant. (Time: 08:53) | 4/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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139 |
Delivering Client Experiences that Differentiate Your Firm - An Interview with Peter Merholz | In professional services firms, the experiences we create for our clients plays a huge role in our ability to satisfy them, generate the return on investment they are looking for, and ensure they stay loyal clients. Listen to this episode as Peter Merholz, author of "Subject to Change" and president of Adaptive Path, explains what service firms can do to deliver valuable experiences to clients. (Time 13:49) | 3/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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140 |
The Business Case for Long-Term Lead Nurturing in a Recession - An Interview with Dan McDade | Most services firms want short-term leads, leads that are ready to buy now. In contrast, the best service firms focus on the 75% of leads that are long-term opportunities that take six months to two years to develop. It's not easy to do, but successful marketers do just that. In this podcast we talk with Dan McDade. Dan helps B-to-B companies fill their forecasts with qualified revenue opportunities as President of PointClear. Specifically, we revisit a questions-and-answer session we had with Dan in a recent webinar with Raintoday.com. (Time: 9:09) | 3/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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141 |
Building a Value Proposition that Sells in Recessionary Times - An Interview with Paul Collins | If you're trying to sell a 1960s automobile in the next century, you have a very limited market. The same goes for firms trying to sell services which haven't adjusted to the realities of the current recession. Listen as Paul Collins, managing partner of Equiteq LLP, explains how to build a value proposition that sells in a recession, drawing from his vast experience helping consultancy owners improve their profit performance and realize equity value in their businesses. | 3/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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142 |
Keys to Being a Trusted Seller of Professional Services | A lot of people think "trust in business" is a little soft, a little oxymoronic, and a little odd. But it's not. It is an essential component of successful client relationships and a key element in winning over prospects. In this podcast, Charles H. Green, founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, breaks down how trust works in professional services, what the components of trust are, and how trusted advisors can reconcile that role with their responsibility to develop new business. | 3/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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143 |
The Basics of Long-Term Lead Nurturing: How to Benefit from Your Firm's Second Best Revenue Source, with Dan McDade | Lead nurturing is a highly-relevent topic nowadays with most firms struggling to win business in the current recession. Why? Roughly 75-percent of all leads are long-term opportunities that need nurturing. Listen as Dan McDade, founder and president of Point Clear, explains how the best firms focus on these opportunities by using meaningful, thoughtful, and enjoyable communications. Interested in hearing more? Attend Dan's upcoming RainToday.com webinar, Best Practices: 10 Actions to Immediately Improve Your Lead Nurturing Program. | 2/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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144 |
Keeping Your Revenue Flowing: 6 Key Business Development Factors (Part II) | If you're looking to create a culture of business development at your firm, you'll want to follow all six factors in the window into business development performance. Miss one of the factors for any reason and you'll severely limit your success. In part two of this two-part podcast, Mike Schultz, publisher of RainToday.com and president of Wellesley Hills Group, outlines factors #4-6 for creating a culture of successful business development performance. Be one of the rare service firms that focuses on all six factors and you'll need more people to get all of the new client billable work done. (Time: 7:30) | 2/18/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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145 |
Keeping Your Revenue Flowing: 6 Key Business Development Factors (Part I) | Lately, business development has been on the minds of service firm leaders, and for good reason: The recession has made firm leaders work extra hard to keep their firms' revenue flowing. So, how do you get the best business development results? Mike Schultz, president of Wellesley Hills Group and publisher of RainToday.com, believes there are six key factors. In the first part of this two-part podcast, Mike explains the first three of those factors: Expectations & Feedback, Tool & Resources, and Consequences & Incentives. (Length: 10:01) | 2/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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146 |
Marketing in a Recession | This recession has spawned innumerable how-to-survive-a-down-economy pieces of advice: Focus only on the things that get you ROI and leads; focus on Internet marketing and cold calling; focus on relationships and networking; focus on your client base; build your brand. The list goes on. But, as Mike Schultz, publisher of RainToday.com and president of Wellesley Hills Group, explains, the one key insight you need to remember is that what has fundamentally changed isn't what you should do, it's what is happening inside the heads of firm leaders. (Time: 08:09) | 2/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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147 |
How to Create a Culture of Growth, with Suzanne Lowe | When it comes to growing revenue and growing market share, professional services firms must effectively integrate marketing and selling into everyone's job. In this podcast, we listen to Suzanne Lowe, president of Expertise Marketing and author of the forthcoming book, The Integration Imperative, as she answers some important questions about how firms can do just that: • How can firms involve new-hires in marketing and sales? • How can business developers help with their firm's marketing? • How can firms motivate practitioners to bring in new business? (Length: 09:28) Interested in hearing more? Get access to the full "How to Create a Culture of Growth" RainToday webinar with Suzanne Lowe. | 1/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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148 |
The Top 5 Ways Professionals Sabotage Their Own Sales Conversations | Every professional service provider tries to make themselves distinct in the eyes of buyers: We seek to show our expertise, to respond to their needs, to listen, to articulate things well. Yet, in sales conversations, according to the buyers, we often don't do these things, making ourselves distinct in a very different way. Listen to this podcaset with John Doerr, founder of RainToday.com and president of Wellesley Hills Group, as he discusses the top five mistakes service providers make when engaging in sales conversations with potential buyers: (Length: 08:38) | 1/21/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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149 |
Professional Services Spending Looking Down in 2009, Yet Buyers Open to Switching | In this episode, we look at the whether buyers of professional services plan to increase or decrease their spending. The data from our How Client Buy: 2009 research report shows the news isn't good for nearly every kind of firm out there. Our research does show an upside though. As Mike Schultz, president of Wellesley Hills Group and publisher of RainToday.com, explains, the majority of professional services buyers are not loyal to their current firm and are willing to switch providers. Listen to learn what spending looks like in your industry and what you can do to begin making your competitors' clients your own: (Length: 08:05) Interested in learning more? Click here to see the details of our How Client's Buy: 2009 research report. | 1/13/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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150 |
The Top 5 Ways Clients Find Professional Service Providers | In this episode, we share results from our How Clients Buy: 2009 research report. Specifically, we talk about the top five ways buyers identify and find their professional service providers. Mike Schultz, publisher of RainToday.com and president of Wellesley Hills Group, also delves into ways four and five—speaking engagements—and discusses what you should do to lead your own and speak at conferences. (Length: 08:59) Interested in learning more? Click here to see the details of our How Clients Buy: 2009 research report. | 1/6/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
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151 |
Becoming a Global Consultant, with Alan Weiss | In this podcast, we talk about becoming a global consultant: Who's it available to? What does it take? How can consultants begin on this quest? Alan Weiss, an internationally-acclaimed consultant and co-author of the new book The Global Consultant: How to Make Seven Figures across Borders, answers these and other questions. (Length 10:39) If you enjoy this podcast and are interested in hearing more, you can click here to sign up for Alan's upcoming teleseminar, with co-author Omar Khan. You can also visit RainToday.com for more information about marketing and selling professional services. | 11/18/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 151 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Great info for sales and marketing professionals
I've read Rain Today for several years and the podcasts are a great addition. The audio quality varies, but the content is valuable.
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