Know, Like and Trust - the Keys to Cross Selling

It’s one of the oldest (and truest) phrases in selling: people buy from people they know, like and trust.

But it actually applies much wider than buyer-seller relationships.

One of the emerging findings from my research project into law firm business development best practices is the importance of cross-selling - especially in today’s economic climate. It’s so much easier and better for professionals to sell more work to their existing clients - those who already know, like and trust them - than it is to hunt out new business. And it’s also better for the client too - their risks are greatly minimised by doing business with people they trust and they know will be looking out for their best interests.

Yet sadly, most professionals aren’t great at cross selling. My research has identified two main barriers:

• Most professionals have very limited knowledge of the services their colleagues can deliver. They don’t know who their ideal clients are, what to look for to spot an opportunity, or what to say to begin to engage with the client.
• Sadly, many professionals also don’t trust their colleagues enough to want to pro-actively cross-sell their services. By this I don’t mean that they dis-trust them. Simply that they don’t know what they do well enough, or have enough experience of working with them to feel confident that they would do a great job. And if they’re not confident of that they will hesitate to recommend them and put their strong client relationships at risk.

So in fact, success in cross-selling is driven primarily by whether you Know, Like and Trust your colleagues.

How can we increase the level of knowledge and trust in professional firms? It’s something I discussed over a few drinks with Will Kintish last night.

Will has come up with a great idea. As many readers will know, he’s the UKs leading trainer and expert in Business Networking. He runs a lot of courses teaching professionals how to network externally: how to build relationships based on Know, Like and Trust with potential clients and external referral partners. But, of course, the same skills can be applied internally. By asking the same questions and networking internally, professionals can begin to break down the silos between their different units and teams. In Will’s Internal Networking training sessions, not only do participants get to learn great networking skills which can be used to great effect externally; they also get to experience networking live with their internal colleagues. As part of the session they essentially “speed network” with many people from different functions and tak the first steps to building the trusted internal relationships which will give them the confidence to cross-sell.

Helping Professionals Sell Using Empathy Styles

One of the biggest barriers professionals have in developing their selling skills is that they simply don’t see themselves as salespeople. Many carry round negative sterotypes of salespeople - but even when they don’t, their image of a successful rainmaker is of a charismatic extrovert with highly developed social skills.

Not fitting this model themselves, they often fear that they don’t have what it takes to sell effectively. This mental block can prevent them from taking some simple steps to improve their sales capabilities.

Jim Wigg of Epicurean Associates presented a seminar on “Empathy Selling” at a recent pro-manchester meeting. The seminar looked at different Empathy Styles - and how each style had different sales related strengths.

The advantage of this model over other psychometric assesments is that it doesn’t focus eccessively on one particular type being the “natural salesperson”. By highlighting the sales strengths of each type, it allowed the professionals attending to see how they could grow their sales capabilities without having to have a “personality transplant” and adopt an extroverted style that simply wasn’t them.

By breaking down that initial barrier and helping them see that there are multiple ways to succeed in selling, and that you don’t have to fit a particular sterotype personality or style; they were freed up to think about how they could improve.

Jim’s an engaging and knowledgeable presenter. If you get the chance to attend one of his seminars I recommend you take it up.

You can take a simple “empathy styles” questionnaire on Jim’s site here

Business Development North West 2009 Survey Launched

Focusing on the critical area of sales skills for law firm partners and staff; Lighthouse Business Consulting is proud to announce the launch of the Business Development North West 2009 Survey.

As competition becomes increasingly tough and customers increasingly demanding; all law firms are looking to significantly enhance their business development capabilities. And no area has such a large impact as the skills and abilities of their team to sell.

We will be interviewing partners, marketers and business development managers in North West based law firms to identify:

• The critical skills needed by law firm professional staff to win business
• The most effective methods for developing those skills - coaching, training, mentoring, etc.
• How to create a positive business development culture

Participants in the research will gain full access to the research results - highlighting what they will need to do to grow the sales skills of their team and significantly enhance their ability to grow.

The research will be carried out during Q4 08 and Q1 09 for publication shortly afterwards. If you or your firm are interested in participating, please complete the form below:

Register Interest in BDNW 2009

1. Your Name(required)
2. Firm Name
3. Phone Number
4. Email Address(valid email required)
5. Comment/Area of Interest

 

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