Never Say Sell How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships

by McMakin, Tom; Parks, Jacob

• ISBN13: 9781119683780
• ISBN10: 1119683785
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2020-10-27
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Learn the secrets of how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, and more

Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights from key rainmakers at firms like Accenture, IBM, and more into how they drive growth from existing relationships.

Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts.

Doing good work with existing clients is not enough to have them come back to you again and again. You must do more. This book explores the techniques and methods that leading professional service providers use to add value, cross sell, and drive recurring revenue from existing engagements.

Never Say Sell will help you turn one-and-done clients into some of your most exciting and lucrative relationships. It is a must-have for any professional who benefits from repeat business.

Author Biography

Tom McMakin is CEO of Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE), a leading provider of business development services for large expert service firms, including McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, KPMG, IBM, Deloitte, DXC, Accenture, Cognizant, Grant Thornton, and many others. Over the last fifteen years, Tom's company has interviewed 10,000 senior executives at 350 companies in the Fortune 500 and maintains a database of 5,000 senior executives. Tom is the co-author of How Clients Buy (Wiley). He has been featured on the pages of Inc. Magazine (Cover), Fast Company, Money, Entrepreneur, Success, The Economist, Newsweek, The Washington Post, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Tom has spoken before Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, MIT's Sloan School, and the U.S. Congress.

Jacob Parks is the COO of Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE), having led growth and operations in the company for seventeen years. Jacob moderates a group of middle market consulting firm CMOs, including CLJ, AT Kearney, Segal, and Simpson Thatcher.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Why We Never Say Sell

Section 1: Who We are and the Problems We Want to Solve 3

1 From Foothold to Footprint 5

Section 2: The Imperative and the Opportunity 15

2 Learning to Farm 17

3 The Diamond of Opportunity 26

Section 3: The Challenges 41

4 The Challenge of Knowing Too Much about the Wrong Thing 43

5 The Challenge of Complex Organizations 52

6 The Challenge of Serving Complex Networks 57

7 The Challenge of Introducing Your Colleagues 66

8 The Challenge of Scale 71

How We Can Help

Section 4: Farming for Knowledge 85

9 Know Thyself 87

10 Know Thy Client 101

11 The Secrets of Diamond Account Planning 111

Section 5: The Seven Disciplines of Successful Farming 119

12 Discipline 1: Do Good Work 121

13 Discipline 2: Be a Good Friend 138

14 Discipline 3: Leverage Your Team 150

15 Discipline 4: Incent Good Work 157

16 Discipline 5: Listen 165

17 Discipline 6: Tell Great Stories 169

18 Discipline 7: Master the Art of the Ask 176

Section 6: Seeds of Change 185

19 The Power of Peers 187

20 The Power of Routers 197

21 The Power of Technology 207

22 The Power of Experience and Insight 217

Further Reading 223

Acknowledgments 225

About the Authors 227

Index 229