Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/392122
20 Selling is the process of taking very early-stage interest from a prospective client through to an agreed sale with a legal contract. Many people think of it, at least in the UK, as a rather unpleasant, 'pushy' task. This image probably derives from being on the receiving end of individuals trying to sell commodity products to you. Selling your professional services, however, is an important and necessary skill. The Process Literature and courses about selling are mostly concerned with selling products. They tend to divide the sales process into a number of phases frequently encapsulated in some obscure acronym, and to give role names to the various members of the client staff involved ('gatekeeper', 'sponsor', etc.). Do not become pre-occupied about using such terminology because as a research institute based consultant the value to you of such formalism is not high. The key point about the sales process for services is that it is a dialogue, the objective of which is that you come to understand the client's needs thoroughly. This way the client becomes convinced that you can and should do the work. You need to find out what the client wants in practical terms too, e.g. outcomes, timescales and costs, and how you will achieve this, e.g. activities, reporting, key milestones. A sales process normally begins when you have established in the clients' minds, through your marketing, a high degree of confidence in your expertise relevant to some issues they face. Then the client normally suggests that you may be able to help. Occasionally they start the conversation with details of current problems or challenges. You should demonstrate some familiarity with the issues or suggest some route leading to a possible solution. The next step is a meeting to discuss this further. If you have any doubts about whether you are talking to a senior enough person to commission work, consider asking who else needs to be at the meeting. Before that meeting, learn what you can about the client from public sources and from any of your contacts. At the meeting ask the client to brief you on the problem or challenge. This is when you ask the basic questions that enable you to scope out the nature of the problem and, perhaps more importantly, its implications. An issue threatening the client's current Selling Section 4