When selling professional services, you always want to sell directly to the decision maker.  But sometimes you can’t.  Sometimes you have to sell to someone else in the client organization, who then makes your case to the decision maker.

This often happens when:

1>     The decision maker delegates the vetting of firms to a subordinate, but wants to reserve the right to make a final selection on the basis of what the subordinate tells him.  An attorney sometimes delegates the selection of experts, for example, both as a developmental assignment for a young partner or associate and because he is busy.

2>     The person you are dealing with is building a case for a course of action and plans to introduce the hiring of a professional as a part of a total solution.  A facilities manager might do this when recommending the adaptation of a facility for a new use.

When blocked from talking to the decision maker, yourself, you face a two-step selling process: first, you must convince the person you do have access to that yours is the right firm for the job.  Then you must prepare her to make your case effectively to her boss.  She may only recognize the need for the first step.  You would do well to work hard at the second.

This means making the case for hiring you clear and in a manner that allows your contact to repeat your arguments. Leave behind written documents your contact can present to the decision maker or borrow from when developing her own case.  For management consultants this means foregoing any incomprehensible consulting graphics. For all professionals this means minimizing use of your profession’s argot. Use language you would expect the decision maker to understand, rather than relying on your contact to explain what specialized language means.

In some cases, the client will have to explain to the decision maker why a professional is needed.  In others she need only explain why she is recommending you.  You can help her more effectively, if you know what case she will be making.  You will also be better equipped to help her, if you know about the concerns and ambitions of the decision maker. Gather as much information about him as you can, from the person you are working with, a web search and any other person who knows him and is willing to talk about him.  What you learn will help you and your contact develop her case for going ahead with the matter.

Then, consider providing the following:

1>     An executive summary: If you are preparing a proposal, include an executive summary that concisely summarizes the larger document.  Sections might be titled The Issue, The Work to be Done, Why Use an Outside Professional, Why Use [Your Firm]. 

2>     A presentation: This can be a PowerPoint deck that supports a short presentation you give to the person you are working with in hopes that she adapts it for use with the decision maker. Better is one that you and she prepare together for her use.  Clients facing high-pressure presentations often welcome such help.  If possible, include what one rainmaker I know calls the pot-of-gold slide, which succinctly and compellingly presents the business case for going ahead.  Make sure she understands it.

3>     A list of frequently asked questions with answers:  Chances are you sell your services more often than your contact buys them.  You know better than she what questions are likely to be asked by whomever she is presenting to.  Help her make her case by providing her a list of questions she might have to respond to along with answers that you know from experience are effective.

4>     A whitepaper:  A thoughtfully written document explaining why companies use services like yours sometimes makes a powerful marketing and sales tool.  When I was a location consultant, we had a two-page whitepaper entitled Do You Need a Location Consultant? that provided criteria for making such a decision.  On at least two cases I am aware of, clients lifted paragraphs verbatim from this document in their internal memoranda arguing that we be hired.

5>     Presentation coaching: If you are selling a big-ticket service, requiring your contact to make a formal presentation to the board or executive committee, offer her the use of your firm’s presentation coach at your firm’s expense.  For a client stressed by the need to make a presentation to such an audience, this is sometimes a welcome confidence and performance builder.

6>     Real time backup:  Provide her your cellular phone number and make sure you are available right before and during the presentation to respond to any call for help she makes.

Supporting your contact’s efforts to get an assignment approved will help both of you win.

I seem to have a different goal for an elevator speech than others do, perhaps because I work for professional service firms.  In a recent post, Glenn Andrew proposes a three-step process for creating one.

In Step One, you pose a do-you-know-how question.  Do you know how easy it is to reach over and shut off the alarm clock and go back to sleep in the morning when you should get up?

In Step Two, you pose a solution.  My firm makes the Run-Away Alarm Clock that keeps moving just our of reach, when you try to shut it off.

In Step Three, you ask for a referral.  Do you know anyone who has trouble getting up in the morning?

I like the first two steps, first getting the client to visualize a problem and stating that you solve it.  But I don’t like Step Three, as least for my clientele.  Imagine recieving the following answer to your question about what someone does for a living:

Do you know how some people who earn big incomes will try to divorce their wives and leave them almost nothing?  I am a divorce attorney who helps the wives get a fair share of the family wealth in a divorce.  Do you know any couples who are divorcing? 

This lawyer provides a valuable service, but asking for a referral so early in a relationship is highly inappropriate.  At least it seems so to me.  I could cite many other examples. 

In the professions, an elevator speech isn’t a sales pitch or a request for a referral.  As I stated in a previous post , Of Water and Buckets, an elevator simply tells the listener what you do in a way she will remember.  That is why my description of how to create an elevator speech leaves out a request for a referral, or for a sales meeting or any other advance.

I am not saying that Glenn Andrew is wrong for many businesses.  Nor am I saying he is all wrong for the professions. To the contrary, his first two steps have taught me something useful that I will apply when I next get a chance.  It is only in the goal of an elevator speech that we disagree significantly, and that is the reason I have a hard time with his third step.  This is just another case in which selling professional services differs from selling products.