Professional Services

International expert and consultant David Maister offers a brilliant and accessible guide to every management issue at play in professional firms. Professional firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first, they provide highly customized services and thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services are highly personalized, involving the skills of individuals.

As Darwin famously observed, the beaks of each generation of Galapagos Island finches change to accommodate shifting food resources, allowing the birds to survive by adapting their capabilities to the new environment. Today's business people should take note: In the post-crisis economy, traditional career strategies spell professional extinction, but the fluid new "gig economy" offers tremendous potential for anyone willing to adapt.

We are in the golden era of boutiques. The business models of your clients are being disrupted. This makes it virtually impossible for them to have all the required expertise in-house. They are looking for external expertise. They have big budgets to spend. Clients are buying from boutiques in record numbers. The sun is shining. Time to make hay.

Years ago, developing and sustaining a book of business was not as big a problem for accountants, attorneys, financial planners, and other professionals as it is today. Clients were more loyal to the firms they worked with, and unlikely to shop your services, compare rates, or jump ship. Times have changed! And if you don't change along with them...well, you're not going to enjoy yourself or have as much control over your career as you deserve. Believe it or not, you can enjoy the process of expanding your client base.

Never Say Sell 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 into how key rainmakers at firms like Accenture and IBM 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.

How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the "product," you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job-not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or "behind" when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do.

Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel.

How to Win Client Business When You Don't Know Where to Start provides a masterclass in teaching the practical techniques and concrete strategies that professional services providers were never taught in school or on the job. Pragmatic lessons take the place of the vaguely defined principles found in competing books to turn listeners from sales novices into rainmakers.

I’ve written this book because selling your business is quite possibly the biggest financial transaction of your entire life, and you’ve never done it before and will likely never do it again, and you really need to be smart about this. I recently did a quick study on the likelihood that a firm in a particular, narrow vertical would have a successful exit—defined as someone else purchasing, for real money, a majority of your firm’s equity.

In recent years, professional services providers have had to rethink their sales methods and adapt to profound changes in the way clients buy services. In response, Winning the Professional Services Sale argues for fundamental changes in the seller's mindset and sales strategies. Rather than pressing the sale, salespeople must help clients buy - the way that works best for each client. This new approach gives buyers what they now want in a services seller: a consultative problem solver, change agent, and solution integrator, all rolled into one.

More and more professional services firms are “productizing” their services to grow and scale. But successfully marketing and selling standardized services or products is very different from marketing and selling traditional professional services. Commercialize, a follow-on book to Productize, explores why commercializing new ideas is the most significant stall point when B2B services organizations productize. The book then outlines how the most successful firms commercialize packaged services and new products and get to revenue impact fast and efficiently.

In Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry: Principles, Tasks, and Tools for Success, renowned auditing professional, valuator, and author Andreas Creutzmann delivers an essential guide for professionals seeking to upgrade and refine their soft skills. From public speaking to problem solving, digital literacy, and intercultural fluency, the author discusses concrete strategies and practical techniques for professionally trained and credentialed experts to expand their skillset, augment their leadership abilities, and even find more fulfillment in their work.

With the wisdom of a seasoned industry expert and the clarity of an effective educator, Smith walks you through each aspect of building, operating, and excelling in your professional services firm. Dive into the depths of strategic thought, embrace the magnetic power of authentic branding, and discover client-centric strategies.

Every business has customers, and employers are seeking to hire, retain, and reward employees who have the skills, the knowledge, and the motivation to provide a consistently superior level of service to every customer, every day. No longer is a bright smile and a friendly hello enough to satisfy customers and keep them coming back. Employers and customers want customer service professionals.

Ever wondered what it takes to succeed on the National Police Officer Selection Test and launch a career in law enforcement? The NPOST is more than just a test it’s a comprehensive evaluation of the skills, knowledge, and judgment required to excel as a police officer. Passing it is the first step toward a rewarding career, and the right preparation makes all the difference. This all-in-one NPOST study guide gives you the confidence and competence to succeed.

Are you part of the skilled trades? Whether you’re an HVAC service technician, plumber, electrician, or in any profession that provides essential home services, this book is for you.

The Growth Engine describes the main challenge professional services firms face as they grow and shows how to develop a scalable business development effort, covering everything from CRM systems and metrics around utilization, to service development and expansion, to account planning and cross-selling, to winning new clients, to team structure and roles, and to performance management.

This comprehensive guide is designed to help aspiring and seasoned automotive professionals navigate the entire ASE certification process, specifically focusing on the A1-A9 exams. With a thorough breakdown of essential topics such as engine repair, transmission systems, suspension and steering, brakes, electrical systems, and more, this resource provides a complete roadmap for success.

When should you rebrand your professional services firm, and how do you know if you’re ready? Bold Brand™ is a framework and best-practices approach to help professional services firms identify a niche, position themselves within that niche, and build a compelling brand. In this book, author Josh Miles walks you through a proven process that will show you how to find your niche, position the business, and develop a Bold Brand.

Relationship Sales at Scale™ is the new selling philosophy for our age. It marries the timeless power of tribe-based trust with digitally enabled scale so you can open doors tastefully and convert prospects consistently, all without spamming anyone. Written by Dan Englander, CEO and founder of Sales Schema, the book’s stories, strategies, and hands-on resources are grounded in thousands of outreach campaigns conducted since 2014 to secure opportunities between clients and hard-to-reach prospects, including the leaders of the largest companies on earth.