Want to shorten
sales cycle for your professional services? Want pre-sold prospects who need fewer or no face-to-face meetings before hiring you? Create a reputation. Recently a room full of consultants agreed that you had to meet with potential clients at least twice -- better, three times -- before winning business. "Then how do you get business outside area?" someone asked. The consensus: Forget it.
Yet I've been hired by companies in Australia and elsewhere without even phone calls, much less a face-to-face. Like nearly all my most congenial clients, they weren't choosing candidates to compare with one another. They weren't shopping, weren't engaged in a systematic search. If hunting, they stopped when they found me. Or they hadn't thought of spending money on their problem until my reputation gave them idea.
Publishing books, as I've done, is just one way to establish a reputation that pre-sells prospects on what you can do for them. For image consultant Mary Lou Andre of Needham, Massachusetts, a reputation-building tool has been her Web site. In addition to descriptions of her services, her site at http://www.dressingwell.com chronicles media publicity she's received and highlights her approach to fashion through profiles of prominent individuals and corporations that she's helped.
"Last fall I closed a national retail chain that found us on Web and e-mailed us in June," says Andre. "When I told them I was about to give birth, they said they'd wait. In September, they signed contract. We never met face to face! They modeled entire project after work I did for Bose Corporation, which is featured on our Web site. I firmly believe our reputation (and Web site) closed deal."
