My fourth commandment of selling services is to commit your high-level executives to action, an absolute necessity for getting serious about services selling. But like so many things, it is easy to understand, yet hard to do. Here is an example of a very powerful way to put this directive into productive action.

A short while ago, I was contacted by the senior vice president of a technology company who was tasked with growing their services business. He related the story of two years of frustration that exemplify what I see so often.

In Year One, the CEO got services religion. He told the organization that selling services, especially selling services contracts, was an absolutely critical, must-do, top priority for the business and that he expected each and every salesperson to sell services every chance they could. I don’t know for certain, but I think he felt that just hearing those words from him was enough to change behavior. However, the results were as expected: very little change and a year wasted.

Year Two, the CEO took positive action by putting a senior member of his team in charge of the initiative, an individual who had solid success leading services within their industry. On his own, this hustling exec went directly to some key customers and sold several deals and demonstrated that it could be done. However, overall the percentage of customers under services contracts was under 30%, well below the desired 70% target the CEO had in mind.

As you’d expect, the CEO’s frustration was growing. The company contracted me to give a keynote speech at their global sales conference to demonstrate the services potential, share relevant examples, provide best practices for selling services, and motivate their salespeople into action. With all modesty, my presentation seemed to connect with the audience, and I believe helped to gain their commitment and increase their motivation to get serious about selling services.

However, one other action taken by the CEO was the prime driver of change: from that day forward, every executive’s bonus was based upon reaching the company’s services goals. It was quite simple, easy to understand, and highly motivational--no services success, no bonus. This organization is well on its way to meeting its services targets.

Is your organization having trouble getting serious about selling services? Try tying your executives’ compensation to services, and you will be happily amazed at what happens.

Tags: selling services, leadership

As savvy politicians and insightful leaders know, there is always a “90-day window” that opens after any significant change. This window is the time frame in which change adoption is the most critical--late enough for individual performers to have some familiarity with the effects of new roles, organization structures, and processes, and early enough so that organizational inertia has not stepped in, blinding individuals to objective evaluation and limiting their openness to the necessary enhancements required of any new effort worth doing. How this “time of correction” is dealt with has a marked effect upon long-term results.



Yet, it’s amazing to see, in situation after situation, this marvelous opportunity wasted on endless meetings on tactics, discussions with no plans, and speeches with no action. Soon the chance to move ahead is twittered away as the window closes, returning the old “way we did it before” behaviors and the mindsets that shape them.

So, adopt the mantra of sea captains of old preparing for an important voyage: “There is not a moment to lose.” Favorable winds can quickly shift direction, and incoming tides always turn to outgoing tides, making navigation difficult or impossible.

When the winds of change blow open the window of opportunity--be ready. Act as if you are facing an outgoing tide, making your every action advance your agenda while you still have the water to make headway. This is the time to lead, not manage; to be bold, not meek; and to move fast, not slow. Your dash and daring will yield confidence and commitment, speeding the voyage to success while keeping your best sailors from jumping ship.

Tags: leadership

“Lazy” almost always has a negative connotation, but for the sake of this article, I am thinking of lazy in the most positive light--the enviable position of having time on your hands to do what you want because of good planning or strong prioritization or smart delegation or practical creativity. One of our “lazy” sons was a master of “getting out of work” in his youth by figuring out the easiest (and often fastest) way to accomplish chores--these are executive traits not to be admonished, but to be admired! Furthermore, a U.S. president was termed lazy (Ronald Reagan), yet many would say that he was one of the most successful presidents (forget about your political leanings) in accomplishing his agenda. With this background in mind, there is something to be said for accomplishing what one wants in eight hours instead of 12. Don’t you think?

Here are a few lessons from lazy leaders that we might all benefit from:

Focus on the Crop, Not the Plow

A natural state of affairs (particularly for those of us who are engineers) is to get caught up in methods and procedures of “how things are done.” This is all well and good when specific projects are necessary to mend procedures, streamline processes, or fix a bad model. You’ll get better results with less effort, however, if you quit micromanaging the tilling and the planting, and just monitor the desired harvest yield. Besides, if you have the right people on your crew, they can do the work better than you anyway. Give your people clear, aggressive goals and the tools to accomplish them. Then get out of the way. This is the first step toward your move to laziness.

Unbridle Your Horses

Every organization (hopefully) has a few stars that you depend on. Let me guess--you reward these top players by assigning them the toughest problems you have. Correct? If so, then you are missing a huge opportunity! To make the biggest gains (and, thus, make your life easier), challenge your mid-level performers to demonstrate their capability by giving them the organization’s problems to fix. Reward your horses by letting them take on the big opportunities that may lead to significant revenue opportunities or create competitive barriers. By doing so, you will unleash their true potential by letting them demonstrate their leadership. In addition, it will free you up for other things--your “one big thing.”

One Big Thing at a Time

Let’s be brutally honest. Except for the occasional genius (e.g., DaVinci, Jefferson), the more things one tries to do, the lower the quality of all attempts. The best organizations limit their critical issues to three, and the best leaders limit their personal focus to one--one area where they can personally contribute the most to their organization, and they stick with this one area for a quarter or for a year…whatever it takes to accomplish it. Then and only then do they take stock, re-evaluate, and come up with one new mission upon which to focus. This is the method of Jack Welch, and he seemed to do OK at GE. This allows you to target all your talents toward what will produce the greatest potential benefit to you, your team, and your organization. It removes the pressure of diversion and the mending and patching that so often occurs with multi-tasking and multi-goaling. A nice reward of this method is time to think and even a little time left over for play.

So learn from lazy leaders by clearing the clutter, delegating your diversions, and targeting your time. You will be very satisfied with the results.

Tags: leadership

"Whistling through the graveyard" ... I love this phrase and wish I could take credit for coining it.* However, I first heard it while interviewing a services executive about how his business operates and the strategic role of services. When I asked him what would happen if there was not dramatic change to his company's business model due to major competitive challenges, his response was, "Well, for the few of us left, it would be like whistling through the graveyard--the business would be dead, and all that would be left are memories of what might have been."

I share this stark but vivid picture with you as a warning signal for all of us who are currently "doing OK," "have things under control," "are meeting our numbers" and so on. If our focus becomes an obsession of doing things better, driving efficiencies, or fine-tuning our plans, we are vulnerable to competitors (both old and new) who don't know the rules of our schoolyard and don't care. If we don't have an eye out, before we know it, the sand might be removed from our box, tag switches to dodge ball, and recess becomes study hall.

Of course, you should strive to streamline your organization, drive efficiencies, and do more with less. But the lesson is that continuous improvement is the opposite of innovation, and innovation is what drives dramatic, positive change and blocks the competitive threats of organizations that want our business.

So don't let your milestones become headstones, dedicate 10 percent of your thinking and your resources to innovation--speculating, scheming, and pondering questions like: "What if we give the product away and really focus on selling services? What would customers do if we send champagne as well as roses after screwing up a project? How about we focus on making our intellectual property our competitive advantage and outsource everything else?"

If you proactively balance your existing model of efficiency with a portion of innovation, you'll not only keep your organization alive, but you’ll be whistling a happy tune.

* I can't remember from whom I heard this. If it was you, please contact me, and I'll give you credit for it in a future article.

Tags: differentiation, selling services, professional services, leadership

“Looking back over my career, I have never made a tough change that I haven’t wished I had made a year or so earlier.” This confession* comes from Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel and a person who has faced a tough problem or two over his career. Just about all of us, when facing tough decisions, can well relate--it is much more inviting to hesitate and procrastinate than make a choice that you just don’t want to deal with.

In retrospect, it is fairly easy (although not always comfortable) to look back upon major decisions and discover that there was plenty of information available early on to justify/confirm/demand the decision. In fact, in almost all cases of importance it is not a lack of cost-benefit justification that slows or stalls big decision making, it is the defenders of the status quo, Fear and Dread.

Here is an example: Think about senior management in a product company (maybe your company) who are faced with overwhelming data supporting the business need to transition from product-centric to services-led. Yet behind these logical facts are lingering feelings of unease that stall moving ahead. Fear is one of those feelings, because the company’s future (and that of the executives) may be at risk if things go wrong. Also, executives may question their ability to lead and their organization’s ability to implement the necessary transition. They probably also feel Dread when anticipating all the hassle (challenging the organizational culture and dealing with individual personalities) involved in bringing about a change of this magnitude. Is it any wonder that more meetings are scheduled and another study is commissioned (good for consultants!)? Often, the logical, required action is delayed for months (or sometimes years). Sadly, what could have been a bold move preempting the competition becomes a desperate reaction to catch up with the field.

A little Fear and Dread are a part of all decisions, but they really become a problem when dealing with those big, complex, gooey issues that have potential for major impact, either good or bad. You may be facing this type of situation right now; so might your prospects as they mull over your professional services proposals.

Here are three things to do to accelerate important decision making:

1. Realize that Fear and Dread will be a part of any major decision, and consider their impact when building your proposals and communications. Be prepared to speak about that which is not often spoken.
2. Face Fear through risk mitigation. Analyze all the potential bad outcomes of the decision and develop actions to eliminate them. Involve key players in the discussion to talk about options to lessen risks. Just stating the issues up front and demonstrating action will greatly lower the underlying fear level.
3. Lessen the hassle factor. Think through all the potential personal negative impacts on the people making the decision. Plan out steps to lessen their hassles and communicate what will be done to make things easier and less personally burdensome. Give examples where these steps have worked.

Tough decisions are, well, tough! Taking too much time to make them just postpones and prolongs the pain. Address Fear and Dread head on to compress the cycle of decision making. In most all cases, fast is better than slow. Have a need for speed.


* Only the Paranoid Survive. Andrew Grove. Doubleday. 1996.

Tags: leadership, differentiation, selling services

Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Churchill. This very rare club of esteemed folks had the ability to “multi-task” and “multi-produce” at an extraordinary level--doing many (and sometimes quite varied) works simultaneously and doing them all brilliantly.

Alas, most of us aren’t members of this elite club, but because of the “do more with less” movement brought about by downsizing and cost-cutting programs, we find ourselves facing a laundry list of goals, projects, and tasks covering a variety of areas--some we are good at, and some we are not as good at. The predictable outcome is less than stellar work and probably some degree of fatigue, flounder, and frustration. (Hey, you don’t even have time to do the things you are good at well!) So you and the organization may be more “efficient,” but you sure aren’t more effective. Here are three tips to minimize the Flounder Factor:

1. The Rule of Three

The vast majority of people (even really smart people) can hold only three goals, or three issues, or three ideas in their mind at one time. That seems to be the maximum. So when you have a rule that holds up, don’t violate it. Limit your organization’s primary goals, critical issues, and top tasks to three--no more. If you can live by this rule, you will see that life becomes much easier.

Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign understood this concept when they developed his slogan, “Serve the People, Save the Planet, Explore the Universe.” Agree or not with the man or his politics, but at least you’d remember his focus! The Rule of Three is also a maxim of good communication--limit your message to three main points, and your power of persuasion will go up dramatically.

2. Separate the Vital Few from the Useful Many*

Now you may say, "Rule 1 sounds good, but I still have to deal with these 26 KBIs I got from the big boss." We understand that this is reality. However, you do have the power to focus on the few--to concentrate your best efforts on the top three that will have the most impact. Rank your goals and tasks, concentrate on the top three, and determine the absolute minimum effort required to meet the bare minimums of the rest. Delegate as many as you can (in the name of developing your people!), and try just forgetting the least important and see what happens. More often than not, no one cares.

3. Before You Giveth, First Taketh Away

Next, think about your people and your role in helping them become more successful. Before adding one more dipper to their overflowing bucket of work, first think through what can be dumped out to make room. Ask them (no, require them) to rank their tasks in consideration of accomplishing their responsibilities, and eliminate any “nice-to-do” items. They will respect your wisdom, appreciate your consideration, and contribute more to the things that truly matter.


*This phrase comes from Joseph Juran, one of the giants of the quality movement.

Tags: leadership, managing technical talent

You gotta give to get…chances are this life principle was engrained into your being from an early age. Societies are created and communities held together by this universal code of humanity. Psychologists call this principle reciprocity--people feel obliged to give back to others who have given to them

Personal Examples

Let me share a personal example. My wife, Jan, and I were invited to dinner at the home of a couple we had recently met. The couple was nice, but not the type of people we wanted to invest the time to cultivate as friends (I hope this doesn’t sound snobby; it isn’t meant that way). However, on the ride home, not ten minutes after saying we didn’t want to expand this relationship, Jan was talking about having them over to dinner, to reciprocate. When I said I wasn’t crazy about it, I felt her anxiety; she (we) had been inculcated from an early age to return favors in kind. It was a hard decision not to reciprocate. Have you had a similar situation?

Here is another personal example I bet you can relate to. Let’s say it is the holiday season and you have sent out all the cards on your list of family and friends. Three days before the holiday you get a card from someone you barely know or a relative you don’t particularly like.* If you are like us, you drop everything, search for another card, fill it out and rush it to the mail. Think about how strong this reciprocity principle is: you drop everything to do a task that by logical definition has no value. If you don’t, it will bother you. This is one strong principle!

Business Impact

The reciprocity principle transcends into the business world as well. Most people first think, “Who can help me here?” Top influencers ask, “Whom can I genuinely help here?” When the other person receives from you something that has personal value without asking, it triggers the need to respond in kind. They will be actively looking for a way to return your kindness. This is a powerful builder of relationships and a great way to influence with integrity.

Personal Business Example

Let me share an example of my own. Whenever I talk to someone whom I feel has an interest in building a better services organization, I ask them if I can give them a copy of my latest book, Seriously Selling Services. No strings attached, they just give me a mailing address and that’s it. The response? People like it! I can hear and feel the tone of the conversation become more positive and more open. Later (and without me asking), I often see that this person has bought more book copies that they give to others in their company. Sometimes I receive a call about speaking, consulting, or training. This is a small investment on my part for such a positive return.

Recommendation

If you want to become better at persuasion, embrace this powerful principle and make it a part of your modus operandi. Before every important conversation, think about what you can provide that the other person will value and do so without being asked and without any strings attached. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Must-Have Resource

The principle of reciprocity, along with other research-based influencing concepts, is explained extremely well in the book by Robert Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice (5th edition). If ethically persuading others is important to you, then this is a must-read.

*Cialdini’s research shows that because of the reciprocity principle people will return holiday cards from people they don’t even know!

If you’re interested in becoming a better influencer, join me in Denver, May 16-17 for Selling Services: Tools and Techniques for Top Performance. This two-day hands-on workshop will help you and your organization sell services easier and faster.

Tags: differentiation, selling services, leadership

This good-looking Great Egret chick :) has lots of potential, but it is up to the parent to nourish, encourage, teach, and support development (pretty much like the job of a manager, don’t you think?)


Just as precious ore has little value unless mined and processed, human potential alone has little value unless seasoned through education and refined through purposeful experience. This was true back in Ben Franklin’s time and resonates even more today with the rise of the knowledge worker. Human potential is a requirement as is employee self-motivation, but it is the managers job, no duty, to transform the ore into the silver of success.

Management has three roles in this wealth-creating process:

1. Enabler. Request/demand that all your people have individual development plans that make sense based upon their abilities and goals. Provide funds for quality training and ongoing learning events.

2. Coach. People rarely do what they say they do. If you want to know, spend time with each employee on the job--out visiting customers observing your sellers and services professionals, sitting and listening to your technical support people on the phone, participating with your marketers as they build portfolios or create branding campaigns.

3. Mentor. Proactively select one or two high-potential employees (no more) and explain your openness to mentoring. Schedule time to help them learn the “how to get things done around here” that isn’t in an employee handbook or knowledge management system.

Doing the above not only improves the performance of your team, but is highly self-satisfying. To make it even more enticing, persuade your management group to embrace this best practice:

Goal and reward managers on the progress and performance of their high-potential employees. I’d recommend these two metrics for everyone who manages people:

• Retention of key employees.
• Number or percentage of high-potential employees that get promoted.

Remember that people really are our most important asset, and delivering on that promise is the prime task of management. How are you doing?

I’d be interested in learning your secrets in developing your people.


*Ben Franklin

Tags: training, managing technical talent, leadership

I am always fascinated about the possibilities of applying concepts successful in one arena to another: What can research scientists and emergency room physicians learn from each other? Do any best practices from successfully running bowling alleys transfer to selling technical services? I don’t know, but it is interesting to ponder.



Hence, when I learned that Austin, our three-and-a-half-year-old grandson was a “Little Ninja” practicing the ancient art of karate, it made me think along those lines. What might a businessperson learn from Ninjas, those covert agents of feudal Japan that specialized in unorthodox warfare? Are their any attitudes or strategies that were effective for them that would be of value to a business executive or software seller?

I knew from history that the traditional Samurai warriors of feudal Japan had a culture of strict rules about honor, and highly detailed, well-established, not-to-be-varied-from rules of engagement. Although potentially quite powerful, they were very slow to move forward and loathe change. Sounds to me like a lot of big, well-established companies don’t you think? :’>>>?

Much fewer in number than the Samurai, the Ninjas knew they could not win against them head-to-head; it would be a disaster. Therefore, they adopted an entirely different approach. Their strategy was not guided by brute strength and regimentation, but by espionage, surprise, and stealth.

Maybe smaller businesses could apply these Ninja concepts to defeat their much larger, seemingly more powerful rivals? As a good researcher, I thought it best to test this hypothesis with an actual practitioner. So I asked Austin what a good Ninja did. His reply was swift, succinct, and insightful, “Papa, move quick and grab tight.” Yes, that was it, in its elegant simplicity!

Are you the leader of a Ninja organization battling a Samurai business for market share? Don’t play their game--you will lose. Don’t commission another traditional market study or call another planning meeting--move quick and grab tight. Use feints (e.g., press releases, rumors, etc., about aligning with other Samurais to defeat your foes) to confuse your competitors about your true aims and stall their reactions. Launch multiple new offerings in niche markets that you know they do not want to invest in, make bold guarantees that their legal departments will never allow. Think different, act different, have fun. Use surprise and tenacity to differentiate...eventually you will dominate.

Tags: leadership, differentiation, selling services

There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal called "Getting Fit without the Pain." Here's the link.

The article talks about how some individuals desiring to make improvements in their fitness are hiring an expert physical therapist before they get hurt, as often occurs in rigorous training. These highly trained professionals conduct a detailed needs assessment before the individual starts training for a marathon or attempting weight loss or whatever, in order to tailor a program best suited for the individual. Taking the time to learn from an expert up front greatly improves the probability of success while minimizing the possibility of injury and pain. Makes sense to me.

Business Leader Impact

I believe there are some things we can learn from this article from a business perspective.

It is easy to jump on the train of Six Sigma or outsourcing or process reengineering. There are many organizations selling one-size-fits-all approaches that force fit a "solution" into your organization, sometimes without stellar results. In my area of focus, services, I often get hired by executives who have already bought into the philosophy of transitioning their services business from free to fee, and have started taking action with minimal impact. The learning here is that what is a best practice for one organization trying to seriously sell services might be a worst practice for another. An industry pundit would know the variables that impact change and help you adjust accordingly.

So my recommendation? Whenever you are considering taking a major initiative, invest in having a qualified expert conduct a readiness review for you. Here you will learn not only your probability of success and the steps to take, but most importantly, the actions to avoid.

Tags: leadership, selling services

Here’s the scenario: Senior management has bought into seriously selling services and wants to get moving on it. When advised by a services expert that selling services is “way different” from selling products and requires special actions to succeed, they respond that they have a good sales force, and a good sales force can sell anything—just tell them what to do and back it up with solid incentives. They decide to kick off this initiative at the annual sales conference. See if this situation strikes a chord:

The Big Boss strides toward the podium and gazes out upon the entire sales force huddled in the banquet hall, awaiting word on the new launch. The Big Boss soberly rolls into the presentation, banging the drum of doom about lackluster performance, the challenges of the marketplace, and the potential wrath of stockholders if things continue as is. The figures formulated by the consulting firm hired to build this case spell out the problems (in PowerPoint, naturally) in cold, hard figures. The message is clear: Sell more, better and faster—
change or die.

But just as quickly, the atmosphere changes. The Big Boss dramatically stops the presentation and smiles broadly at the audience. Then, on cue and as if choreographed by a TV producer (it probably was), the balloons drop and the band begins playing something like “Back in the High Life Again.” (Note that if the meeting is in Las Vegas, live animals come on stage.) Next, animated slides (yes, more PowerPoint) proclaim the dawn of a new era, the Golden Age of “Total Value Solutions” (or something like that—they all sound the
same, don’t they?). TVS, as it is quickly dubbed, will be the touchstone, the compass, the blueprint for trekking the treacherous path from the abyss and leading the company back to its former greatness and beyond. As the four-color glossy listing the new expectations of the sales force and the new compensation program is passed out to everyone in the hall, sellers are asked to stand up and swear their personal allegiance to the “Six Selling Steps to TVS.”

On the outside, the salespeople smile broadly, nod their heads, and quickly start using new TVS catch words, enthusiastically applauding the visionary leadership at the front of the room. Ace Flanagan, the company’s top product seller starts a standing ovation.

On the inside, the salespeople are quickly doing two things. First, they do the math on the new compensation program. Their rough calculations show that even the big percentage spiff on selling services is small potatoes when looking at total compensation. Yes, it would be nice to make a few extra bucks, but it is probably not
worth the effort. Second, they are weighing the seriousness of what is being said. If you meet your product quota, no one will slap your wrist for not making your services number, will they? This is a product company, right? Besides, this looks like just another Program-of-the-Month. The salespeople decide to talk the talk and wave the flag when asked, but keep a low profile and do business as usual. “This too shall pass” becomes their unspoken mantra.

Fast-Forward
As the year goes by, an obviously frustrated senior management continues to beat the drum of TVS, but sales of services hardly improve at all. Extra bonuses are promised, threats are made, but at year-end nothing much has changed, and the promise of selling services is lost. The grandiose launch has been a total failure. Furthermore, senior management has lost some credibility, while the product-is-everything culture has been solidified even more. What was supposed to be a game-changing venture ended up being the Flavor-of-the-Season that sales accurately anticipated.

What went wrong? In a perfect world, all of us in business would behave altruistically, taking care of the customer first, the company second, and finally, our own needs. The business case for seriously selling services is strong. But in reality, that’s not the way it works. Although everyone may cross their heart, swear allegiance, and drink the Kool-Aid at the global kickoff, it will take much more than that to change selling behavior.

Salespeople, indeed all of us, behave in ways within some ethical boundary that maximize personal gain as easily as possible with a minimum of hassle and stress. This is not a question of values, but a fact of life. I know, I know, there are cultural and situational factors that impact the degree to which altruism is practiced, but it is a reality nonetheless.

For example, in organizations that primarily reward sellers on gross sales, sellers are highly motivated to do whatever it takes to sell the product at the possible expense of everything else. So would you if your desired lifestyle depended on it. If they don’t sell services, oh well. If they give away services, big deal. Getting the product sale is the prime consideration. Why should they change? For the good of the services organization?Forget it. For the good of the company? No way!

GIST: If you want to change selling behavior (in this case, selling services and not giving them away), you must address all the factors that impact seller motivation.

Here are some proven best practices of executives that have successfully guided the transition to seriously selling services:

1. Create a sense of urgency. When people are reluctant to do something, they will come up with every excuse imaginable to put it off. Change is time-sensitive, and prolonged hesitation only makes things more difficult. Leadership is needed to trumpet the cause and build the emotional momentum needed to break the status quo and get things rolling. To demonstrate urgency and show your seriousness, initially host highly visible weekly updates on progress. Personally call and write people to ask how it is going. Put this at the top of your to-do list each day. Publicly publish selling services success performance so that everyone can see progress. To emphasize the criticality, publish results versus targets not only quarterly, but monthly, weekly, even daily. Break it down by division, geography, even by salesperson in order to build the necessary momentum of change. Remember that when you are challenging the status quo, fast is better than slow.

2. Tie executive compensation to seriously selling services success. Make seriously selling services a core objective tied to compensation for the entire executive team. Yes, you “get it,” but your executive colleagues may not. These are the same people who achieved their success and power through the very system you are trying to alter dramatically. Remember that it is rare for the ruling class to support the revolutionaries, so the case for change must be seen as the only choice for organizational survival. Everyone will be watching for the slightest wavering at the top to justify stalling or just plain non-compliance, and the best way to prevent this is a one-for-all-and-all-for-one approach to compensation based upon hard numbers and firm time frames.

3. Make heroes out of those who attempt the change. As I’ll discuss in greater detail later, this is a scary change for many people, and you want to look for every opportunity to reinforce their new, seriously selling services behavior, even when the results aren’t as good as you like. Make it a point of singling out those who are doing what you request of them at your weekly feedback sessions. Send them notes and copy everyone, publish their success in internal newsletters and magazines, and give them small incentives to keep them going. Early on, it is the little things that matter.

4. Give zero tolerance for slackers. Here is the scenario: It is year end, and overall you have made good progress with selling services. However, your top seller, Ace Flanagan, has blown the doors off his product quota, doubling his target and selling twice as much product as anyone else. However, Ace didn’t come close to reaching his services quota, ending up at 28%. Your vice president of sales doesn’t want to rock the boat and risk losing Ace, so he suggests business as usual, paying Ace full commission and bonuses.

What a great opportunity! After telling your vice president of sales thanks but no thanks, you have a one-on-one sit down with Ace. First you thank him for his product sales contribution, but then quickly state your major disappointment in his services performance. You confirm that this is the new strategy, it is vital to the company, and that everyone is expected to contribute. You are sorry, but he will not get any bonus, he and his wife will not be going to Bora-Bora as part of the President’s Circle, and if he misses his quota next year, he will be fired.

5. Stay the course. There is a good probability that 90 to 120 days into the transition to seriously selling services that performance will actually go down. If you are doing the right things, giving lots of training, involving people in the process, and allowing for the inevitable lost water-cooler time, overall sales could well drop. Anticipated services sales may not materialize as people try to figure out how to do it, and product sales will drop due to lost time out of the field and the lowered productivity that comes with the deer-in-headlights stare when people are passively aggressive.

Don’t panic! If you give up now you will never get services off the ground and you most likely will never regain your level of past product sales. Suck it up, stand tall, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Tags: differentiation, selling services