Articles

Getting the Services Strategy Right
What is a "best practice" for one organization might be a "worst practice" for another. Thoughtful services leaders think about the appropriateness of practices they adopt based upon two factors: strategic alignment and PSO performance level.

Negotiating Services Giveaways: A Win-Win Approach
By strategically planning your services "giveaways," you can simultaneously achieve the services mission (contributing profitable revenue) while supporting the good of the company (fixing customers’ train wrecks or helping sales land the big deal).

Services Strategy: Four Paths to Greatness
No matter how talented your organization is, if you don’t have the right strategy, you’ll always suffer spotty customer satisfaction, fight problems with morale, and have to live with sub‐par performance. This article will help you improve your services strategy.

The Threat of Services Outsourcing Is Good for Services Organizations
Every services executive should ponder outsourcing and the potential impact on the business. It is too prevalent a practice not to devote some time and effort to its consideration.

Assessing Your Services Organization Quickly and Easily: Four Steps to Optimal Performance, Health, and Growth
Make a yearly organizational assessment part of your ongoing plan. The outcomes will identify needed changes and strengthen relationships with people vital to your success.

Awesome Service Recovery: The Quickest Route to Client Loyalty
If you can discipline yourself and your organization to get past old thinking and procedures regarding client problems, you can use service recovery to gain a unique position in your market place, create client loyalty, and have a bunch of fun doing it.

Eliminating Scope Creep
Put the brakes on lost profitability. Learn the six steps that can prevent your projects from sliding down the slippery slope of more work for the same pay.

Relentless Repeatability
When asked what was the key to mastery, golfer Ben Hogan summed it up in just two words, “relentless repeatability.” The context of his response, of course, was related to a simple, consistent golf swing. Yet here is advice that aligns very nicely to everyone leading a services business.

Services Account Manager: The New Corporate Rock Star
Rock stars are the brand of the band, the go of the show, the keys to the fees. They muster the luster and provide the honey that lures the money. In Corporate Earth, the service account manager is moving to that center stage.

The 4 R's of Service Account Management
The very best service account managers (SAM) are masters of delivering on the 4 R’s: Resolution, Retention, Revenue, and Relationships. Read this article to learn best practices and to take an assessment to compare yourself or your SAM organization to top performers.

The Evolving Role of the Services Account Manager: From Problem Solver to Business Advisor
Service and support organizations looking for ways to optimize performance and strengthen their P&L are now tapping into the hidden potential of SAMs. To reap the many benefits, however, first step is re-defining the role of the SAM and outlining new expectations.

Building a Rock Star Services Account Management Organization
The focus of this article is on the leaders of SAM organizations who want to be the very best. Learn the four practices on how you can lead the transition to a rock star SAM organization.

Charming the Channel
Research reveals that professional services operations’ biggest critical issue is dealing with channel challenges. The “challenge of the channel” requires a strong, well-thought-out approach. This article reveals seven steps to help you find and motivate the right channel partners.

The Guiding Principles of Services Marketing
Principles help to create a philosophical framework in which to operate. Here are nine proven maxims aimed at helping guide the leaders of services marketing.

The Services Marketing Challenge: How to Defy Obstacles and Better Promote Your Offerings
According to recent data, in 28% of organizations, nobody is in charge of services marketing. This alarming statistic supports the corollary: for every services organization, the ability to maintain focus in the marketplace is mandatory for both effective performance today and building competitive advantage in the future.

Selling Skills for the Field Service Engineer
Whatever their title—field service engineer, customer engineer, or services technician—all members of the technical field force can increase their value to their organization by taking an active role in selling.

For Queen and Country: Reducing Services Giveaways
Once your sellers personally see the need for selling services appropriately and have confidence in their services selling capabilities, giving services away will become the exception, not the rule.

Avoiding the Biggest Mistakes in Selling
Effectively selling complex services and solutions requires specialized skills and deep expertise, but achieving competitive advantage and winning more deals may not be as difficult as lots of people think.

Crafting Powerful Proposals
Are you winning new business from 75 percent of your proposals? If not, why not? It might be because you are not applying the fundamental rules of how to craft powerful proposals.

The Secrets of Super Sellers Series - Secret #1: Sell the Whole Shebang
Elite sellers have three things in common: they deliver extraordinary value to their customers, they sell a lot of profitable revenue for their company, and they make a ton of money for themselves. But what makes these sellers super? What differentiates them from the rest of the pack?

The Secrets of Super Sellers Series - Secret #2: Always Start with an Assessment
As a rule, top-performing sellers always recommend/require/sell an assessment as a key event early in their selling cycle. Not only does a well-done, up-front assessment shape the requirements of the larger engagement, it provides numerous benefits.

Communicating Value Is Not Enough: What Elite Sellers Do
Today’s selling game has changed dramatically because buying has changed dramatically, but in many organizations the role (and the competencies) of sellers has lagged. Find out what elite sellers do to create value for customers.

Overcoming Employee Obstacles to Change
Important change is not easy, it takes time, and some people may not like it. However, the oft-spoke truism that people hate change is flat wrong. The key is in knowing how to turn "bad" change into "good" change.

Managing Knowledge Workers
Managing knowledge workers sounds sexy, but it is at least one order of magnitude more challenging than managing either production or service workers. Consultants of the high-technology professional services industry really are a different breed, meaning that some management techniques you may have used successfully in the past might very well work against you in this situation.

Targeting Talent: Strategies and Tactics for Top Performance
Organizations that emphasize talent have superior performance over those that don’t--but not just any talent, the right talent. Learn how to efficiently manage your investment in talent, and how to attract, develop, and retain star performers.

Continue to Learn and Grow: Four Tips to Train and Gain--Without the Pain
Professionals want and need the right knowledge capital. Without leading-edge best practices and skills as part of their knowledgebase, services providers have a difficult time addressing complex client issues and problems. Discover the four building blocks that ensure optimal learning and keep talent onboard.