 335 Ways to Make Your Professional Services Business Succeed |
| Review Date: June 16, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Michael W. Benidt, Broomfield, Colorado USA |
I'm sorry, but when an author quotes both Yoda and Yogi, they have me. And, when they quote from books I already admire, they keep me reading. Then, if they don't apologize for being themselves, they end up captivating me. Suzi Pomerantz does all of these things in Seal the Deal!: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business.
It didn't start out that way. I don't like reading business books. For me, the worst day with a good mystery novel is better than the best day with a fat business book.
So, I did what I do with most business books. I stalled. Maybe the basement needed cleaning. Perhaps the attic (do we even have an attic?!) needed more insulation. Anything to delay the inevitable.
I'm not proud that it took two hours in the dentist chair to get me to do more than skim Seal the Deal! But, those were the two hours that made it happen. I found what so many business books are lacking. Beyond the content and practical down-to-earth advice, I found principles and values I could admire.
Let's take an example. It's one thing to write this:
"If you picked up this book looking for tips, tricks, gimmicks, magic, secret formulas or other marketing wizardry, you won't find them here. There will be no manipulative or pressure techniques, fear tactics or slick shadiness of any kind. The system in this book is about honor and integrity, genuineness, authenticity and honesty."
It's another to deliver it on every one of the 335 pages of the book.
I started with her self-assessment quiz that pointed right away to my "growth potential" in salesmanship. It's not that I don't want to sell. It's not that I don't know how important selling is for our own professional services business. It's not that I haven't attended tons of sales workshops, listened to endless selling CD's and read other books about selling. Well, whatever it is, let's just say selling is not what I do best.
So, I skipped right to the chapter "Calling Prospects and Setting Up the First Meeting" and then moved on to the following chapter, "Handling Gatekeepers and Objections." The next day, I did 30 sales calls (which, for those of you with a scorecard, is about quintuple my average gross daily production).
Why was I so motivated? Because those two chapters had stuff to underline and extra worksheets and templates at the end of each chapter filled with practical, down-to-earth content. Content, that's the word. Practical stuff I could do right away - not new systems I had to spend time adopting, new software I had to spend time learning or new stuff I had to buy.
And, she supports her own ideas with the best of the best ideas from other people - books, quotations and support materials. For selling, I'd heard it said a number of ways before, but Suzi quoted Sam Horn's line from TongueFu that "a sole proprietor is a sale proprietor," and that a solo practitioner is a sales practitioner. I don't know, maybe it was the Novocain, but it worked for me.
I also felt at home in this book because some of the references were to books and authors I already knew (like Robert Cialdini's Influence and Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz's The Power of Full Engagement) and some of the quotes were from the greatest business thinkers of all time, like Yogi Berra: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else."
In the end, maybe those 30 calls came from Yoda in Star Wars: "Do or not do. There is no `try.'"
In no small part it's the honesty and humility of Suzi's approach. She believes that we all need to be who we are and to learn how to work best with ourselves. What a concept. She must practice what she preaches, because at the beginning of her book, she thanks Felice Wagner for helping her to "shift my own mindset about sales and selling." She's herself. No apologies; no pretence.
Beyond the practical advice, you'll also find deeper, more advanced business theory. For example, in our workshops we talk about Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and how the Internet is changing everything, especially the playing field of competition. That means, today, it's not as much about competition as it is about cooperation. In her book, Suzi puts it this way: "The idea is one of collaboration with competitors, or turning competitors into partners, by building alliances and joint ventures as a business development strategy."
Her theory of how competition can be transformed into cooperation informs her entire relationship networking approach, and she believes every word of it. She told us in an interview, "The give and take of services with other professionals is the very definition of networking." Wow.
The book says coaching is a "$[...] Billion industry and second in growth only to information technology." In such a high-growth industry, it's hard to know who to trust. Read Seal the Deal!: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business. It's integrity from the coaches' corner - on every page. I know; because I'm starting over on Page 1.
Authors Note: This review was first posted on our Hidden Business Treasures of the Internet blog at [...] on April 2, 2007 |
EXCELLENT- easy read- show you how - practical - grow your business tool!
|
| Review Date: February 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Maxine Karchie, Edmonton, AB. Canada |
Ms. Pomerantz quotes many of the greatest business minds and business books of our times. She practises what she preaches and has the proof that it works - her business is booming! This GREAT piece of teaching/reading knowledge is one for you to pick up and share. What an excellent business book to use as a total teaching tool for ourselves, or a sales team or share with your peers. What a refreshing change, especially in these economic times! It's like going to a class, but on your time, with an excellent, learned professor, who wants to share all their knowledge and experiences. A prof that is a lot of fun and can get anything across to you - You know the kind - you just never want to miss their class!
The author starts you off by asessing YOUR needs! Go figure- she actually has you assess your needs, and then helps you help yourself throughout the book! She makes this easy to read piece a way for you, as she shows you PRACTICAL ways to do it, grow and develop in areas of relationship building, sales, contacting people (the dreaded cold calls, which to her are warm and fuzy ones!)administration, collaboration and much, much more, that YOU need to grow your business or your sales structure and teams.
You don't have to go over things you're already good at though, she has it sectioned off in course chapters, so cover just the essentials that you really need to work on, that's also why you need to do the assessment at the beginning, and you can go back and forth between the lessons too!
Ms. Pomerantz delivers the right ways of getting relationships with clients, and even competition, on the right track - collaborating, to get you the positive, long term results we all need, especially in the economic times we are in. I really have to say, this is not just an good book, it's an EXCELLENT Teacher!
Maxine Karchie |
Seal the Deal is an Excellent Resource
|
| Review Date: November 22, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Chuck Berke, Fairfield, Ct United States |
As an Execuitve Coach and Mariage and Family Therapist, I have faced the challenge of building two separate practices. Even after over 12 years of being in both businesses I still sometimes struggle with keeping the pipeline full.
Seal the Deal is exactly the type of book I have been looking for in my quest to become a better marketer and business person. Suzi Pomerantz has a straight forward yet gracious style that cuts through a lot of the nonsense about the best way to market personal services.
Seal the Deal does a terrific job of assisting the reader in understanding what might be getting in the way of making those all important phone calls that lead to the those all important face to face meetings.
Two salient points that the book makes clearly and consistently are essential for anyone to understand if they truly hope to create a thriving, self-sustaining business; 1) Marketing is to a great extent a numbers game; and 2)We all have much more transferable knowledge,skill and experience than we give ourselves credit for. The second point is crucial. It helps the reader surface and deal with the fear of making a call or having a meeting and not feeling like we can make a strong enough case for our own credibility.
For all of us who know we have the "chops" but sometimes hesitate to take the actions necessary to prove it, Seal the Deal is a must read.
|
Great Information Interesting format!
|
| Review Date: November 28, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Sari I. Reis, San Diego, CA. |
I am an Independent Consultant who works with corporate clients in the area of information management. I have read numerous books on selling, marketing,and networking but Suzi's book puts it all together into a user-friendly viable package. Her format of tele-conferencing makes the book very readable and identifies with the fears, reservations, mind-sets and prejuduces we all have in the "Sales" arena. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in growth...both professionally and personally.
Sari Reis (San Diego, CA) |
Great Guidance from Suzi Pomerantz!
|
| Review Date: December 30, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Virginia O'brien, |
| Suzi Pomerantz offers great guidance around networking, marketing and sales in a clever, conversational format that reflects her coaching background. This is a terrific book for professionals who want to start out the new year with an organized and comprehensive approach for building their businesses in 2007! |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.
Leave a Reply