Structuring conversations so that prospects buy

How you speak with your clients has a huge influence on the value they place on your services. This determines the level of repeat business you achieve, the referrals you get and the fees you can charge.

Conversations with clients are going to happen anyway, so improving the way you think them through, plan them and carry them out is the most cost-effective way to boost your business and professional results.

Since 1976, Malcolm Sleath has been a consultant and coach working with a wide range of clients ranging from world-renowned consultancies to one-person firms.
Out of this experience came 12boxes, a way for consultants, professionals and experts to influence others in an appropriate way to achieve their business and professional goals.

This interactive session addresses the following issues:

The preparation paradox | It’s a good idea to think through upcoming conversations with clients, but the more you plan in advance the less you may hear what the client is actually saying.
Learn how 12boxes resolves this by providing a clear structure for collecting information and thinking through the issues, either in advance or during an exploratory meeting. Discover how this enables you to focus on the client while you establish a clear link in their mind between how they see their situation and your preferred solution.

The need to shorten the business-development cycle | Some people thrive on making new contacts and getting to know people, but many professionals who sell and do don’t have the time to engage in lengthy relationship-building exercises.
Learn how 12boxes enables you to quickly engage your client in a substantive conversation that helps you to build a relationship they see as valuable. Discover how 12boxes positions you as a trusted adviser and not as a seller.

The need to build credibility without giving away your expertise | Many professionals are rightly proud of their expertise and seek to impress clients with the quality of their solutions. Unfortunately, as soon as the solution is disclosed to the client it loses its value. The client asks, “How long will it take and how much?” without your having an opportunity to assess the true value to the client.
Learn how 12boxes enables you to build credibility and encourages the client to talk about the value of your solution before you have described it in detail or even said what it is. Discover how this transforms the buyer-seller relationship into something much more collaborative before you invest any time in writing proposals and the like.

Obtaining psychological buy-in | In conventional selling approaches people talk about closing. Business development problems are often couched in terms like, “Our people aren’t closing sales”. But although there is always a point where a deal is signed, or an order approved, the seller may not be physically present. There is always another meeting after you leave. Most sales that are not closed have never been opened.
Learn how 12boxes enables you to understand precisely where the client is in the buying process so that you need never write a proposal again without having obtained the commitment of the client in advance. Discover how 12boxes gets you alongside the client so that proposals, feasibility studies and pilots become joint ventures loaded for success.

Before the Coffee Break:

Price by value - Get paid your true worth

09:45 Speaker/ Facilitator: David Winch

Two of the toughest things for non-marketers running their own businesses are setting prices and selling.  Many businesses, especially service businesses, price and sell in ways that leave their customers feeling ripped-off while they feel under-paid. Your business doesn't have to be like that!

David Winch will show you lots of practical ways to break the mould.

He will challenge your thinking on the whole subject of how you set

your prices, and explain his alternative in simple steps.

 

In his talk David will examine the question "Are you getting paid what

you're truly worth?" and will give you the tools to know the answer

and to make that answer a 'Yes'!

 

David will discuss pricing strategy and the four key 'tenets' of value-

based pricing, present strong arguments against traditional pricing

strategies and extol the virtues of a value-based approach.

 

He will show you how you can create a value-based price for your

own services, and he will conclude by giving an overview of his

'Selling Without Selling' sales process.

 

David Winch is an acknowledged UK expert in 'value-based pricing'

and couples this with his own 'Selling Without Selling' sales

technique to create for his clients 'win-win outcomes' where both

parties are delighted that they have got a very fair deal.

 

Over the years he has learned from and got to know many of the

world's experts in the field of value-based pricing, who in turn

acknowledge David as one of the UK experts.

 

Originally David graduated from Cambridge University with a degree

in Engineering and for seven years was a design engineer in

microelectronics hardware.  Then followed a Sales and Marketing

career of over 20 years in high technology suppliers and

manufacturers as well as training companies where he worked in

many parts of the world.  Several years ago David established his

own business providing Marketing and Selling strategic and tactical

advice to individual business owners and their teams in the UK.

 

Outside of business David is a keen oarsman, competing in regattas

and head races with his veterans crew.