How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services

For the past 20 years I have operated a consulting business providing leadership training and coaching and prior to that worked for many years in general management positions in manufacturing operations ... so I have exposure to both sides of this business development process. From my perspective, Tom and Doug have done a great job of capturing the dramatic differences between cultivating new business in professional services vs. sales and marketing in traditional businesses. Their 7-step framework accurately lays out the key elements in a straight forward, easily understood way. Practical application insights and techniques are then provided for each of these steps. Examples and stories scattered throughout make it an enjoyable read. I nodded my head in agreement as I read, so many of these ideas are not new to experienced service providers. But what is new is having these key elements laid out in a clear framework. This book will be particularly helpful to those who are just getting started in professional services ... or to those coaching other service providers in business development. It's also a great reminder for those who may know these things but don't always practice them. In summary, this book does a great job of explaining the keys to successful business development for professional services and then provides a helpful framework with practical suggestions to allow any service provider to implement these concepts. I found it so helpful and useful that I am giving copies to my family and friends who provide professional services. As part of my job, I read a lot of business books and this is one of the most useful I have read.

Over the years, I’ve read quite a few business books about selling one’s wares and finding clients. Each of them have been helpful, on some level, because they have at least a few useful nuggets of information or pearls of wisdom. The trouble is that the key takeaways and guidelines that one wants to get from these books are often lost in a sea of unnecessary information or “filler” that seems to be there just to round out the book. That makes them a bit frustrating to get through. Consequently, I was pleasantly surprised with “How Clients Buy”- a book that I found just by a search on Amazon. It’s a manageable size, which can be read quickly, and most of the text is germane and illustrative of the points being made. The tone that the writers use is (a bit too) friendly, but their information and insights are to-the-point and effective. I’ve been providing professional architectural services for over 30 years, and over that time, I’ve accrued a fair bit of knowledge about how to find and retain clients. But even with that experience, I’ve found that one can get too casual with some of the fundamentals and not be as diligent as one should be in pursuing new clients (or maintaining old ones). This book is a very good reminder of what really matters and what works. I like the fact that the book is geared towards the professional services industries, and that it offers a well-organized approach with a very good set of guidelines and to-do’s for how to focus one’s efforts and be more effective. I found that it’s a very useful read for anyone, like me, who’s trying to build relationships and pursue new business - more so than many other books of its kind that I’ve read to date.

McMakin and Fletcher have written an excellent guide for how consultants can secure clients. They start from the assumption that selling consultant services is different than selling products and that typical sales techniques do not apply here and may be counterproductive. They then explain how client’s buy professional services and steps that are essential to secure the trust that is the foundation of that relationship. They explain the seven elements in a client’s decision journey to purchasing services, and go through each element in detail offering insights and tactics to help you through each step of the process. All their key points are backed up with evidence from interviews they have down with leading professionals in the field, citations from existing literature and research, and their own extensive experience in the industry. The authors note that there is often a feeling among consultants that selling conflicts with professional ethics which puts them at a disadvantage. They debunk the myth that you need to have a sales personality to be successful in this domain and they help you focus your efforts in a way that will improve your chances of success and keep the time invested in business development a manageable part of your business. The book is a pretty easy read, well written, well laid out, and they often make their case with interesting stories of people they interviewed or from history. What I like best about the book is that it is logically organized in a way that makes it easy for you to refer back to points or steps that they have explained. If you are the rainmaker for your firm or aspire to be one, this book is worth your time. My own experience is that even if you are good at promoting services and securing clients, you know that you can always improve and this book offers a systematic approach to do just that.

This is a well-structured and practical book on selling professional services, explored from the viewpoint of how clients buy them. It offers solid arguments why the "selling" approach needs to be different than for products, and what firms can do to improve. The authors effectively lay out the obstacles to selling professional services (and that educational institutions haven’t been teaching these skills). The book lays out a solid framework about the 7 elements of how clients buy (their decision-making process), and how you can address each of those elements most effectively, with lots of useful tips/techniques along the way. For professional service firms, the authors share a nice diagnostic for existing organizations to improve their existing approach.

Books provides a few crumbs of wisdom that I took away but the majority of it can be summed up as “gain knowledge of your craft, do good work, and meet the right people” which is fine but not really worth the amount of pages to get to this point.

This book breaks down the key ingredients for successful sales of professional services. It's not rocket science, and the authors do a great job of synthesizing the important aspects and providing lots of good examples. They even provide a way to rate oneself on each key element. It's very easy and enjoyable to read, and I found it very valuable.

An interesting book, especially for beginners to learn how clients buy For an expert, there is nothing outstanding to learn, except to refresh the skills that are very well explained and formatted

I highly recommend this book if you are looking to add to your business development skills. It is a well-written book that focuses on the unique nature of business development for those of us who are in the consulting/professional services providers, and it provides a great perspective - and great information - on the clients' approach to buying services