Apr 11, 2014

In my previous blog post, I spoke about the challenges with selling human services and the need to create opportunities for strong, long-term, mutually beneficial business partnerships. Maybe it’s time for smaller not-for-profit organisations to “step into the shoes” of the private sector and begin thinking like a business facing competing demands on a daily basis in order to survive and grow in the 21^st century market. To gain traction in building these partnerships, it’s important for smaller organisations within the human services sector to be able to demonstrate they share the same drivers. I suspect this is the core reason as to why the larger sector organisations have been so successful. Highly successful salespeople are able to create long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships by doing their homework on the client prior to engaging in any conversation. This knowledge enables them to develop appropriate objectives and establish a business conversation agenda that focuses on the client issues and needs they are able to meet. For those in the human services sector, these conversations could be about business strategies to strengthen an organisation’s reputation and subsequently expand their customer base. This means more money for the business and potentially, a greater share of the community support wallet for smaller human services organisations. So what else are larger corporations doing right that smaller human services organisations can learn from and implement in their everyday practices? In my opinion, these companies are:

• Managing costs to ensure a sound financial return
• Providing quality products and services to their customers
• Developing efficient processes to maximise productivity and
• Building a solid reputation both within their market and in the broader community

If you’re interested in finding out more about relationship building and learning how to engage in sales in a smarter way, I recommend New Horizons’ Smarter Selling® training program. The course is based on the best-selling book Smarter Selling by Keith Dugdale and David Lambert, and teaches participants how to differentiate their sales approach, understand and engage with different types of buyers, communication and more.