Work Winning Ways (Gary Williams)

This week we have a fascinating interview with Pat Sweet of the Engineering and Leadership podcast. Pat has some great insights on what it takes to successfully lead professional services firms and his thoughts are likely to remind, reassure and reveal in equal measures! If you are in a leadership position or aspire to be, this is a great listen.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Engineers can do pretty much anything if you give them enough time and money. But you're not going to do that so there has to be a defined mission, and that clarity has to come from a leadership role.
• People in engineering often get moved into a management role as a ‘next step in career progression' instead of actually possessing people leading and management skills.
• A diversity in a team isn't' just about who we are, it's about creating diversity of thought.
• Addressing recently bias is something you need to be aware of, especially when it comes to remote working and those people who are remote missing out on opportunity.
• One of the best things a leader can do is demonstrate that's it's okay to be vulnerable. That allows teams to open up and pitch those ideas that could be kept quiet by a bad leader.
• A leader ought to be excited about leading, not just for leadings sake, but because they recognise the value they can provide the team and that they can enable the team to do what it does best.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

‘As leaders we're so risk averse that clouds us from perusing interesting opportunities'

‘Good leaders leave their ego at the door'

‘If you're the hero and everyone relies on you, then what's the organisation for?'

‘Decision making improves when you have diversity of thought, and diversity of thought comes when you have a diversity of backgrounds.'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Pat Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, CSEP, PMP is an experienced engineering leader, project manager, product manager, writer, speaker, and coach. His mission is to help technical organizations thrive. You can find a link to his podcast ‘Engineering and Leadership' below.

twitter.com/engileader

engineeringandleadership.com

tandemconsultingco.lpages.co/el-leadership-101-for-engineers

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you make your business proposals stand out and stick in your clients minds? This week on Work Winning Ways Gary brings you a module from the Questas Academy hosted by Richard Williams all about winning your bid. Listen in to this recording of the live seminar and don't forget to sign up for the Questas Academy in the link below. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The first thing you need to do on day one of your bid is to read the question. Are you actually able to bid on this project? Does the timescale work for you? Are you sure you're the right fit? Because if you're not the right fit then you're just wasting time. 
• The second most important thing is to set a winning bid strategy. Think, how do we deliver the best bid in the time we have, and how do I best position myself to win the bid. 
• Structure that proposal document appropriately for that bid. Make it look great and bea easy to read. 
• Use everything you can through writing that brief to make it clear to the client that you are the obvious choice. 
• Be very clear about the objectives, who is handling it, and when it needs to be done by. 
• Get people involved early on, don't leave it until half way through the bid to get input from the people who will be involved. 
• The RFP tells you what the client wants, you have to answer those questions. There are always other things that matter to the client. Understanding what really matters to them can help win a bid. 
• Have an executive summary on page one of your proposal. 
• Start with you talking about the problem they have, this shows that you understand it. Then tell them the things that you will do to solve their problem and exactly how you will go about it. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Just like on an exam, read and re-read the question' 

‘Treat your bid like you would a project' 

‘More words is not necessarily better' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 
Questas Academy

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a fascinating interview with someone who has worked in the Middle East for more than 10 years. Gurminder shares some insights about winning work in the region as well as busting some myths about how the building industry works. If you work in the built environment in the Middle East or are planning to, this is for you!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You may think that there is a big cultural difference in business in the Middle East as opposed to the UK. Yes there are differences, but at the end of the day we are all people and we use the skills we've developed to find that common ground. 
• In the Middle East the pace of planning in the built world is so much quicker than the UK. There isn't as much red tape and there is an ambition to grow and expand. For example Dubai wants to be twice the size it is now by 2040. 
• You will often find that in the Middle East there is a lot of communication and decision making between the top of your organisation and the ruling body of the country. You are essentially closer to the ultimate business decision maker and they are closer to the front line. 
• There is a desire from the clients to gain an access all areas relationship with your business. 
• Because workers move in and out of the country relatively regularly, people understand the importance of having multiple strong relationships across the business. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘You have to put yourself in the right position to take advantage of opportunities' 

‘Strong relationships build on a sold trust will come back to reward you' 

‘Let's not make this more complicated than it is, it's all about relationships' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy
Gurminder on LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this first episode, Gary is joined by Terence Ritchie, a Partner at EMW Law. Terence is a real estate lawyer who knows that relationships and delivering a great client experience are the keys to winning and keeping clients in a very busy market. Their conversation covers a number of areas including the impact of the pandemic on client relationships and business development, what it takes for (very) reluctant sellers to get motivated and how Terence sees the future.

Listen in today for a genuine episode where Gary and Terence talk openly about their unique perspectives, ideas and challenges.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The multiple lockdowns and restrictions the pandemic imposed created a unique set of challenges for each sector and each business. Terence found he and his company had to adapt how they dealt with clients, especially in regards to sales and communication. It resulted in them learning to support clients in new ways building stronger relationships, bespoke support and ultimately more value for their clients.
  
  
• It can be such an eye opener to clients to see the people working for them, especially in a sector such as law, as someone other than what they ‘do' for them formally. By creating a different dynamic with clients, Terence was able to gain trust and rapport in new ways, the feedback he and the company received from their clients was extremely positive and meant they saw them as individuals and people not just as their lawyers.
  
  
• Lockdowns have suited some people, particularly those who enjoy working from home or have an introverted personality. Many extroverts will have struggled with energy levels as they haven't been able to interact with people in the usual ways. Lockdowns have also meant you do not get the same ‘water cooler moments' which are not just a way for employees to build relationships but are also often a unique way problems get solved and ideas get created.
  
  
• Mental health in the workplace is still a difficult thing to get right. The important thing is often looking out for signs that someone might need a bit of help, support or simply just a chat. One of the overlooked challenges with the pandemic is not having the opportunity to see and notice when others are struggling.

BEST MOMENTS

“When you are in a client facing role, you assume you are going to have the ability to see clients”

“That's humanised a lot of what we do and that's a good thing”

“You almost have to manufacture a reason to talk to a colleague”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://questas.co.uk/the-most-effective-attributes-of-a-key-client-manager/

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Terence Ritchie - Partner EMW Law

https://www.emwllp.com/meet-us/

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Gary is joined by Amanda Geyman - Director of Strategic Growth for WSP UK. Their conversation covers a lot of ground from lockdown challenges to Amanda's take on best practice business development in the Engineering Consultancy industry.

An insightful episode that explores client management, incorporating both the positive and negative impact of the pandemic and how differentiating yourself and your business will creating lasting success.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When you are under pressure it is even more important that you are focused and target your energy on things of particular importance to the business. This was no more prevalent than in Amanda's workplace during the pandemic.
  
  
• Empathy and understanding of clients and their own personal difficulties through the pandemic was of key importance for Amanda and her team. Being able to check in and show some extra support and care through this time.
  
  
• One of the positives of the pandemic is that it drove technology and virtual capabilities forward. This meant that Amanda and her team focused heavily on building and supporting their virtual coaching platforms – ultimately resulting in them now being able to reach and engage with more clients.
  
  
• Most businesses are working in a completely different way to how they were operating pre-pandemic. With the UK Covid restrictions being lifted, many companies are still being cautious, but Amanda believes that human connection is so vital in business and extremely important to the human experience so it's imperative we remember that.
  
  
• Sometimes virtual meetings and calls can become very task focused. Which means you can lose the time and mind space to be spontaneous and creative.
  
  
• There are a lot of myths and misconceptions around what it takes to be a good sales person. Amanda believes that taking an interest in your client, truly listening, asking the right questions and delivering on your promises is what actually makes you a good salesperson.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

“You have to dial up your ability and your flexibility”

“It fast-tracked a lot of things for a lot of people in order to be able to do business”

“Spending time with people in person develops trust”

“There's this misperception of what selling is…that it's something done by extroverted people who loves going to networking events and talking to strangers”

“Most clients don't want to be sold to, that want to talk to people who get what their situation is”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://questas.co.uk/unnatural-salespeople-are-secret-weapon-winning-work/

https://questas.co.uk/four-ways-to-get-out-of-your-comfort-zone-and-be-the-catalyst-to-growth/

https://questas.co.uk/business-development-meetings-training/

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Amanda Geyman - Director, Strategic Growth

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am very pleased to speak to Frank Lippert - one half of the PSM (Professional Services Marketing) Podcast. Frank is based in Sacramento California and in our discussion we were looking for the differences in marketing and business development between the UK and US. So far, it seems that there really aren't too many differences but Frank speaks very eloquently about the RIGHT way to do business and how to win and maintain clients. There are some interesting differences depending on which state you're in but by and large, we agreed that being genuine, caring and curious are your best friends in work winning!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There is a problem with the lack of talent coming through the pipeline in the professional services space. There is especially a gap of people with between 5 and 20 years experience. 
• All the magic in marketing actually happens in delivering the project in the mannar the client wants. How did you make the client feel while working together? The word of mouth you receive from doing that is better than any marketing you can do yourself. 
• What differentiates you from your competitors is the experience that your customers can have with you on a consistent basis. If you have that then you'll have the edge in the market. 
• You will find different ways of doing business all over the world, but you also find different ways of doing business within the same country. For example In the Southern United States, there's going to be some chat and conversation before the business talk, whereas in other places, if the meeting starts at 11am, then you start talking business at 11am. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Often the biggest client, isn't the most profitable one' 

‘If you deliver the project well, your clients will talk about it, that's the marketing' 

‘Meetings with clients are a bit like a first date' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy
PSM Podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Gary speaks with Nigel Clark, who is currently leading Marketing globally for SLR Consulting - an international leader of environmental and advisory solutions helping clients of all shapes and size achieve their sustainability goals. He is an experienced strategy, marketing, communications and client development leader.

Nigel has a wealth of experience and holds nothing back in this episode, sharing thoughts and ideas relevant to anyone in the professional services sector.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In Nigel's world of consulting, it is common practice for most time and effort to be spent ahead of a bid for a job. It can be an extremely competitive process, even if you have a pre-existing relationship with the client.
  
  
• SLR Consulting have a formal client programme, they think about specific clients they want to develop a relationship with and try to make this a two-way process. They then have set people in the team who are designated to client relationship management, ensuring they are confident and comfortable in what they are doing.
  
  
• It can be useful in larger companies or bigger projects to have dedicated salespeople. These would still be people with a technical background as they need to have context and an understanding of the clients' needs, but it would mean other individuals would then focus on specialising on delivering different aspects of the project.
  
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

“The vast majority of our time and effort is ahead of bid not after the bid”

“You can't expect somebody to sell and deliver that type of project”

“I'm very confident at saying I'm not the person you need to speak to and develop this but I have a colleague that can”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://questas.co.uk/cross-selling-how-to-achieve-growth-by-cross-selling-in-professional-services/

https://questas.co.uk/e-learning/

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Nigel Clark - Global Marketing Director, SLR Consulting

Currently leading Marketing globally for SLR Consulting - an international leader of environmental and advisory solutions helping clients of all shapes and size achieve their sustainability goals.

He is an experienced strategy, marketing, communications and client development leader, in particular in the professional services sector having led teams in both strategic and operational roles in financial services, management consulting, legal, environmental, business services and engineering firms. He is also a course director and marketing tutor with Cambridge Marketing College, the UK's leading provider of accredited marketing courses, qualifications and apprenticeships, and a non-executive director of the Professional Services Marketing Group (PSMG).

Nigel is the editor and author of the 'Professional Services Marketing Handbook: How to build relationships, grow your firm and become a client champion' , published by Kogan Page April 2015 and also one of the authors of the 'Professional Services Leadership Handbook' published by Kogan Page in August 2017.

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Create, Convert, Retain, Gary is joined by Paul Adams of The Project Centre, a professional design consultancy, focused on civil engineering, transport planning, and landscape design for the public sector. Join the conversation about what sales skills you need in professional services and how they differ from other sales-based roles. Also, find out the difference between the tangible and intangible services.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Professional services is all about getting repeat business. Customer care and trust are so important. It's not just a sell them as much as you can and get out of there scenario.
• The customer experience is becoming more and more important for winning repeat business. What is the journey of your client? Are you helping them move through the process smoothly with good results?
• It's seven times easier to get business from an existing customer than a new one and a lot cheaper too. Not just in terms of cost but in terms of time.
• Take into account social value and meaningful social value. For example, are you giving work experience? These things can work their way back up the chain.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Clients are buying into you, you need to build trust with them'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Paul Adams on LinkedIn

ABOUT THE HOST 

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

“Project Centre are a professional design consultancy, transport planning, civil engineering and landscape design consultancy. Most of their clients are public sector, mainly local authorities. In this interview Paul has some great insights into what works in terms of selling to public sector clients and what is vital to keep hold of them and turn them into long-term profitable relationships.”

CONTACT METHOD
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode looks at the inevitability of difficult conversations happening with clients and how we manage them so as not to damage (and even improve) relationships. In this episode, Gary has an EASY chat with his Questas colleague Paul Brady about what to do when the temperature rises in conversations and how we dissipate the heat. As ever there's plenty of practical tools and ideas for you to use in your next difficult conversation!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Difficult conversations with clients can come about for two reasons. It could be the rational, such as scope creep, delivering bad news, a negotiation around finance, team issues. Those sorts of things are fairly typical and make sense for it being a difficult conversation with a client. Then it could be a more personal or irrational reason less based around work. 
• There are three triggers that can be the cause of the irrational difficult conversations. These three triggers are, truth, relationship, and identity. 
• When you notice that someone has been triggered, your aim is to dissipate the heat. Allow people to vent and don't interrupt, let them get it off their chest. Then you have to reflect back to them what their concerns are, without putting your own inflection on it. It's not agreeing, just acknowledging that you have understood and heard them. 
• If you can deal with the three E's, explanation, expectation, and engagement, then you will be able to manage a difficult client conversation much better. 
• Having the right conversations pre project can help reduce the number of difficult conversations in the future. That in itself can be a difficult conversation but one to reduce any future ones. 
• Depersonalise things, it's not about the people, it's the situation. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It's inevitable that there will be difficult client conversations, but you need to manage them and mitigate the impact'

‘Things always go wrong and we always remain surprised'

‘Great meetings are build upon rapport rather than negotiation' 

‘Once we've got the heat out, we're back in rational conversation land' 

‘You can be a sponge but you can't be a punchbag' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy

questas.co.uk/difficult-client-conversations

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ziba Goddard is a behavioural scientist and Chief Consulting Officer at Cowry Consulting and joins Gary Williams on this episode of Work Winning Ways. Ziba specialises in human behaviour and how we make decisions. If you've ever heard of Nudge Theory and wonder why we make the decisions we make particularly in the context of buying, this is for you!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• People are wired to make snap judgements and rarely are making decisions based on having all of the information available. Thinking is often less rational than people would assume. 
• Nudge Theory is the idea of using encouragement or suggestions to change people's behaviour while still giving them freedom to make their own decisions. For example governments have used this recently to encourage people to socially distance during the pandemic. 
• We have two systems of thinking, the cerebellum based thinking, which is subconscious and primal. Then there's the prefrontal cortex that allows us as humans to deduct and reason and use language. Think of them as the Homer Simpson brain and the Dr Spock brain. 
• 90% of our decisions come from our Homer Simpson brain. 
• There is a toolkit of around 200 shortcuts that scientists use to connect directly to our primal thinking. 
• Ziba has done some work with construction companies to increase health and safety. After 4 days on site observing, Ziba's team painted the canteen area a shade of pink that essentially has a calming effect and reduced the amount of people taking risks. She also changed the card system used for keeping track of safety to one of reward rather than punishment. This reduced unsafe behaviours by 85% at this site. 
• reframing sales to a personal relationship makes it easier for sellers. It's not about using clients to achieve goals, it's about forming a bond and doing a favour for one another. 
• We have an inherent bias towards those people we think are specialists, for example we trust doctors with stethoscopes around their necks more than doctors without one. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘People aren't rational and don't have perfect knowledge' 

‘We don't want people on building sites thinking quickly' 

‘The key to sales is relationships' 

‘When people are credible enough and show a weakness, we like them more'

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy
More about Ziba Goddard

ABOUT THE GUEST 

Following an undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology and a Masters in Clinical Psychology, Ziba was drawn to business and spent time working in organisational effectiveness at Bank of New York Mellon.

Ziba is Chief Consulting Officer at Cowry and leads the client 'Pilots and Programmes' within the business. Ziba spends the majority of her time identifying the cognitive friction in the current customer journeys to help inform the creative process within Cowry at the key Design stage.

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Create, Convert, Retain, Gary is joined by Claire Gott MBE, Head of Industry and Corporate Social Responsibility at WSP in the UK. Join the discussion on how to encourage your technical staff to engage better with clients. How to win and keep business. Also hear about how Claire helped found the engineering charity, Cameroon Catalyst.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When working with very technically adept staff it can be a challenge to get them to connect with clients in the way you need. Strong relationship building skills aren't often found in highly skilled workers. So how do you encourage them to connect with clients. Claire is an advocator of nudge theory. Encouraging and developing very small tweaks that will make your staff more confident when talking with clients.
• Another way Claire tackles this is to pair up tech experts with a more sales focused team member. Then in each meeting between you and your clients you have a tag team ready to deal with any issue that comes up. Having adiversityof skills looks after both the client needs and tech solutions.
• The importance of repeat business is often overlooked in favour of chasing nclients and new leads. If you're getting more business from your existing client base who you have already worked with and built a relationship with, then there is no need to spend time on bids that may not come off.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS 

‘We strive to be a trusted advisor to our clients'

‘The client often knows what you can do technically, but in order for you to differentiate, they need to know that you know them'

‘Take the time to follow up on opportunities'

‘Diversity of thought when working in a team can lead to new ideas'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Claire's Linkedin

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

As UK Head of Industry, Claire leads a 100 strong team in their work across the pharmaceuticals, life sciences, biotech, gas networks, hydrogen and CCUS, chemicals, food and beverage sectors.

In previous roles she specialised in managing multi-disciplinary design teams on major infrastructure projects. Claire has worked on a number of high-profile projects including the High Speed 2 stations at Birmingham Curzon Street and Euston, the £790m London Bridge Station redevelopment project and the Paddington Cube. She feels strongly about building diversity in the engineering and construction industries and represent the next generation as a board member of the Major Projects Association. Claire is also passionate about making positive sustainable change through her role as UK Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at WSP.

In 2009 Claire played a founding role in independent charity Cameroon Catalyst – which aims to facilitate sustainable development in rural Cameroon. In 2015, she was awarded an MBE in recognition for her “Services to civil engineering and international charity work".

CONTACT METHOD

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do we win the right kind of work from the right kinds of clients? This week on Work Winning Ways, Gary brings you an episode from a series of webinars about how you can master the client experience. Find out how you can win over clients, build and maintain relationships, the importance of leaders, and how to turn your clients into advocates for your services business. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It's five times easier to win work from existing clients than new ones. Your cost of sale is so much lower too with no need to spend on marketing. 
• A happy client who is well looked after becomes a powerful marketing tool, they become an advocate for us and word of mouth holds a lot of power. 
• It takes up to twelve positive experiences to make up for one negative one. 
• Communication and feedback on the communication is really one of the keys of building a good client relationship. 
• NPS = Net Promoter Score, essentially how likely your client is to recommend you for the services you have provided. 
• People always say “under promise, over deliver”, but what is more important, is doing what you say you will do. Over delivering is not always possible every time. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Client experience is the next competitive battleground' 

‘Experience is as important as the product or service' 

‘Leaders set the tone for all of us' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy

Amy Edmondson - The Fearless Organisation: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

Amy Edmondson & Jean-François Harvey - Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the world of professional services and engineering consultancy services, cross selling is the Holy Grail. Organisations think it's easy, but in this episode of Work Winning Ways, you'll find out why it's very difficult. Join Gary Williams as he discusses why cross selling is important, how it's done, and what are the obstacles to overcome. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In so many jobs you need to be able to encourage, motivate, and persuade clients to work with you and influence others to do so. Word of mouth is one of the best tools at your disposal. 
• 80% of your clients buy 20% of the products you sell. 
• It's 6 times cheaper to sell to existing clients then try to find new ones. 
• Don't push a hard sell for products and services your client or prospective client doesn't need. It will essentially just annoy them at the end of the day. 
• Start with ‘why'. Why does your client want your service in the first place. It has to help them with an objective or goal, if there is no strong ‘why' then the client is unlikely to buy multiple products from you. 
• You have to show added value to convince the client to put more eggs in your basket. Why should they choose you over other service providers?
• Being a trusted advisor means that you have the competence, but this is just one aspect. The other aspects are knowing how your client likes to work, you also need knowledge of their world, and finally having a genuine interest in them, their objectives and challenges.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

‘Bad cross selling is the kind that makes our clients cross' 

‘How is about being proactive and curious' 

‘You need to build a bank of good deeds for it to be reciprocated'

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy

Start With Why

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode Gary speaks to Mark Anders, who is an Operations and Framework Director at Mace. Mark tells a great story about how he came to be doing what he does today (you would never guess!). He shares his many years experience in managing Client Frameworks and offers some sage advice on how to get the most out of the client and, importantly, how to win more than your fair share of the pie!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Mark thinks the most economic way of bringing in services is not to go out to the open market every time, it's to build a framework of businesses who meet a certain set of criteria. This way you will only have to do your research on them once, you get a high level contractor,  and it will save you time and money. 
• The key part of your engagement on the framework is that it lets you know more about the client and what the client needs. The old question ‘what keeps you awake at night' is more relevant than ever. 
• Frameworks allow you to learn and understand what direction the client wants to head in and what the future looks like for them. Be part of framework management and have those community meetings where they discuss what their buying power is. 
• You can also use a framework to understand buying habits. You can gain tangible added value by observing and understanding the scope and feeding that information back to the client. 
• If you can not just meet and deliver on client expectations, but exceed them, then that client is going to try and bring you back. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Save yourself the time and energy and go to that supplier' 

‘As a client it's about how risk averse you are' 

‘You don't just say what you're going to say, you do what you're going to do' 

‘You have two ears and one mouth and should use them in that proportion'

EPISODE RESOURCES 
Questas Academy

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Williams of Questas chats to Mark Carpenter of Master Storytelling to discuss how humans relate to stories and how they are a vital component to sales and selling.  Mark shares some fantastic tips on how to structure stories to make your sales pitches stand out.

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Work Winning Ways, host Gary Williams of Questas discusses the evolution of the work winning employee and what your client wants from them. Also hear all about what it takes to become a trusted advisor, and just as importantly, how to keep being one.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Clients are becoming more and more demanding. You have to add good commercial acumen, understanding what the client wants to achieve. They also want you to show that you understand the world in which they work.
• The differentiator in winning work can often be a grasp of the things that affect the clients environment and the ability to talk in their language with the terms they use.
• Under promise and over deliver. If you're saying what the client wants to hear and over promising, then if you don't deliver, trust is broken. Expectation management is crucial.
• Clients will also expect you to manage them. Do you make their life and their job easier?
• Be proactive about meeting client's needs. To be proactive you need to know your client and what they will need and when. You will also need to know what they need but haven't asked for yet. 

BEST MOMENTS 

‘You need the ability to talk in the client's language'

‘Projects happen through people'

‘10 pm is not close of business, it's Monday morning'

EPISODE RESOURCES

Questas Academy

The Trusted Advisor

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas

https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, Gary speaks to Ed McCann, a Director at Expedition Engineering and the current Senior Vice President (President elect) of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Ed initially joined Expedition Engineering in 2002 where he has been the Project Director for many projects including the multi award winning Infinity Bridge and the Olympic 2012 Velodrome. Ed was instrumental in the growth and development of Expedition from a “back bedroom start-up” to Building Magazine's Engineering Consultant of the Year in 2012.

In 2009, Ed co-founded the Useful Simple Trust and gifted his shareholding in Expedition to the Trust for the benefit of the employees. In this episode, Gary and Ed discuss Ed's take on client management, the impact of lockdowns (not all negative!) and his view of the industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The pandemic has created many challenges for many people and businesses alike. Ed and his company thankfully found it quite simple and easy to switch everything on the client management side online. In a lot of instances, it was easier to arrange ongoing client relationships. They could touch bases more frequently and more meaningfully.
  
  
• Technology means that having a physical office for a business is optional. This has been the case for a few years but one the big impacts of the pandemic is that it has sped this process up a lot; many people are happy and comfortable working remotely now. Ed and his teams have been able to problem solve many of challenges with working remotely and are in no rush to get back to the office. There are certainly a lot of positives to working in this way!
  
  
• Ed and his company focus on staying small. This is because they value the level of service they can give to clients as a small operation. They don't want to lose any of this speciality by growing too big.
  
  
• The industries that Ed is in can sometimes have a bit of a regressive view in terms of client management, especially in regards to how business is conducted outside of the office. This can have an impact on gender diversity for those working in the industries. However, Ed has found that the clients he works with couldn't be further from this, they aren't interested in ‘boozy nights' etc and it's this that allows a lot more gender diversity in his team; the women he works with feel respected and valued.

BEST MOMENTS

“90+% of your activities are about maintaining client relationships not about new relationships”

“The office is an option”

“Nothing wins like success”

“Sometimes it's about chemistry not capability”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://questas.co.uk/business-development-engineer-firms-post-pandemic/

https://questas.co.uk/client-account-planning-free-resource/

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ed McCann - Director, Expedition Engineering

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People don't go to work to feel impotent, they thrive when they are doing what energises them! Gary speaks with Nathan Ott, co-creator of the GC Index - an organimetric tool that identifies people's preferences and allows them and the organisations for whom they work to thrive. 

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Create, Convert, Retain, Gary shares insights on what Questas does for companies, how the podcast name came about, and why it is so important for client services. This is a real deep dive into everything Gary does in his day to day working life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everybody within the company should fully understand the ‘why' of the business. Why does the company exist, and why their role helps fulfil that.
• Reputation building is about being clear about your purpose, understanding your marketplace, and making enough noise so that your target market is aware of you.
• Only 3% of our market is ready to buy at any one time. That means the sales people need thick skin because they're going to get a lot of nos. Opportunities can come from well-built relationships that have been developed by everyone in the company.
• Retaining existing business costs nothing to your marketing budget. Chasing down new leads consumes time and resources. Having a good connection with existing clients and understanding what they will need and when they will need it can create new opportunities.
• Create, convert, and retain.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS 

‘Marketing is about bringing people to our table'

‘Are you problem aware?'

‘One of the most important reasons a client is attracted to a bid is because they understood us and what we need'

‘Inform, Investigate, and Inspire'

 VALUABLE RESOURCES

 Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action - Ted Talk

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

CONTACT METHOD

http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today Gary is delighted to be joined by Alison J Coates, founder member of Re\vo, she is a GENOS certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner and Life Coach, holding a MA in Industrial Psychology. Alison has 25 years of experience in business change management consultancy and project management, which contributes to Re\vo's mission to collaborate with and build teams of professionals that use outcomes-driven methods of coaching and learning to create impactful results and inspire sustainable progress. 

Throughout the episode, Gary and Alison explore the world of emotional intelligence and the impact it has on business development, sales and training.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Alison runs a suite of different programmes to assess and help businesses and their employees with emotional intelligence. After assessing clients/employees they then offer coaching, both one on one and in group settings and training.
  
  
• The clients and people Gary works with generally have a skill based profession and mindset. As they have progressed in their careers they have then had to try and learn how to sell to work with clients and it is this that can often be overwhelming and scary. Alison believes having the confidence to make intelligent emotional decisions, especially considering other peoples perspectives, can help with this overwhelm.
  
  
• Somebody who is good at selling is usually just someone who is good at listening. It doesn't matter your background or skills, if you can listen and build relationships then you can sell.
  
  
• Listening is a skill that can be learnt and can be improved and perfected. There are varying ways to do this, Alison's favourite way is to recognise and own our own distractions, one way to do this is to try and to maintain eye contact when the other person is speaking.
  
  
• Having an awareness of self is the first building block to emotional intelligence.
  
  
• There is a common myth that to be a good salesperson you need to be an extrovert. This is simply not the case. Often introverts have a high level of authenticity and emotional intelligence – both great skills for selling.

BEST MOMENTS

“When we understand that our emotions drive our decisions and our performance we can reverse engineer them to really start to appreciate how important emotions are in any decision-making process”

“Asking a good question demonstrates your level of credibility”

“Trust builds from vulnerability”

VALUABLE RESOURCES
www.revoconsultant.com 

https://questas.co.uk/six-ways-to-use-eq-or-emotional-intelligence-to-win-more-work/

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Alison Coates - Emotional Intelligence expert

alison@revoconsultant.com 
www.revoconsultant.com 

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Business development and client relation management is part of a trinity with leadership and management. That's the glue that holds organisations together that Gary will be discussing this week on Work Winning Ways. Find out why training in business development and client management doesn't work unless you have well trained leaders. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• People aren't prepared to say within an organisation where either they're fearful about what is required of them or that they're not heard. Businesses need to have psychological safety to retain good team members. You should have an environment that encourages people's ideas to be listened to and given due consideration. 
• The introverts among us are happy to not contribute, despite possibly having some good ideas in their heads. A good leader would be able to get those ideas out of those people and encourage thinking diversity. 
• The SCARF Model was developed in 2008 by David Rock, in his paper "SCARF: A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating With and Influencing Others." SCARF stands for the five key "domains" that influence our behaviour in social situations. These are:
• Status – our relative importance to others.
• Certainty – our ability to predict the future.
• Autonomy – our sense of control over events.
• Relatedness – how safe we feel with others.
• Fairness – how fair we perceive the exchanges between people to be.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The client is at the heart of everything we do' 

‘There are a lot of people at a junior level who can contribute to how things develop but aren't given a platform' 

EPISODE RESOURCES 

Questas Academy

David Rock - The SCARF Model

Amy Edmonson - The Fearless Organisation

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk
Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Working Winning Ways is the new name for the podcast and for this shake-up Gary has a fantastic interview with Edd Stone of The Technology Partnership. Hear all about how Edd works with, understands, and builds strong relationships with people that can last over an entire career spanning different companies.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Relationships in business development are very important and should be nurtured over long periods of time. Many of their clients didn't predict that they would need work with The Technology Partnership again, but because those connections were there then the choice of who to go with was easy.
• It's the people who are trying to solve the problems within organisations who are the ones who will come to us to help them solve it no matter which business they're working for.
• You shouldn't assume you know what is best for a client at a particular time. You need to really listen to their needs and understand the nature of the problem in front of you. To do that you need to recruit great communicators who can make sure you're on the same page.
• Hard technical things are very rarely a solo endeavour, they require lots of people from different backgrounds to work together.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Cambridge is a low-risk place to do risky things'

‘At the end of the day it's got to hinge on commercial viability'

‘That curiosity is an aspect of being a great business developer'

ABOUT THE GUEST

Edd Stone:

“Cell and gene therapies have shown the ability to cure some of the most terrible diseases. I am passionate about finding ways to get these treatments to more patients by revolutionizing how we manufacture them.

For over 15 years, I have been fortunate to work with some of the world's most innovative companies to help bring new life science products to market. The last 7 years I have dedicated to cell and gene therapy manufacturing, spanning from commercial strategy through technology development and onto production.

I have worked with clients to develop new technologies, enjoyed the challenges of finding technical solutions, undertaking risk analysis, performing due diligence, creating new IP and meeting with regulators.

The Technology Partnership is an independent technology company where scientists and engineers collaborate to invent, design and develop new products and technologies.”

LinkedIn

Website

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

Gary's LinkedIn

Questas Website

Instagram

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Create, Convert, Retain, Gary is joined by Mike Reader. Mike is the Head of Work Winning at Mace, leading opportunity management, capturing and bidding across Mace's Consult business. Join the discussion on building a team that can work with clients and then developing the team as a whole. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Not everyone in your organisation is client facing, but they can support in other ways that aren't direct. Building teams with different skills and abilities is the best way forward. Build different teams with different people with different skills for different clients.
• You don't need to recruit for the senior position because you think it will unlock a relationship, going for the big sales person isn't always the best way to win bids. Instead, it's about building a team and building the people from graduate roles and up. Mike prefers to look for organic growth rather than trying to recruit someone established.
• The first step in winning bids is building relationships across the organisation. By doing this you'll understand what their drivers are and their concerns. You'll find out more by getting to know someone than you will from a business proposal. Listen to find out what the other steps are.
  
  

BEST MOMENTS

 "Clients are multifaceted'"
"Building momentum is finding some quick wins for the team'"
"You can be more successful with a team rather than just a heavy hitting individual'"

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Mike Reader on Linkedin

ABOUT THE HOST 

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

With over 15 years in the industry Mike has had the opportunity to work with designers, project and cost managers, surveyors and specialists across the sector, supporting clients as varied as local government, energy and utilities companies, complex private sector organisations and contractors.

He has a passion for business strategy, which leverages his skill sets and interests in business development, team leadership, organisational design and marketing.

Through Mike's role at Mace, and through activities outside the work place, he is able to explore his interest in the theory and practical examples of what makes some projects and people successful and others less so.

Mike is driven by the belief that everyone has a part to play in the modernisation of our sector, and that only by trying new things, learning from our mistakes, and working together as one industry, we will meet the global challenges the world faces today.

CONTACT METHOD 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Gary is joined by professional services expert Sarah Butters to discuss how to drive business by driving people. Sarah tells us how encouraging people's passions and helping them grow as individuals is beneficial for your business. Gary also poses Sarah the question, how do you differentiate yourself from similar services in the same field? 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• To really understand your clients and build a strong working relationship you need to help them address their needs in a language they understand. Find out where are they now, where do they want to get to, and how can you help them there. 
• Word of mouth is extremely valuable in client services. It may sound old fashioned but people put a lot of stock in what other professionals recommend. Take the time to foster authentic personal relationships and those interactions will stay with people. 
• Keep up to date with what your clients are putting out on social media. You can use it to understand your clients without having to ask. Bring that information with you to your next meeting and you will have a head start on seeing how they market to their audience.

BEST MOMENTS

“It's not about expecting everyone to be in the same mould, it's about picking up on individual strengths”

“Let people see how passionate you are”

“It's not about charisma, it's not about the gift of the gab. It's just about being honest and being human”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

ABOUT THE HOST

Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Sarah Butters is a Commercially minded Marketing & Business Development expert working in Strategy Formulation & Execution and Client Development. 

In the rapidly changing world that we find ourselves in Sarah ensures people are aware of new ways of marketing and business development and helps them understand how they can integrate these into their busy working life.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-butters-a3a0b5b/

CONTACT METHOD

 
http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas
https://www.questas.co.uk

Instagram: @bdcoachinghub

Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.