In professional services, the person who sells is usually the person who will do the work. A consultant, lawyer, accountant or engineer wins the engagement on the strength of their own judgment, then delivers it, and has to find time to sell again while the billable work fills the week.
Below is what a coach works on with that seller-doer during a live pursuit, applying our sales coaching framework to firms where the seller and the expert are the same person. The examples are invented; we do not publish customer outcomes by industry.
When the expert is also the seller
The product is intangible and the buyer is buying a person's judgment, so the seller has to convey the value of something the buyer cannot see in advance. The buyer cannot try the engagement before signing. They judge the firm on how the first conversations feel, and on whether the partner understood their problem better than the other firms on the list.
That makes the early conversations the whole sale. A partner who spends the first meeting presenting the firm's credentials has used the hour on the one thing every competing firm will also say. A partner who spends it understanding the client's problem has started the engagement before it is signed.
The seller-doer model also shapes who gets coached. Most firms promote people for their delivery work and then expect them to bring in work. Zweig Group's analysis of why the model fails names lack of training, lack of time and lack of support among the main causes.
Coaching a pursuit
| Where it bites | Work on in the live pursuit | Sign of progress |
|---|---|---|
| Buying group | Who sponsors the work, who sits on the selection panel, and what procurement needs | The sponsor's problem in their words, and the panel's criteria before the pitch |
| Cycle length | The step from relationship to a scoped opportunity, then the RFP or proposal deadline | A dated scoping meeting and a proposal agreed in outline with the sponsor before it is written |
| Missing evidence | What the client's problem costs them, and what they expect the engagement to change | A cost and a success measure stated by the sponsor |
| Method | A scoping conversation that ends with an agreed problem statement | The proposal opens with the client's own description of the problem |
The buyer is a sponsor, a panel and procurement
A firm is usually hired by a sponsor (a general counsel, a CFO, a head of operations) who needs the work done, then approved by a panel or a procurement team that compares firms. The sponsor cares about the problem. The panel cares about risk and fit. Procurement cares about rates and terms.
The coach works on who sits on the panel, what each member will judge, and whether the seller-doer has spoken to anyone beyond the sponsor. A partner's instinct is to rely on the relationship. The coach asks what the sponsor will need to say to the panel to win the argument internally.
Good looks like: the seller-doer knows the selection criteria before writing the proposal and has asked the sponsor what the panel worried about last time.
The cycle runs on relationships and then on a deadline
A professional services opportunity often takes months to appear and then days to win. The relationship builds slowly through work, referrals and conversations. When the client decides to act, an RFP or a request for a proposal lands with a short deadline, and the firms that already understand the problem write the better response.
The coaching here is about turning relationship conversations into a scoped opportunity before the RFP exists. The coach asks what the client said last time about the problem behind the work, and what the seller-doer will ask next time to find out whether it is worth acting on.
Good looks like: the firm hears about the RFP from the sponsor, with the problem already discussed, before it is published.
What pursuits are missing most often
The common gap is a problem statement the client agreed to. Seller-doers are experts, and experts diagnose fast. They hear two sentences, recognize the pattern and start describing the solution. The client never says, in their own words, what the problem is and what it costs, so the proposal ends up describing the firm's method, and the panel compares rates.
The coach asks for what the sponsor said the problem is and what it costs, quoted. If the seller-doer is paraphrasing their own diagnosis, the coach works the questions for the next conversation.
Good looks like: the proposal's first paragraph quotes the sponsor's description of the problem and the measure of success.
The method is a scoping conversation
Firms rarely run a named sales method. The closest thing is the scoping call, where the partner and the client agree what the work is. Any discovery-based method fits it: Gap Selling's current state and future state, MEDDPICC's metrics and decision criteria, the ValueSelling Framework® questions on value. What matters is that the scoping call ends with an agreed problem, a measure and a next step, and that someone coaches the seller-doer on whether it did.
- An agreed problem
- A measure of success
- A next step
The coach checks whether the last scoping conversation produced those three things, and which one to go back for.
Good looks like: the client signs off a one-page problem statement before the proposal is written.
Example: Ana's scheduling pursuit (illustrative)
This pursuit is made up. Ana is a director at a mid-sized operations consulting firm. A client she worked for two years ago, now COO of a healthcare services company, called to say they are "looking at a few firms" to help with patient scheduling.
Brief. Before the first meeting, Ana calls the coach. She plans to walk the COO through the firm's scheduling work for other clients. The coach asks what the COO said the problem is. Ana says scheduling. The coach asks what scheduling costs them today and who else will choose the firm. Ana does not know either. They agree on three questions: what is happening in scheduling that made this a priority now, what it costs the company, and who else will be involved in choosing.
Observe. In the meeting, the COO says no-shows have climbed and two clinics run below capacity on Mondays. Finance has estimated the lost revenue. The selection will include the CFO and the head of clinical operations.
Debrief. Ana talks the meeting through with the coach afterward. The coach notes she has the problem and the panel, and still lacks the cost figure and the CFO's view. They plan her follow-up: a short note restating the problem in the COO's words, a request to see finance's estimate, and a 20-minute call with the CFO before the RFP is issued.
The proposal Ana writes opens with the COO's words and finance's number. The competing firms open with their credentials.
Who coaches the seller-doer
In most firms, the coach is a senior partner who was never taught to coach. That matters. Dahling and colleagues studied 1,246 pharmaceutical sales reps and found that managers' coaching skill predicted goal attainment, and that frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results (cited in our sales kickoff field study). The setting differs from a consulting firm. The lesson holds: more coaching from an untrained coach does not help.
The same study summarizes research by Saks and Belcourt (2006) and Blume and colleagues (2010): what happens back at work predicts whether people use what they learned better than what happened in the training room. For a firm that sends partners on a business development course, the follow-up on live pursuits is where the course gets used or lost.
Judging the coaching is hard too. In our call-scoring research, trained expert assessors marking the same calls disagreed with each other on 18% of scores (field guide). Two partners reviewing the same pitch will also disagree. Our guide to measuring coaching effectiveness covers how to judge it without relying on one reviewer.
Coaching every pursuit
Firms have few people who coach well and many seller-doers with live pursuits. Partners' time is billable, and an hour spent preparing a junior director for a scoping call is an hour not billed.
Caty, our deal expert, gives each seller-doer that coaching without taking partner hours. Each session follows a real pursuit: a brief before the client meeting and a debrief after. The review is a call: the director talks the pursuit through and Caty asks what the client said, what is missing and what to ask next. Typing works when a call is not possible. Firm leaders get a read across every pursuit; for leaders shows that view. For the basics, see what is sales coaching.
If your partners have a pursuit live this month, talk to us.
FAQ
How do you coach consultants to sell?
Coach them on live pursuits, before and after each client conversation. Before, agree the questions that will get the client to describe the problem and its cost in their own words. After, review what the client said and what is still missing. Consultants pick up a skill when they can use it that week, on the pursuit in front of them.
What is a seller-doer in professional services?
A seller-doer is a professional who wins client work and then delivers it, such as a consultant, engineer, lawyer or accountant. The model is common in professional services firms because clients want to meet the people who will do the work. Its weak points are training, time and support for the selling half.
Why do professional services proposals lose?
Many lose because they describe the firm's method and credentials, and the client never agreed a problem statement with the firm before the proposal was written. When every proposal describes similar capability, the panel compares rates. A proposal that opens with the client's own words on the problem stands apart.
Who should coach partners on business development?
Someone skilled at coaching, on live pursuits. Research on 1,246 pharmaceutical reps (Dahling et al. 2016) found that coaching skill predicted results and that frequent coaching from less skilled managers was linked to worse results. In many firms that means training senior partners to coach, or giving every seller-doer a coach they can call before each meeting.
How do you measure sales coaching in a professional services firm?
Measure what changes in pursuits: whether scoping calls end with an agreed problem and measure, whether proposals open with the client's words, and the win rate on scoped opportunities. Avoid relying on one reviewer's scores, because trained experts disagree with each other on a sizeable share of marks.