Third Level Selling is an advanced partnering skills program that has beendeployed at top commercial real estate, banking,consulting, accounting, architecture andtechnology firms internationally. (Please contact us for a list of clients.)This 50 lecture program shows you how and why clients choose among competitive providers and how elite providers align and win without competing on price, fees and rate. There are 10 factors that cause clients to choose one provider over another. This course shows you how to find and align to thesedriversand build preference away from price. You will win more, compete less and free yourself to focus on the aspects of your career that you enjoy most.

Are You a Vendor, Preferred Provider or Strategic Partner?

When buying your services, do prospective clients view you as a vendor, a preferred provider or a strategic partner? Vendors pitch their capabilities. Preferred providers position against competition. Third-Level providers build a partnership with clients.

Elite Third Level service providers, the top 5 percent, have the biggest and most profitable clients. They rarely compete on price, and they do well in good and bad markets. What do these elite providers do differently than the rest of us to win new clients and retain the ones they have?

The short answer is that they engage clients at a deeper personal and professional level, a Third-Level that leads to greater success and career satisfaction and less price competition.

LEVEL 1: VENDORS PITCH (AIRBAGS) – “Can you do it?”

The vast majority of service providers (80%) compete with a selling style that I characterize as Level I - The Pitch. A pitch is a vendor-centric statement of capabilities. It is effective menu selling – “We can do this, do you want it?”

Success at this level depends on volume of calls and meetings (at bats). If a potential client happens to have a current need but does not have an alternative provider, your vendor-centric pitch will win the business. Vendors get by in good markets, but usually get clobbered in down markets.

If you are a vendor, you do most of the talking in client meetings because your objective is to impress with your capabilities and expertise. In your calls, proposals, and presentations, you tell the client who you are, what you do, how you do it, for whom you have done it, and so on.

LEVEL 2: PREFERRED PROVIDERS POSITION AGAINST COMPETITION – “Can you do it better than they can?”

In most cases client do have choice—lots of them. That choice lets the client get more selective. In fact, the more choices the client has, the less difference there is between the winner and the first loser.

When clients have choices, they are no longer asking if you can do it. Now they are asking if you can do it better than your best competitors. Your pitch tells the client that you can do it, but it doesn’t explain why or how you can do it better. If you can’t clearly and succinctly communicate how you are different and better, how does the client choose you?

Preferred Providers make up about 15% of the market and are usually some of the strongest professionals at your company. They are technically strong and have years of experience. Because of that experience they almost always make it to the client’s short list in competitive situations. Unfortunately, they tend to continue to rely on their capabilities and experience to build preference in the finals where clients are choosing from among only the top competitors.

Once clients narrow their options to a short list of highly capable alternatives, nuanced differences in capabilities cease to be a factor in their final choice. If the client can’t see a difference among top alternatives, is it any wonder that that they choose based on the one difference they can clearly see—price? But price is almost always a self-inflicted wound.

THIRD-LEVEL STRATEGIC PARTNERS DIFFERENTIATE ON THE CLIENT – “Who will take better care of me?”

Most service providers like to think of themselves as Trusted Advisors/ Strategic Partners, however only 5% actually achieve that status in the eyes of their clients. Pitching your capabilities gets you invited. Positioning those capabilities effectively against competition gets you to the “short list” of preferred providers, but that still is not enough.

From the short list in everybody is qualified. Now clients are asking, “Who is going to take better care of me?” They are hoping to work with someone they know and trust, someone who knowstheirindustry,theirmarket,theircompany,theirsituation,theirproject,theirpreferences andtheirprocess better. In other words, instead of wanting to know more about you, they wantyouto know more about them. They don’t want to work with a vendor. They want to work with a strategic partner. If you can find and align to that uniqueness, the client will view you as a strategic partner and not just another vendor.

Third-Level providers find out more (and care more) about their client’s personal lives, their careers, and professional challenges above and beyond just the problems the service provider can solve. They know more about the unique characteristics of the project, the client’s situation, preferences, and decision process. They find and align to what is different about the client instead of forcing the client to find out what is different about them.

Now think back to your last client meeting or presentation. Did the client do most of the talking? Was the content of your presentation or proposal mostly about the client’s unique project, situation, concerns, and objectives? Do you believe the client viewed you as a Vendor, a Preferred Provider, or a Strategic Partner?