Water and soil experts Aqualinc transform their team from sales-averse to solutions-focused consultants
In 2023 Aqualinc General Manager, Jim Herbison contacted me. Aqualinc was struggling with sales. Their team was reluctant to pick up the phone and talk to existing clients, let alone call someone new.
Aqualinc helps New Zealanders make sustainable decisions about water and land use. Clients range from farmers to central government. Their services are equally varied, from soil moisture measurement and flow metering to help farmers manage irrigation, to irrigation allocation calculations for the Ministry for Primary Industries.
They’re exceptional at what they do, but they were struggling to hit their new business goals.
Jim explains, “We got Ian on board because we weren’t doing a good job promoting what we do. One of our senior managers made the comment that we were our own best kept secret. We were in a sales dip, it was frustrating, and we weren’t sure how to get out of it. We knew we had a problem and we needed some business development direction.”
When people start avoiding sales it can become entrenched
Before I do sales training with your team, we start with a discovery. It’s important I get to know you and understand your context. Every business has its own sales challenges.
Part of Aqualinc’s problem was sales had become siloed. Jim says, “We were relying on a small group of people to secure work. This was already an issue, then two of our founding directors decided to move out of the business. They held relationships with a lot of key clients, so we were at risk of losing that connection. And we didn’t have a culture of business development. Many people thought, I'm busy enough, I don't need to look for more work.”
There was resistance to the idea of sales at Aqualinc. Jim adds, “People would say, ‘I don't want to be a salesperson.’ There was such a stigma attached to sales that we agreed we’d call the work with Ian business development rather than sales training.”
Not only were people reluctant to sell, but they were also failing to nurture relationships with existing clients. Jim recalls, “When we asked people how often they contacted their clients, one standard response was, ‘Oh, they know us anyway. They'll come to us. We don't want to make a nuisance of ourselves by hounding them all the time.’”
It’s not selling, it’s solving problems
Sales training begins with a full day’s workshop. Part of the purpose of that workshop is for your team to tell me about their business development activities and for me to coach them to recognise other opportunities and easy wins.
The workshop is also about helping your people get over their resistance to sales. It’s common for technical experts to resist sales. That’s because they have a fundamental misconception around what sales is. They see sales as sleazy. I show them sales is simply solving problems. When they understand that, experts become your top sales assets.
Jim agrees, saying, “Experts are the best salespeople because they know what they’re talking about. They’re the people who make projects work. If something goes wrong, they’re the ones pulled over the coals. That gives them huge kudos when it comes to consultative selling, and Ian and I are always trying to get across that this is not about hard selling.”
Jim has advice for any consultancy struggling with the idea of selling. “Think about your customers’ pain points? How can you solve those problems for them? You've two ears, two eyes, and one mouth for a reason. When you meet with a customer listen, observe, and ask questions to find out what they’re struggling with, then see if there's a match with what you do. You're not going to be able to help with everything, and that’s fine.”
Forging closer relationships with existing clients
Often businesses leave sales opportunities on the table. Aqualinc was no different. There was a whole lot more work they could do with existing clients. Jim explains, “The biggest thing that came out of that first workshop was we looked at the work we do for local councils like Selwyn and asked what other councils we can do similar projects for. As a result of that exercise, we’ve picked up work in Auckland, Tauranga, and other regions.”
Another key task was strengthening Aqualinc’s client relationships. Jim recalls, “Ian coached us through establishing multiple contacts with our customer base. You can't have one point of contact within clients’ organisations. You have to have multiple connections.” Now, more people at Aqualinc are connected with more clients, taking pressure off senior leaders.
The third part of building a stronger connection with your clients is good client records. Jim says, “When I started at Aqualinc we had no database. Some people didn’t even have address books set up in Outlook. It was diabolical. When Ian started working with us, we were migrating to HubSpot. That dovetailed perfectly with his training because a key part of Ian's messaging is to make sure you've got a good CRM, maintain data hygiene, and keep records of correspondence and conversations. Now, if a colleague goes to see a client I visited, they can see what we discussed and temper their approach, rather than going in blind.”
“Ian got across to our team that customers aren't scary and you need to keep in contact. Don't expect clients to come to you. If you do, you’ll miss out. I remember before working with Ian, one of our team was out meeting a client, and said, ‘Should we talk to you about this new service?’ And our customer said, ‘Well, you probably should because all your competitors are.’ Our team now understands how important it is to stay in tune with our customers.”
Ongoing sales coaching builds better business development habits
Your sales workshop provides a great foundation for better business development, but you and I both know one training session isn’t enough to change your team’s sales habits. That takes practice and support, which is why I follow workshops with regular coaching.
Jim recalls how coaching worked for the Aqualinc team. “For a year Ian came in once a month to provide guidance at our business development meetings and coach us in implementing points from the workshop. Ian taught us how often we should be contacting clients, to err in favour of being a nuisance, rather than not keeping in touch. To be deliberate about having multiple contact points within each organisation.”
“Ian also reminded us not to preach to our customers, but to listen, find out their problems, then try to match solutions. After he had done a couple of coaching sessions, one of our team reported how well a client meeting went when they applied that learning, stopped worrying about selling, and simply listened and asked questions.”
“Another key thing Ian identified is the need to know your top customers. We hadn't really prioritised our clients. We lacked strategic thinking on that front. But since working with Ian, we've a better handle on who our best customers are. A key directive in our strategic plan is to find more of those businesses, and we’ve identified what we need to do that.”
Everyone is stepping up to make business development a success
Almost two years on from my first workshop with Aqualinc, things are going well. Jim says, “The most valuable thing we learned was we’re solutions providers, so we approach customers to glean information. We’re not going in to sell. We’re going to listen and ask questions. If there’s a fit, we’ll tout our services, but in a low-pressure way, along the lines of, ‘Here’s how we solved that problem for someone else. Is that something of interest to you?’”
“Taking that solution-focused approach has made contacting clients a lot easier. There was a real phobia here around sales before we worked with Ian and that fear has largely gone. Everybody is responsible for business development. Before, sales were falling on our principal consultants. That group is still responsible for the bulk of business development, but everyone understands that it's also their job to be out there building relationships, finding out what customers are struggling with, and talking about what we can do to help.”
“There’s also a stronger appreciation of the discipline business development needs. Sales isn’t rocket science. It's discipline. You've got to sing from the rooftops what you do and how well you do it. That means building up your case studies. Making regular content. Talking about what you do. Making sure you follow up on proposals.”
“Ian is really easy to deal with. He's got a genuine way about him. He’s very straight up. He isn’t pushy. He has a way of conveying his messages that makes sales seem simple. Ian told me a story that sticks in my mind. When he started selling, his father told him, ‘You’re too honest for sales.’ But Ian is a fantastic salesperson because he cares and has integrity. Sales naturally flow from that. And that’s the sort of organisation Aqualinc wants to be.”
How’s your sales culture?
If you’d like to conquer your team’s sales reluctance, build stronger connections with your clients, and activate your whole team as business development reps, talk to me about sales coaching. I specialise in coaching agribusiness, professional services, and engineers.