Seal the Deal!
Introduction
Author: Suzi Pomerantz
Copyright 2006 © Suzi Pomerantz. All rights reserved. This article is excerpted from Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets For Growing Your Professional Services Business (HRD Press, October 2006). www.sealthedealbook.com
SUMMARY: This is the introductory chapter for the book Seal the Deal.
Introduction: This is a book about relationships. More specifically, it is about managing relationships as assets. I know, I know -- you thought it was about sales. It is. I once heard a speaker named Lou Heckler say, "Business moves at the speed of relationships." He’s right. You may have heard the term relationship asset management.1 If you constantly manage your relationship assets, your business will move at a constant speed. If you shift your focus or divert your attention, even for a moment, from Relationship Asset Management, you will find that your business will slow down proportionately. If you think of sales as the vehicle that propels business, relationships are the engine and you are the driver. This book is your road map. How fast and how far you want to go is up to you. There are no limits. As Yogi Berra once said, "If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else." Selling professional services does not have to be one of those happenstance, if-you’re-lucky kind of things. You can have a plan, you can have systematic steps to get there, and you can have a road map to follow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Suzi Pomerantz, MT., MCC. is an award-winning master executive coach, facilitator, and author with over 15 years of experience working with leaders and teams in over 125 organizations internationally, including seven companies on the Fortune 100 list. Suzi authored 20 publications about coaching, ethics, and business development, including her book Seal the Deal: The Essential Mindsets for Growing Your Professional Services Business (HRD Press, 2006). (www.sealthedealbook.com). Suzi is the CEO of Innovative Leadership International LLC (www.innovativeleader.com),Vice President of the Board of Directors of the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations and a founding member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations. Suzi's strength lies in helping leaders and organizations find clarity within chaos.