Selling Your Expertise

FOREWORD BY HELEN SHAN, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer, FactSet Research Systems Ltd. PRAISE FOR SELLING YOUR EXPERTISE “Chen empowers us as professionals to not just deliver our work but to create value by selling. Whether you are a first-timer or a seasoned business developer, new or resistant to selling, Selling Your Expertise will open your mind and heart to greater career opportunities and rewards. Thank you, Robert!” —JAY PERSAUD, Vice Chair, Big Four Professional Services Organization “Building and maintaining lasting client relationships is key for the long-term success of any business. Selling Your Expertise outlines a clear roadmap with proven strategies to leverage your professional experience and knowledge to serve your clients, build enduring relationships, and scale the business.” —SRINIVAS RAPTHADU, Business Transformation Officer, Global Strategy Consulting Ecosystems, SAP “Remarkable insights and an in-depth resource for anyone who views a sales role with skepticism or trepidation. I view Selling Your Expertise as essential reading for anyone in professional services who is serving in a technical role. Here is a practical and realistic guide for building a career roadmap for success.” —HIROSHI BAENSCH, Senior Partner, Mercer “You can offer the best data, models, and analytical skills in the world, but more important than any of that is the ability to sell your expertise. Robert Chen provides some unique and invaluable lessons, which I find immediately useful for my own teaching and consulting work.” —PROFESSOR PETER FADER, Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania “Robert Chen clearly understands the subtleties and nuances of interpersonal dynamics. In Selling Your Expertise, his advice on how to develop business authentically in your own voice is not to be missed.” —MICHELLE NASIR, Chief Talent Officer, Arsenal Capital Partners “If there is one book to read on developing selling acumen for someone who is not a ‘born salesperson’, Selling Your Expertise is it. It offers relational guiding principles and step-by-step approaches that help any expert within their business understand how to build a thriving book of business. You’ll not only gain practical insights, but the confidence to be a rainmaker!” —PAUL WYPASEK, Chief Learning Officer, Turner Construction Wall Street Journal bestseller Build your book of business and sell more services with this expert guide for knowledge professionals How do rainmakers consistently and continuously sell their ideas and grow their client base? What is the secret to their ongoing success? Whether they are in accounting, consulting, investment banking, law, or any other type of professional service, it’s not just their knowledge, experience, and unique services that set them apart. They succeed by adopting the mindset, mastering the strategies, and employing the tactics at the heart of rainmaking. In Selling Your Expertise: The Mindset, Strategies, and Tactics of Successful Rainmakers, veteran communications, sales, and leadership consultant Robert Chen provides a practical guide to selling knowledge-based services in a market that demands credibility and subject-matter authority. Chen and his colleagues at Exec Comm have helped hundreds of thousands of professionals learn to sell, influence, and negotiate more effectively. This book condenses Chen’s first-hand experience and over 40 years of Exec Comm’s best sales advice, along with interviews featuring other successful rainmakers from a variety of professions and industries. Whether you’re a national practice partner at a Big Four consulting firm or an independent attorney just starting out, this book equips you with the real-life knowledge you need to:

• Develop a client-focused mindset to help build a thriving book of business
• Use effective strategies to find your ideal prospects and turn them into long-term clients, using concrete metrics to assess whether you’re on the right track
• Apply practical tactics to build a trusted reputation, sharpen communication skills, manage the challenges of not having enough time to sell, and push beyond obstacles

The perfect book for consultants, investment bankers, lawyers, research analysts, and accountants, Selling Your Expertise is an invaluable resource for any professional who makes a living by selling solutions to their clients’ most pressing needs.