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Gary Williams of Questas chats to Mark Carpenter of Master Storytelling to discuss how humans relate to stories and how they are a vital component to sales and selling.  Mark shares some fantastic tips on how to structure stories to make your sales pitches stand out.   Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do we win the right kind of work from the right kinds of clients? This week on Work Winning Ways, Gary brings you an episode from a series of webinars about how you can master the client experience. Find out how you can win over clients, build and maintain relationships, the importance of leaders, and how to turn your clients into advocates for your services business.

This episode looks at the inevitability of difficult conversations happening with clients and how we manage them so as not to damage (and even improve) relationships. In this episode, Gary has an EASY chat with his Questas colleague Paul Brady about what to do when the temperature rises in conversations and how we dissipate the heat. As ever there's plenty of practical tools and ideas for you to use in your next difficult conversation!

Business development and client relation management is part of a trinity with leadership and management. That’s the glue that holds organisations together that Gary will be discussing this week on Work Winning Ways. Find out why training in business development and client management doesn’t work unless you have well trained leaders.

I am very pleased to speak to Frank Lippert - one half of the PSM (Professional Services Marketing) Podcast. Frank is based in Sacramento California and in our discussion we were looking for the differences in marketing and business development between the UK and US. So far, it seems that there really aren't too many differences but Frank speaks very eloquently about the RIGHT way to do business and how to win and maintain clients. There are some interesting differences depending on which state you're in but by and large, we agreed that being genuine, caring and curious are your best friends in work winning!

On this episode Gary speaks to Mark Anders, who is an Operations and Framework Director at Mace. Mark tells a great story about how he came to be doing what he does today (you would never guess!). He shares his many years experience in managing Client Frameworks and offers some sage advice on how to get the most out of the client and, importantly, how to win more than your fair share of the pie!

This is a fascinating interview with someone who has worked in the Middle East for more than 10 years. Gurminder shares some insights about winning work in the region as well as busting some myths about how the building industry works. If you work in the built environment in the Middle East or are planning to, this is for you!

Ziba Goddard is a behavioural scientist and Chief Consulting Officer at Cowry Consulting and joins Gary Williams on this episode of Work Winning Ways. Ziba specialises in human behaviour and how we make decisions. If you’ve ever heard of Nudge Theory and wonder why we make the decisions we make particularly in the context of buying, this is for you!

How do you make your business proposals stand out and stick in your clients minds? This week on Work Winning Ways Gary brings you a module from the Questas Academy hosted by Richard Williams all about winning your bid. Listen in to this recording of the live seminar and don’t forget to sign up for the Questas Academy in the link below.

In the world of professional services and engineering consultancy services, cross selling is the Holy Grail. Organisations think it’s easy, but in this episode of Work Winning Ways, you’ll find out why it’s very difficult. Join Gary Williams as he discusses why cross selling is important, how it’s done, and what are the obstacles to overcome.

On this episode of Work Winning Ways, host Gary Williams of Questas discusses the evolution of the work winning employee and what your client wants from them. Also hear all about what it takes to become a trusted advisor, and just as importantly, how to keep being one. KEY TAKEAWAYS Clients are becoming more and more demanding. You have to add good commercial acumen, understanding what the client wants to achieve. They also want you to show that you understand the world in which they work. The differentiator in winning work can often be a grasp of the things that affect the clients environment and the ability to talk in their language with the terms they use. Under promise and over deliver. If you’re saying what the client wants to hear and over promising, then if you don’t deliver, trust is broken. Expectation management is crucial. Clients will also expect you to manage them. Do you make their life and their job easier? Be proactive about meeting client's needs. To be proactive you need to know your client and what they will need and when. You will also need to know what they need but haven't asked for yet.  BEST MOMENTS  ‘You need the ability to talk in the client's language’ ‘Projects happen through people’ ‘10 pm is not close of business, it’s Monday morning’ EPISODE RESOURCES Questas Academy The Trusted Advisor ABOUT THE HOST Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services. http://linkedin.com/in/garyquestas https://www.questas.co.uk Instagram: @bdcoachinghub Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working Winning Ways is the new name for the podcast and for this shake-up Gary has a fantastic interview with Edd Stone of The Technology Partnership. Hear all about how Edd works with, understands, and builds strong relationships with people that can last over an entire career spanning different companies. KEY TAKEAWAYS Relationships in business development are very important and should be nurtured over long periods of time. Many of their clients didn’t predict that they would need work with The Technology Partnership again, but because those connections were there then the choice of who to go with was easy. It’s the people who are trying to solve the problems within organisations who are the ones who will come to us to help them solve it no matter which business they’re working for. You shouldn’t assume you know what is best for a client at a particular time. You need to really listen to their needs and understand the nature of the problem in front of you. To do that you need to recruit great communicators who can make sure you’re on the same page. Hard technical things are very rarely a solo endeavour, they require lots of people from different backgrounds to work together. BEST MOMENTS ‘Cambridge is a low-risk place to do risky things’ ‘At the end of the day it’s got to hinge on commercial viability’ ‘That curiosity is an aspect of being a great business developer’ ABOUT THE GUEST Edd Stone: “Cell and gene therapies have shown the ability to cure some of the most terrible diseases. I am passionate about finding ways to get these treatments to more patients by revolutionizing how we manufacture them. For over 15 years, I have been fortunate to work with some of the world's most innovative companies to help bring new life science products to market. The last 7 years I have dedicated to cell and gene therapy manufacturing, spanning from commercial strategy through technology development and onto production. I have worked with clients to develop new technologies, enjoyed the challenges of finding technical solutions, undertaking risk analysis, performing due diligence, creating new IP and meeting with regulators. The Technology Partnership is an independent technology company where scientists and engineers collaborate to invent, design and develop new products and technologies.” LinkedIn Website ABOUT THE HOST Gary Williams has been in sales and marketing his entire career. The past 10 years have been dedicated to helping technically minded non-salespeople become skilled and confident in selling themselves and their services. Gary's LinkedIn Questas Website Instagram Not everyone is a natural salesperson, Find out more on how to improve your sales HERE: https://www.thequestasacademy.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.