How Go Nimbly Listens, Educates and Executes Revenue Operations Consulting

Learn about selling services online, including selling consulting services, selling managed services, and selling professional services

Selling anything is hard. At the best of times, it takes the perfect mix of customer pain, product fit, education, pricing…you know the drill.

When you’re selling professional services or selling consulting services, however, things can be even trickier. Instead of selling software, you’re selling your expertise. You’re selling your ability to help fix a problem. You’re selling the expected results your help will bring.

This is a dynamic selling environment because you aren’t selling a defined, tangible product that a prospect can test, trial, and play with. As such, creating an open sales environment – in which conversation and discussion are hallmarks of the process – is paramount, says Troy Conquer, Chief Revenue Officer at revenue operations consultancy Go Nimbly, on a recent edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast.

But don’t let that “open” sales process fool you, adds Conquer. To sell services well, you need to have a keen focus and understanding of what you can successfully provide and who you can help.

And that, like all sales initiatives and processes, take experimentation…and failure.

“The good thing when you start a company is you can try a lot of things. You can try healthy early experiments and see what resonates. There has been a lot of discussion around revenue ops, and we had a lot of expertise in that realm, so that was our breakthrough into the space,” says Conquer.

“But, I think we’re still trying to define that perfect category for us. And part of that definition is having a true, prescriptive approach to how we sell and package things. You have to define constraints that you are willing to accept and those that you are not. It’s about dialing in a prescriptive program that will show how you shine, and improve where you want to grow. We have a very process-oriented approach when we meet with customers that helps us define their pain and develop a roadmap for us to deliver on and generate value for them.”

The evolution of Go Nimbly’s sales process

According to Conquer, the last three years has been a critical period of iteration and sharpening of Go Nimbly’s sales process.

For example, Go Nimbly’s sales has historically been fuelled by referrals (which is great – who doesn’t want their clients recommending them?). But that word of mouth of growth didn’t, at least first, have a defined sales process underpinning it.

In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Go Nimbly’s initial sales process was:

Have an intro call
Scope the engagement
Formalize a document recapping how the call went
Determine what we can do together.
Determine / negotiate what the engagement will cost

“We grew quickly by word of mouth. We have a presence in the Bay Area and people take us with them when they move around. That is typically how we enter into a selling conversation,” says Conquer.

“But we know how important processes are, and there just wasn’t a strict process or system when we started.”

But over the past 3 years, Conquer says, the Go Nimbly team has developed a more uniform, strict, and responsive sales process. That overhauled process looks like this:

Prospects begin by filling out a “Contact us” form
The Go Nimbly team responds and books a 30-minute conversation
The focus of the first call is to build trust and make the prospect feel confident that they can be a partner. This call is designed to be short and sweet.
They talk about their business, their customers, their team, identify gaps (and discuss how Go Nimbly can fill them) and any other initiatives that the prospect is working on.
Then, the Go Nimbly team is introduced, their methods of working are outlined, and their unique skills and differentiators are shared
The Go Nimbly team opens the call to question
Finally, they book a second meeting, in which the Go Nimbly team will present an outline for the prospect to consider

“In the second meeting, we tell them what we heard in the first call and then show them how we can build a team and execute on a roadmap. Timeframes, costs, and the resources needed are also shared,” says Conquer.

“We really articulate how they can work with Go Nimbly.”

(Editor’s note: we had Karan Singh on the podcast a while back to discuss how to take a data-driven approach your go-to-market planning. You can read about our chat here, or listen to the entire in-depth interview here)

Book a complimentary 15-minute assessment now.

Sharing the right amount of detail

This second call is critical in the Go Nimbly sales process because this is where Go Nimbly gets into the nitty gritty about how they can help their prospects. That detail is shared in a comprehensive deck which, in addition to their recommendations, always includes some further education about revenue operations (which includes everything from go-to-market strategies, Salesforce support, training support, and resource planning).

“Most importantly, this outline shows them what the first 90 days looks like. It gets super specific. But, I phrase it in a conversation, show them it isn’t static. And give them something they can take to their bosses, complete with pricing etc,” says Conquer,

“We recognize decks can be a crutch, though. So, you can send them in advance, instead of walking them through it. We have been experimenting with sending, and meeting the buyer where they are at. If they don’t have time. In between first and second meeting can work, and can show trust. But, we have found that it needs a person’s context to land fully.”

Of course, the more detail you put in, the more time a deck can take to create. So, Conquer suggests finding the line between using some information form a template (a discussion of what revenue operations is, for instance), with the fine-tuned and tailored aspects specific to the prospect. That way, a prospect gets both high-level philosophical points for discussion, and the nitty gritty details they need.

“We don’t do totally bespoke. There is a lot of overlap with customers we work with. It depends more on the stage of the company and their goals – are they looking to explode? Or, maybe all they need is some extra infrastructure,” says Conquer.

“So there is some customization, and there are templates as well. The real question is: do we understand their business, and can we back up that understanding with insights for their particular journey?”

But, warns Conquer, this outline can’t be prescriptive, and it must be framed as a fluid document – there will be feedback and you will have to update it as necessary. Don’t forget, things change all the time and you need to be ready.

“You could call the outline a proposal, but it is a psychology thing. Having something that seems static and fixed can be daunting. So, setting it up as an outline can be much more flexible,” says Conquer.

“That helps us get to perfect together. This is a really important psychological element. You should always make it an open-ended discussion. That will, ultimately, helps with conversion. It’s really important to set up the frame that we are listening.”

From there, that place of open dialogue but defined process, you can work to get a Statement of Work nailed down and work can begin. And when it does, that work will be perfectly suited because you took the time to listen, adapt, and share what you can offer.

It’s a beautiful thing.

For more details on Go Nimbly’s service-selling sales process, check out the rest of Conquer’s interview on The Predictable Revenue Podcast.