New Book - The Art of Professional Services: A Guiide to Integrating Services into Product Companies
A new book, The Art of Professional Services, is the essential guide to understanding the unique nature of a professional services business within a high-tech product company. It is now available on Amazon.com.
Online, November 5, 2009 (Newswire.com) - In technology companies, professional services marketers and salespeople frequently start their careers on the product side of the business. Yet when a product professional makes the transition to services, there is little training or other means to learn the professional services business.
To address this shortcoming, some companies hire marketing or salespeople who have experience with a consulting firm, such as Deloitte or Accenture. Although these professionals understand the consulting business, they lack insight into the dynamics and unique challenges encountered by PS organizations in product-centric companies. Without good guidance, most employees simply plunge ahead using the age-old method of trial and error.
The Art of Professional Services: A Guide to Integrating Services into Product Companies is designed to help you understand the professional services business and all the nuances of running a services organization in a product-centric company. It addresses all the dimensions of the PS business-from establishing business plans, competencies, target markets, and partners to packaging, marketing, selling, and delivering services.
Sales representatives, marketing managers, and other professionals through the company-who know the product business-come to appreciate and understand how to support the professional services business. And seasoned PS managers can gain new insights and best practices to refine their services strategies and operational practices.
And, of course, a technology company's executive team must understand and support the PS business. In a conference for professional services managers in Silicon Valley, the main lament was "How do I demonstrate to my boss that this is a different business?" Or as one professional services manager stated, "How do I get my manager to see the 'ah-ha' about the PS business." This book provides answers.
To learn more about The Art of Professional Services, go to www.whitemanconsulting.com or Amazon.com.
About the Author: Mary Ann Whiteman is president of Whiteman Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm that assists technology companies to enhance their services marketing effectiveness and grow their professional services business. Her career includes launching and managing a professional services organization for Tandem Computers, and building a professional services marketing organization for Sun Microsystems. She experienced firsthand the challenges that managers face when making the leap from products to services. She holds an MBA from Santa Clara University.