How to Build a Profitable Services Business in Any Industry
“Alexander has written a must-read book for leaders of product companies charged with growing a services business. Seriously Selling Services provides a concrete road map for new and profitable revenues based upon years of research and field-tested best practices.”
— Stephen W. Brown, PhD, Edward M. Carson Chair, Professor and Executive Director, Center for Services Leadership, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
“Alex’s rubber-meets-the-road experience shines through as he explains the what, why, and how of becoming successful in services. Seriously Selling Services is a must-read for your management staff and everyone in your services organization.”
— Michael Olmsted, Vice President, Services and Quality, Satisloh, North America
“Alex did a great job of condensing his many years of experience in service marketing, and shares proven methods to sell services. Unlike many business books, this one is easy to read and reflects Alex’s personality and humor. This is a must-read for all your product sales staff who have to transition into the different world of selling services.”
— John Hamilton, President, Service Strategies Corporation
“If you are investing in growing your services business, get serious and invest in this book! Alex’s pragmatic advice, industry research, and examples about selling services from his decades of experience on the topic are what you need to get to success faster. His book is laid out in a practical, usable, readable format that makes it easy to digest. You won’t regret it.”
— David C. Munn, President and CEO, ITSMA
WHAT YOU'LL FIND IN THIS BOOK
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK
Praise for Seriously Selling Services
“Seriously Selling Services may be mislabeled, because Alexander does more than show us how to sell services. He starts at the beginning of the process—building services capabilities around products that are fighting against commoditization, dealing effectively with existing channel partners, and evolving the dominant product sales culture to think beyond break-fix support and embrace a new value proposition: services that give customers better performance, faster deployment, and lower cost of ownership. Alexander has paid his dues in the product-to-services transformation club. He draws on years of real-world experience with leading companies to show product companies how to grow with services. Seriously Selling Services provides an unmatched, practical road map for senior executives who are ready to execute a serious services strategy.”
— R. Gary Bridge, Senior Vice President and Global Lead, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems, Inc.
“Alexander does a terrific job in his new book, Seriously Selling Services, presenting compelling reasons why senior executives in product companies need to consider selling services. Increased revenue stream, solid profit margins, and enhanced customer loyalty are only a few benefits that selling services can provide. Most importantly, selling services valued highly by customers―implementation, uptime, and professional services―provide market differentiation that will lead to future sales growth for both products and services, despite economic conditions. Alex takes a no-nonsense approach to both the challenges and the rewards of selling high-value services through an impactful writing style that refreshes points made, clearly presents concepts, and gives readers access to best practices for success. I highly recommend this book.”
— Dolores Kruchten, GM Business Solutions and Services, Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company
“Alexander’s suggested approaches and practices really work. We’ve developed a services-led approach to driving software sales and seen a double-digit increase in margins by implementing the recommendations outlined in his book.”
— Liz Murphy, Chief Client Officer, Datatel, Inc.
“Seriously Selling Services contains just the right mix of theory, best practices, and real-world advice about managing the transition to services. I highly recommend it.”
— Scott Dysert, Chief Executive Officer, Chromalox
“Alexander’s book is a well-researched and well-written book on building a services business. It is centered on creating value for clients and is filled with good and proven ideas. Unlike many books with strategies to grow your business, which tend to be broad and general, this book explores the unique opportunities and specific challenges facing services organizations. The topics range from fundamentals every services leader should understand, to more nuanced subjects like working with services channel partners. If you are a leader in the services industry, I recommend Seriously Selling Services; it will reinforce much of what your instincts have been telling you all along, and will give you some new ideas to ponder.”
— Ernie Fernandez, General Manager, Maintenance and Technical Support, IBM Global Services North America
“If you are serious about selling services, you need to read every page in this book to achieve your best possible outcome. In the end, it’s all about adding value and maximizing profits, and Alexander helps you reach your goals.”
— Eric Bakker, CEO, Computer Design & Integration LLC
“I really like this book. It tackles, head-on, all the issues associated with building a profitable services business. It is a great read for anyone serious about making this transition.”
— Dan Wiersma, Former Senior Vice President, Sony Service Platform
“Superb! Seriously Selling Services is an authoritative ‘boot camp in a book’ that lays out a crisply written guide for product-based businesses to incorporate services as a profit generator. Alexander reveals best practices as well as the real-world challenges of moving from the status quo to selling service profitably―and clearly demonstrates why it’s worth it.”
— Anita T. Williams, Cofounder, Imagination Works, and Author, The 60-Second Referral
“This is another great book Alexander has written. Built on sound research and real-life experience, Alex’s new, challenging, and provocative ideas show you not only how to run a services business profitably and outperform your competitors, but also how to have fun doing it. This is a unique book that considers implementing the change to become service-oriented as fun; it sure is.”
— Prof. Hans Kasper, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
“If you want to sharpen your business focus, fine-tune your services offerings, and streamline your processes, be sure to add this book to your queue. It is a well-written, practical guide to selling services and a seriously great read!”
— Terry Jansen, Founder, PSVillage, and Publisher, Tips from the Trenches: The Collective Wisdom of Over 100 Professional Services Leaders
“Selling services in a product-centric company is no easy task and takes a lot of time, influence, dedication, and perseverance. This topic has been around for a number of years now, and Alexander tackles the issues head-on, highlighting the core dimensions to transitioning to a services-led company. This book reinforces best practices that need to be adopted in order to be successful and provides a holistic approach to seriously selling services. It also provides excellent, usable, practical tools and tips that can be applied quickly. This is a must-read for every services executive who has just started out or is struggling to make inroads in developing a services-led approach in a product-centric company.”
— Gary Neveling, Alcatel-Lucent, Director, Business Operations, EMEA SBG - Network and System Integration
“This new book compiles over 20 years of professional services wisdom into a must-read for any professional services executive. Not only great content, but told in such a way that is easy to follow and fun to read.”
— Hank Stroll, Publisher, InternetVIZ B2B Social Media Content and Newsletters
“Alex provided my company with an indispensable set of selling tools developed over decades of successful experience in the professional services industry. He has brought his body of knowledge to the next level with this set of must-read best practices.”
— Mike Haney, CEO, Athens Group
“This book is definitely worth the read. I specifically found the insightful chapter 'Transitioning from Free to Fee' most valuable, because if Alexander’s advice is followed, it can transform an unprofitable business into a profitable one.”
— Claudia Betzner, Executive Director, Service Industry Association
“This book is just like its author―bold and direct in its statements of what can and what can’t work in building strong services capabilities. Clear and easy to read, Seriously Selling Services is just the right mix of practical theory and real-life experience.”
— Marc Brûlé, Vice President, Client Services, Halogen Software
“Seriously Selling Services is a must-read for executives who are interested in growing sales and profits. Having made the service transition within an electronic controls company, I recognize that the wisdom presented by Mr. Alexander could have saved us a lot of time climbing the learning curve.”
— Herb Rippe, Former Vice President of Sales, Copeland Corporation
— R. Gary Bridge, Senior Vice President and Global Lead, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco Systems, Inc.
“Alexander does a terrific job in his new book, Seriously Selling Services, presenting compelling reasons why senior executives in product companies need to consider selling services. Increased revenue stream, solid profit margins, and enhanced customer loyalty are only a few benefits that selling services can provide. Most importantly, selling services valued highly by customers―implementation, uptime, and professional services―provide market differentiation that will lead to future sales growth for both products and services, despite economic conditions. Alex takes a no-nonsense approach to both the challenges and the rewards of selling high-value services through an impactful writing style that refreshes points made, clearly presents concepts, and gives readers access to best practices for success. I highly recommend this book.”
— Dolores Kruchten, GM Business Solutions and Services, Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company
“Alexander’s suggested approaches and practices really work. We’ve developed a services-led approach to driving software sales and seen a double-digit increase in margins by implementing the recommendations outlined in his book.”
— Liz Murphy, Chief Client Officer, Datatel, Inc.
“Seriously Selling Services contains just the right mix of theory, best practices, and real-world advice about managing the transition to services. I highly recommend it.”
— Scott Dysert, Chief Executive Officer, Chromalox
“Alexander’s book is a well-researched and well-written book on building a services business. It is centered on creating value for clients and is filled with good and proven ideas. Unlike many books with strategies to grow your business, which tend to be broad and general, this book explores the unique opportunities and specific challenges facing services organizations. The topics range from fundamentals every services leader should understand, to more nuanced subjects like working with services channel partners. If you are a leader in the services industry, I recommend Seriously Selling Services; it will reinforce much of what your instincts have been telling you all along, and will give you some new ideas to ponder.”
— Ernie Fernandez, General Manager, Maintenance and Technical Support, IBM Global Services North America
“If you are serious about selling services, you need to read every page in this book to achieve your best possible outcome. In the end, it’s all about adding value and maximizing profits, and Alexander helps you reach your goals.”
— Eric Bakker, CEO, Computer Design & Integration LLC
“I really like this book. It tackles, head-on, all the issues associated with building a profitable services business. It is a great read for anyone serious about making this transition.”
— Dan Wiersma, Former Senior Vice President, Sony Service Platform
“Superb! Seriously Selling Services is an authoritative ‘boot camp in a book’ that lays out a crisply written guide for product-based businesses to incorporate services as a profit generator. Alexander reveals best practices as well as the real-world challenges of moving from the status quo to selling service profitably―and clearly demonstrates why it’s worth it.”
— Anita T. Williams, Cofounder, Imagination Works, and Author, The 60-Second Referral
“This is another great book Alexander has written. Built on sound research and real-life experience, Alex’s new, challenging, and provocative ideas show you not only how to run a services business profitably and outperform your competitors, but also how to have fun doing it. This is a unique book that considers implementing the change to become service-oriented as fun; it sure is.”
— Prof. Hans Kasper, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
“If you want to sharpen your business focus, fine-tune your services offerings, and streamline your processes, be sure to add this book to your queue. It is a well-written, practical guide to selling services and a seriously great read!”
— Terry Jansen, Founder, PSVillage, and Publisher, Tips from the Trenches: The Collective Wisdom of Over 100 Professional Services Leaders
“Selling services in a product-centric company is no easy task and takes a lot of time, influence, dedication, and perseverance. This topic has been around for a number of years now, and Alexander tackles the issues head-on, highlighting the core dimensions to transitioning to a services-led company. This book reinforces best practices that need to be adopted in order to be successful and provides a holistic approach to seriously selling services. It also provides excellent, usable, practical tools and tips that can be applied quickly. This is a must-read for every services executive who has just started out or is struggling to make inroads in developing a services-led approach in a product-centric company.”
— Gary Neveling, Alcatel-Lucent, Director, Business Operations, EMEA SBG - Network and System Integration
“This new book compiles over 20 years of professional services wisdom into a must-read for any professional services executive. Not only great content, but told in such a way that is easy to follow and fun to read.”
— Hank Stroll, Publisher, InternetVIZ B2B Social Media Content and Newsletters
“Alex provided my company with an indispensable set of selling tools developed over decades of successful experience in the professional services industry. He has brought his body of knowledge to the next level with this set of must-read best practices.”
— Mike Haney, CEO, Athens Group
“This book is definitely worth the read. I specifically found the insightful chapter 'Transitioning from Free to Fee' most valuable, because if Alexander’s advice is followed, it can transform an unprofitable business into a profitable one.”
— Claudia Betzner, Executive Director, Service Industry Association
“This book is just like its author―bold and direct in its statements of what can and what can’t work in building strong services capabilities. Clear and easy to read, Seriously Selling Services is just the right mix of practical theory and real-life experience.”
— Marc Brûlé, Vice President, Client Services, Halogen Software
“Seriously Selling Services is a must-read for executives who are interested in growing sales and profits. Having made the service transition within an electronic controls company, I recognize that the wisdom presented by Mr. Alexander could have saved us a lot of time climbing the learning curve.”
— Herb Rippe, Former Vice President of Sales, Copeland Corporation