To be successful in growing your service business, it is not enough to know how to market and sell; you have to understand how your clients buy.

To help you demystify the professional services purchasing process, we asked more than 200 buyers of 8 service areas (accounting and financial consulting; architecture, engineering, and construction services; human resources consulting; IT consulting and services; legal services; management consulting; marketing, advertising, and PR; and training services) how they find out about potential service providers and what factors influence their decision to choose one provider over another.

How Clients Buy takes an in-depth look at the vehicles, factors, and litmus tests clients themselves say they use when evaluating service providers before doing business with them. Our goal is not only to provide you with the data and data analysis to answer these key questions, but to provide you with the knowledge you need to:

• Understand buyers purchasing tendencies from where they go to find service providers to the factors that influence their ultimate decision to choose one firm over another.
• Make decisions about your marketing and selling mix including which tactics to use to generate leads, build brand, and win new clients.
• Identify areas for improvement in your own marketing and sales processes that will have the greatest impact on your ability to succeed in the market.
• Paint a picture of the service purchasing landscape in 2009 - 2010 from service spending outlook to client satisfaction levels (including how client satisfaction affects a buyer's propensity to switch to new providers.

To download a research excerpt from How Clients Buy: 2009 Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling from the Client Perspective please provide the following information.