Practice Edge, a new consultancy for professional services firms, says it aims to help professional services firms strengthen their skills in business-to-business sales and commercial performance.

The Belfast venture  says its focus is entirely on helping professional services firms stand out from the crowd.

Co-founder Jim Irving said: “Professionals are 'professional' for a reason. They are experts in their specialised domains. They have experience and qualifications and know how to adhere to the appropriate regulatory standards.

“But their firms are also commercial organisations that need to sell their services to prospective clients. From our research, we found a high degree of internal capability in marketing and ‘business development' in most firms. But there is also little or no formal training for partners and other client-facing professionals on how to sell effectively and to engage more successfully one-to-one with existing and prospective client contacts.

“Very few firms focus on training their professionals in the ‘human-to-human’ sales skills that exist in most other commercial businesses. That means they can be missing opportunities to add value and create more profitable client relationships.”

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Which is where Irving hopes to come in. “Practice Edge can help by offering training, individual skills improvement, tailored workshops, negotiation skills mentoring, assistance with pitch preparation and much more,” he explained.

Co-founder Jonathan Lancaster (pictured) commented: "For years, we have successfully helped entrepreneurial, fast-growth companies win valuable competitive business and develop long-term client relationships built on trust. Now, we start to share that experience with ambitious professional services firms across the island of Ireland.”

Irving is the author of two business books, the first of which, The B2B Selling Guidebook, was listed as one of the world's Top 20 new books on sales for 2021 by Book Authority.

Lancaster is the founding director of Belfast-based consulting firm Covato and is a business growth expert.