Backlog ... Questions galore ... Vacation granted ... Hungry coworkers 

Do you study your win-to-bid ratio to measure your sales team's success? You may be getting only a part of the story. Jeanne Urich and Dave Hofferberth explain how to check the company's pulse with your project backlog.

Do you focus more on selling your staff's skills or on serving the client? There's a difference, and Randy Shattuck encourages you to rethink how you present your services. Working on your marketing strategy? Mike Schultz presents 23 questions to ask.

In the summer time, the living should be easy. But sometimes dealing with vacation requests is a nightmare. Check out reader and expert advice on how to whip the vacation assignment process into shape. One of our readers wants to get healthier, but feels sick because of coworkers' lunch date requests. How can someone on a special diet dodge lunch plans? What do you suggest?

Dreaming of a Kindle? Tell us what you think of this newsletter, and your name goes into a drawing for the ebook reader.

Happy reading -- Jack

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Taking the PSO's pulse

by Jeanne Urich and Dave Hofferberth of Service Performance Insight

Sell, bid, win, deliver and collect. It sounds easy, doesn't it? Unfortunately, things can go awry quickly with professional service sales, execution and delivery. Before work can begin, there must be a sale. While no one takes this for granted, professional services organizations (PSOs) must optimize sales processes and pipelines so they can sell profitable work that leads to successful projects and happy, referenceable, bill-paying clients.

Your Services Are Your Brand ... Well Almost

Rethinking the way you present your services

by Randy Shattuck, The Shattuck Group

Smart professional services (PS) executives know that they have to manage their brands effectively to consistently increase revenue, profit and demand. But the problem is that most of us don't really know what a PS brand is. When service executives think of "brands," sports cars, cola drinks and tennis shoes often spring to mind. These are a long way from the world of tax and audits, technology architectures, business plans and bond portfolios.

What's the Most Important Thing You Can Do as a Leader to be Effective?
Be trustworthy
by David Russell - Cincom Expert Access

Your Strength Is Your Point of Leadership
Delegate your weaknesses [audio]
by Iyabo Asani - Coach Iyabo

Last Issue's Dilemma:

Murphy's Law is in full force along with the summer heat. Somehow, many employees on my team tend to request vacation on the same weeks. Last year, I struggled to decide who gets first dibs on popular vacation dates. The aftermath was nasty, and I don't want to go through that again.

Yes, I want to my team to take its well-deserved time off. But how can I be fair without leaving the business shorthanded? Should I go by seniority, hold a drawing or what?

-- Judy, Manager           Read what others had to say

This Issue's Dilemma:

Dealing with hungry coworkers while sticking with my diet

My coworkers sometimes push me to go to lunch even after I turn them down. I know I'm not the only one in this situation. How can I deal with this without revealing the details of my diet? Or do I need to suffer the embarrassment of going to the restaurant and only ordering no-calorie drinks? -- Susie

Can You Help? Share your experience. You could win a Kindle.

Capture B2B Leads through Social Media and Brilliant Videos
Charming prospects with personality
by Meryl K. Evans - B2B Social Media Digest

B-to-B Insights: Survey Says...
What works in B-to-B marketing
by Robert W. Bly - Target Marketing

Get Your Team to Stop Fighting and Start Working
How and when to intervene
by Amy Gallo - Harvard Business Review

How to Manage a Superstar
Working with the LeBron James in business
by Ira Boudway - Bloomberg BusinessWeek