How important is it that your services be easy to sell?
Wouldn't it be even better if they were easy to buy?
Imagine the possibilities if each time you spoke with a prospect,
they said, "I get it! How do we get started?" Remember,
the easier you make it for customers to buy your services, the
faster you'll close deals--and the more money you'll see
hit your bottom line.
Your Prospect's
Perspective
Regardless of the type of service you sell, your prospect carries a
high degree of risk and worry when buying. They really don't
know what they'll get from you until after they spend their
money and actually experience the service. During the sales
process, all their buying is a promise that you'll do something
for them.
But your prospects need something more tangible to help them
justify their purchase decision because they need to make sure
they're not going to feel buyer's remorse. And what is it
they focus on? Price. It's the one tangible factor they can
point to that helps them differentiate one service from another.
The problem is that when you compete on price, no one really wins.
So how do you win their confidence--and the sale?
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Make the Intangible
Tangible
Services are intangible--you can't see them, touch them, take
them out of the box or demonstrate them. Yet this is exactly what
you need to do to make them easier for your customers to buy them.
So how do you accomplish this?
The answer is to "productize" your service. Make it
tangible. Think like a product manager. Here are four different
techniques you can use to package your service to act more like a
product:
- Turn your service into a product.
- Package your different service levels.
- Combine your services and create a new offering.
- Package your process.
Each of these techniques will help you create a distinct
(tangible) advantage over other service providers and make your
services easier to buy. And whether you sell only services or you
sell services as part of a product sale, one of the following
techniques is sure to help you increase your service
profitability.
1. Turn your service into a product. This is one of the
easiest places to start--it allows you to create a passive revenue
stream, reach a larger audience than you could delivering your
services directly, and "prove" your expertise.
Frequently called "Your Service Name" in a Box or
"Your Service Name" Toolkit, for this method, you'll
create tip sheets, templates, worksheets and supporting educational
pieces that share your expertise at a fraction of the cost of
having you consult directly. You would package these in a binder,
on CD or in a box, and sell them on your website, at tradeshows and
at speaking engagements.
Examples might include "Writing a Business Plan,"
"Creating a PR Program" and "Developing a Marketing
Plan."
2. Package your different service levels. If you present
all your services a la carte at varying price points, you run the
risk of confusing your customers. And if you expect your customers
to proactively buy your services, you run the risk of leaving money
on the table.
By creating packages that are easy to buy and that cater to your
customers' varying needs and budgets, you can sell more
services and keep your customers engaged in the process of doing
business with you.
For instance, let's say you sell cars and offer pre-paid
maintenance plans. Then you might create a high-end package that
includes:
- Picking up the car for service
- Providing a loaner car for the day
- Changing the oil
- Changing the wipers
- Washing the car and cleaning the interior
- Checking hoses, pumps and other moving parts
And then a lower-end, prepaid package that includes:
- A reminder phone call for service
- An oil change
- Wiper blade adjustment
Each of these packages caters to a different segment of your
market but gives your clients a choice. When you package service
levels, you typically would want to create three product offerings.
Often, you'll see these presented as gold, silver and bronze
levels (but please, be more creative!).
Begin the process by:
- Looking at what your competition is offering,
- Documenting the value you deliver to a client,
- Talking to customers to assess their needs, expectations and
priorities, and
- Creating logical groups of offerings.
Two important points to consider when it comes to creating
service packages: These are not options in the quality of service
you offer nor are they just price adjustments to the same service.
These levels are differences in the actual deliverables and the
total value.
Additional examples of service packages include customer support
services for software or hardware products and consulting services
for a large business vs. a small one.
3. Combine services to create a new offering. When buyers
begin to see little difference between you and your competitors and
start to focus on price, reposition your service by creating a new,
more valuable service offering. This approach means you'll take
several services that you and your alliance partners offer and
combine them into one offering that's more robust. For
instance, as a marketing consultant, you could join forces with a
copywriter, a graphic designer and a website developer to create a
"Business Startup Success" package that provides
marketing, branding and website assistance.
Before you create a new offering, start by listening to what
your customers are asking for and paying closer attention to their
buying patterns. Make note of the times you're selling them two
services or when you're having to bring in partners to help
serve your customer needs. These instances offer you the
opportunity to combine individual services into more profitable,
valuable offerings.
A business consultant, for example, could create a complete
"Business Assessment" package that includes expert
offerings from HR, sales, accounting and technology
consultants.
Other examples include offering a complete turnkey newsletter
package if you're a freelance writer or editor, providing an
upgrade service for your software company clients that helps them
take advantage of new releases, and selling project management
services as part of your architectural firm's offerings.
4. Package a process. When it seems impossible to package
what you deliver, differentiate your company and increase your
perceived value by packaging how you deliver. Start by
naming the process, then document each of the steps, create a
detailed project plan, identify decision points, formalize your
deliverables from each step, and put it all together in a binder or
on a CD.
For instance, if you run a web design firm, you'll want to
document your end-to-end design capabilities and your development
process. And if you run a networking or software company,
you'll want to package the implementation and rollout
process.
This approach shows prospective customers you know what
you're doing and you follow a logical approach, and it shows
where they're involved. It also increases the perception that
you're established, professional and capable.
What all these techniques have in common is the opportunity for
you to present all the value you deliver. Often, we make
assumptions that our customers understand everything we do for
them. But this just isn't the case: You need to pull out every
piece of value you provide over the course of a project and present
that to the client in order for them to completely understand what
a terrific job you're doing for them.
Then, not only will you have clearly differentiated your company
from your competition, you'll have provided all the information
the prospect needs to make it easy for them to buy from you. So
start thinking like a product manager and watch your sales efforts
decrease as your profits soar.
Susan LaPlante-Dube and Maureen O'Grady Condon are
principals of Precision Marketing Group in Framingham,
Massachusetts, where they focus on creating customized marketing
solutions that deliver solid business results for organizations
ranging from solo practitioners to Fortune 500 companies. To sign
up for their "Matters of Marketing" newsletter, or to
learn more, visit www.precisionmarketinggroup.com.