What do Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola have in common?
Yeah, they're all household name brands who create the hottest advertising and dominate their markets.
But that's not the common trait I'm covering today.
What they all have in common is that they sell one thing:
Products.
Well, technically, they use their products to sell ideas, but that's a topic for a different email.
For now, I want you to think about the tangible goods that they sell:
- Shoes
- Electronics
- Carbonated diabetes juice
Specifically, these companies sell consumable products. This means that you buy the product, then you use it in some physical way until it's "consumed." You might literally eat or drink it, or you "consume" it over time as the product breaks down or becomes obsolete.
Once the product is consumed, you either got what you wanted out of it or you're gonna need to buy another one.
Meanwhile, how many people did you talk to when you bought any of these products? There's a very good chance that you didn't talk to anyone at all.
You probably ordered it online!
Now, think for a moment: Are you selling shoes? Are you mixing secret ingredients together in a vat? Are you dealing with a complex web of manufacturing, logistics, and sourcing rare earth metals from third-world countries that forces you to run PR campaigns so people don't think about how some kid reached into the ground to pull out a chunk of cobalt in the same way you just reached into you pocket to pull out your phone?
I'm guessing your business doesn't do any of that.
In fact, you're not selling products at all.
You're selling a service.
And I'm telling you right now:
If you don't know the difference between selling a product and selling a service, you're in for a rough ride.
As your favorite Lovable Fuzzball of Small Business Founder Wisdom™, I'm here to help.
Let's start with some examples of Professional Services:
- Consultant
- Designer
- Copywriter
- Coach
- Marketer
- Recruiter
- Trainer
- Videographer
- Editor
- Photographer
- Developer
- You get the point...
Unlike the MegaCorps I named before who sell products to customers, everyone on this list sells one thing:
Services to clients.
What's required in order to deliver this service to your beloved clients?
A magical little thing we call "a relationship."
And this is the key that's missing among the majority of marketing and sales advice you hear as a Professional Service provider.
You see, these big household name companies don't just dominate the business landscapes and cultural narratives. They dominate the minds of most marketers and corporate-types who have published an endless string of "how to find customers" books that fill most entrepreneurs' bookshelves.
Which then trickles down into the "conventional wisdom" of the endless Parrot Parade known as social media.
This promotes a whole host of misconceptions around how to effectively build, market, sell, and deliver Professional Services.
Right off the bat:
Relationships aren't shoes or computers.
They're intangible scenarios that unfold over time and require a sufficient level of trust in another human to maintain.
They require a whole lot more involvement than just clicking the "Buy Now" button and waiting for a package to show up on your doorstep!
In fact, the thing you need to understand most is this:
What compels someone to buy into a Professional Service relationship looks NOTHING like what compels someone to click "Buy Now" to order a product.
Why?
It's really not complicated.
The stakes are completely different. Want a few examples?
- Most products have return policies. Services don't.
- Services require energy on the client's part. Products don't.
- Service transactions can last weeks, months, and years. Product transactions last for as long as it takes you to put in your credit card information.
- Products include fixed features and benefits. Services can vary widely based on shifting circumstances.
Do you see the point?
There's a reason that product-based companies leverage marketing and sales tactics that push people to the acute moment of impulse purchase.
Once the customer clicks "Buy Now", their work is done.
But you?
Your work just begins.
You ever impulse buy a Professional Services relationship? Or any relationship for that matter?
Unless you remembered to sacrifice your best goat to the goddess Fortuna beforehand, it probably didn't result in bliss.
And this, my friend, is why the vast majority of marketing and sales advice you is not just useless for you as a Professional Service provider...
It's destructive.
It encourages you to treat what you're actually selling—a relationship—like a consumable product. Which is exactly what people DON'T want in a relationship.
Let's look at how people (i.e., you) actually think when it comes to deciding who to trust as their Professional Service provider.
The list below walks you through a subconscious prioritized checklist that you and everyone else runs down in their mind when thinking about who to hire to perform a service:
- I worked with them before to solve this problem
- I worked with them before to solve a different problem
- Someone I trust recommended them to me
- I perceive them as trustworthy
- I perceive that they understand me and my needs
- I see them as worth the risk
How does each of these apply in the real world? I'll cut straight to the chase so we can wrap this up:
- Keep your clients happy and stay in contact with everyone you've served in the past. Make sure they're constantly reminded of your activities, expertise, and value to them and people like them.
- Make sure your clients know exactly how you can help them beyond the initial services you provide for them. This is the essence of building an "ecosystem" that they'll never want to leave. It's also how you increase your value and access bigger budgets by solving bigger problems.
- Create a powerful Referral strategy that encourages your current clients to advocate for you. Word-of-mouth will ALWAYS be the primary driver of Professional Service businesses like yours.
- Make sure your marketing, positioning, and thought leadership is clear, decisive, and tailored exactly to them. 90% of your content should be aimed at this.
- It's not enough to just identify pain points. Create content that resonates with how it *feels* to experience their pain points. Most clients struggle to identify how to solve their problem, but they ALL know how it feels to experience them.
- Create low-hurdle offers that make it easy for them to "test" a relationship with you.
Your action-items for today:
Carve out time to think about each item above and form action steps.
Pay particular attention to Items 4-6 if you're trying to land new clients or get current clients to hire you for new services.
One of the key advantages that most products have over services is that you can generally return them if you don't like them. While a client could ask for a refund on your services, they generally don't want to risk having to do that based on the wasted time and frustration, alone.
By creating low-hurdle offers, you disarm the feeling that they have to "marry" you in order to figure out if they can trust you.
Think in terms of audits, small sample projects, and/or workshops aimed at one acute pain point.
And, I have to say it:
You're going to have a MUCH greater chance of getting a "yes" from them if you've actually connected with them like a warm-blooded human who actually gives a damn about them beforehand.
In other words: Sow the seeds of a legitimate relationship first, and there's a high likelihood that they'll be asking YOU to help them without you ever formally pitching a single thing.
Alright, that's enough to chew on for today.
If you're taking steps to on any of the items listed above, reply and share them with me. I love hearing from you all!
– Torrey