Services are intangible; clients often don’t know what they are getting until it has been delivered. You can’t ask an accountant to prepare half your accounts for you to make a decision whether to proceed. It is important to treat services differently because of their special nature.
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Selling services |
What does this mean to me? |
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Clients seek and rely on information from personal sources rather than non-personal sources (i.e. adverts). |
Who do you know and what can you do with who you know?
Seminars are a good way of communicating.
Add testimonials, case studies to your websites and in printed materials. |
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Clients engage in greater information-seeking when buying services rather than products. |
Provide potential referees.
Provide lots of information online about your business.
Create ‘factsheets’ where relevant. |
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Clients use physical facilities as a major cue to source quality. |
What does your office look like?
Think about the physical presentation of any tangible items (reports, letters) and go for the best quality (without appearing wasteful or OTT). |
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Clients’ potential options are smaller with services. |
Provide reassurance that buying from you is the right option.
Do not refer to competitors, keep the options smaller. |
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Clients adopt innovations in services more slowly. |
Encourage early adoption of the services by highlighting compatibility with other services.
Communicate the benefits of your service clearly.
Offer trials |
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Brand-switching is less frequent with services. |
Look at the lifetime value of the client; what else can you offer?
How can you add more value? |
People buy from people and even more so with services. After receiving the service, clients often reflect and wonder whether they’ve done the right thing. It’s important to encourage and measure client delight, so surveys after a service should be a standard process.
See also:
Q16 How do we prepare for client meetings?
Q17 What’s in a client proposal?
Q45 How do we sell our products?
Q99 How can we create greater impact meeting new people?
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