INNERGISE!

Services based solutions can come in many forms. You might be selling business advice, taking on an activity on behalf of a client or perhaps selling knowledge through training and development programmes. Essentially, all of these examples and the vast majority of services are bound together by a common denominator.

That common bond is people. In most service type business interactions, it’s the relationship with the people involved that is the differentiator in the sales process. The reasoning behind this is that most services are a “promise” to do something whereas with products you can see a demonstration, experience a “test drive” or perhaps sample the goods.

Effectively the “promise” factor makes it tricky for a customer to fully visualise the resulting benefit prior to even thinking about giving you the order.  In most cases, the transaction takes some time to complete and once started cannot easily be abandoned which can strike fear (masked as inertia) into the hearts of many customers.

Referrals, Testimonials and Case Studies

Referrals are key to a services business. Satisfied clients are the lifeblood of the sales and marketing effort. Develop a portfolio of case studies that talk to your ability to understand a customer’s problem, your ability to develop a fitting solution and your effectiveness in the delivery of the promise.

Depending on the service you’re offering, some clients may not wish to go public about their relationship with you. In these cases, develop non-specific case studies that talk in more general terms about the issue the client faced and frame the solution that you supplied in a way that gives the reader a good feeling about your ability to deliver.

Most clients are more than happy to provide a reference about how you helped them. If you don’t ask you won’t get

Feast & Famine

Since service sales can be complex and therefore tend to have longer sales cycles, some salespeople can “forget” to maintain a healthy flow of prospect activity. This can lead to famine when the complex but key deal you had for that month or quarter fails to drop.

Maintain a robust sales pipeline. Manage the front end of the pipeline consistently and use it to drive your activity in the other phases of the process. Identify the key stages in your sales cycle and ensure that you map each opportunity to its stage in that process.

Work on constantly filling the pipeline with fresh new prospects. Long selling cycles are only a performance issue when you have only a few prospects rather than many.

If you need some help with this, click here to access the Sales Funnel Tool.

The value of relationships

In almost all cases strong relationships are key to real long-term success. However, when you sell services exclusively, they are absolutely critical. Services are normally far more complex to price, deliver and evaluate than pure products.

You’ll need to ensure that your contact feels comfortable along the journey of your discussions. Holding regular feedback calls and meetings are good ways to add weight to the relationship and help to build trust. Equally, ensuring that you keep simple promises along the way can help to instil peace of mind with the customer. Returning calls promptly are a prime example of this.

Scepticism

Many services touch or cover subjects of a critical nature to the customer. It might be finance, legal services or perhaps outsourcing of entire functions of a business.

Customers can display far more scepticism about changing suppliers or perhaps using a service provider for the first time than they perhaps would with pure product transactions. If they currently have a supplier they’ve already gone through the process of revealing the most sensitive parts of their business and tend to be wary of doing so again without good cause.

You’ll need to stress the tenure and trusting nature of your existing client relationships, to highlight your ability to empathise with clients about their problems and to demonstrate how you’ve earned a reputation as a trustworthy partner. Offer customers the chance to talk directly with a satisfied client to remove or reduce fears about engaging you.