Improve business: A beginners guide to selling your services
Do you need more customers but don’t love selling?
Selling services vs products
Selling a product or service is not the same. A tangible product is often consumed more quickly (food, clothing, book, beauty products) than a service. If you sell something that can’t be wrapped in a box and shipped to the customer, you most likely offer a service.
Selling a service is based on selling value. You’re selling a solution to a customer’s problem by offering your expertise, time and skill. We’ll look at what you need to know about selling a service and where to focus your efforts.
Examples of services : Attorney, Engineer, Marketer, Carpenter, Roofer, Electrician, Gardener, Tutor, Musician, Writer, Graphic designer, Web developer, Business consultant, Hairstylist, Massage therapist, Doctor, Physiotherapist, Counsellor, Childcare, Transportation, Cloud-based software, Virtual assistant, Virtual salesforce .
Service-based selling
When clients call us asking how to improve their sales efforts, we notice that they’re approaching sales like they’re selling a product. They advertise their services and expect the phone to ring.
Since you can’t pick up and touch a service, it’s a harder sell. You’re selling your expertise and offering clients reassurance by providing convenience and time-saving solutions. The missing link is often the process of building trust.
A service business sells personal attention and customised solutions, which means the most essential aspect of service-based selling is building trust. And building trust takes time.
Service businesses are unique because:
● The sales cycle is longer
● Pricing is based on value rather than cost
● There are more stakeholders involved in making a buying decision
Longer sales cycle
Since building trust takes time, the sales cycle for acquiring customers takes longer for a service-based business than a product-based business. Products can easily be returned if the buyer isn’t satisfied, but a service can’t. Customers spend more time researching and asking for referrals before they commit to a service. That means you should expect to connect with a potential buyer 8 times before they buy.
For some industries, you can expect to connect with buyers as many as 15 times, but 44% of salespeople quit after the first attempt. For service-based businesses, sales take time. It may take up to 18 months to turn a lead into a client.
Value-based pricing
Pricing your services is tricky. When we price our services based on a consumer’s perceived value of what we offer, there’s a lot of guesswork involved. If you sell a product, you know your wholesale cost or what it cost to produce, making pricing easier to calculate. When the price is on perceived value, this is where selling skills make all the difference.
More stakeholders
Businesses rely on a process when making purchases. There are many steps involved when deciding to engage professional services, just as there is a process to purchase computers and office supplies. Because of the perceived value, more people are involved in the decision-making process when selling a service.
A business consultant, for example, may have the attention of a department manager, but other stakeholders from HR and finance to team leaders and directors may also need to sign off. All these decision-makers might be in different stages of the buying cycle, which makes selling unpredictable.
Sales mindset for service professionals
Focusing on selling to people is the first step in selling your service. People are emotional buyers, and some take longer to commit than others. It’s easy to fall into the goal mindset of needing ‘x’ number of clients every month. With that mindset, however, you’re focused on the numbers and not the person.
We describe the service mindset like the mindset of a tour guide. You’re guiding your clients through the buying journey. It’s important to let them decide when and where they want to stop and how quickly they want to move to the next spot. Allowing them to go at their own pace means when they’re ready to buy, they’ll feel confident that you’re the right fit for them.
Sales mindset for service providers:
● Start the relationship early (before the sale)
● Build trust
● Understand where the customer is in their buying cycle
● Gently guide the customer through the journey
● Be patient
● Be helpful and offer resources (podcast, blog article, checklists)
● Be open to saying no and offering referrals if you’re not the right fit
10 Sales Tips for Service-based Businesses
If selling isn’t your favourite part of running a business, let’s look at a few tips to help you become more at ease with the process. You should be comfortable talking to clients, so a few sales techniques will help ease your nerves.
10 ways to sell successfully
Use person-to-person communication (the telephone is still a powerful sales tool)
Consistent activity is key!
Networking (both on and offline)
Share your expertise through content marketing (offer information at no cost)
Small business should be making at least 100 phone calls per month
Invest approximately half a day or 4 hours a week talking to customers or partners who can provide referrals
Understand the customer’s needs/problem by staying connected. (We recommend creating a plan)
Call clients and guide them through how your service will solve their problem
Be ready to refer them to someone else if your services don’t match their needs
Answer questions right away
You may notice a common theme throughout the list – communication. Talking and building relationships have always been the foundation of sales. We might not do the long sales lunch anymore, but phone and video calls are a vital tool.
To improve sales, be consistent and active in your sales efforts. Building relationships over the long term is the best way to build a sustainable service business. If you need help, consider outsourcing the sales tasks you don’t have time for or don’t care to do.
About the author
Kirsten Karbowiak is the founder of BDM by the hour. She partners with small business owners who need sales support but aren’t ready to take on a full sales staff. For more information about outsourcing sales, visit www.bdmbythehour.com.au.