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Article:
Turning Your Services into a Product by: C.J.Hayden One of the biggest challenges in selling professional services is that what you are offering is intangible. Your product can't be seen, touched, or tasted. Until your prospective clients experience what you do, they have no way of knowing if it will turn out, whether they will like it, and how well it will work in their situation. To make a buying decision, the client must first trust that your work will produce the result that they need. The most common way to package professional services is by the hour or day. The client pays for your time, and they keep paying until the project is declared complete. But clients are often resistant to this. You will hear them say, 'I don't want to leave it open-ended,' 'That seems high for an hourly rate,' 'I'm not sure my budget will allow for this,' or even 'I'm not quite clear what it is I'd be getting.' You can overcome these barriers to making a sale by 'productizing' your services. This awkward term simply means that you make your service look more like a product, so that it becomes easier for your clients to buy. You give it a defined scope, fit it into a limited time period, assign it a definite price tag, and attach a distinctive name. Let's say you are an image consultant, and you've been selling your time for $75 per hour. Instead, you offer a 'One-Day Makeover' at a price of $'495
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