From the Center for Strategic Relations, a twice-monthly supplement to Applying Strategic Relations, mailed at your request
Selling The Invisible
Have you ever wanted to stand apart from the competition, but just didn't know how? If you're selling consulting services or any other intangible, today's lesson will show you how you can sell more in less time.
To get the most from this lesson, it's important that you revisit the last where you learned how to be the leader every sales team wants to follow and are motivated to please. Without the cooperation of your sales team, you as a manager are useless. Are you beginning to see how critical employee relationships are to your success?
In the next lesson, you'll discover how to turn your commodity into an in-demand solution with unique value competitors can't touch. Even if you are selling professional services, common in your industry, you'll learn how to convey unique value that accelerates sales.
Ps. There are sales and marketing managers in your office, trade association, or who do business with your company who would benefit from stronger more profitable business relationships. Why haven't you shared this newsletter with them? Invite others to join us at https://www.insidestrategicrelations.com/
Strategies For Selling Consulting Services Or Any Other Intangible Easily In Less Time
If you are selling an intangible hard to demonstrate business-to-business service, you are not alone in finding it difficult to get buyers to instantly grasp. This includes frustrations with selling consulting services. That's because what you offer isn't something that can be touched, felt, or even seen until after services are rendered.
Here are a few ideas for selling more of your consulting services or any other intangible easier in less time:
Make it tangible for the buyer. When selling a service, describe to the prospect what it will be like after services are rendered. Use physical attributes to put a body on the invisible service so they can see the results they should expect. If possible, use physical demonstrations that illustrate what the service does.
Find highly qualified prospects. A qualified prospect is most likely to purchase and benefit from the service you offer. The more qualified the clearer a picture of what they want to buy will already be in their mind. By extracting this picture through questioning, you'll be able to match what you offer to what they already see as a desired result, thereby closing more quickly.
Demonstrate real results created. Use case studies relevant to this particular prospect to show what others have experienced after your service. Try to convey results across each sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste. While each sense won't be appropriate for what you offer, try to include each with real client based emotions.
Use worksheets and tools showing value in purchase. Help the prospect now they are making the right decision to purchase from you by providing tools to calculate return on investment, savings, or some other measurable aspect of value. When value can't be seen, it can often be measured by two or three physical traits.
Use testimonials from other buyers. Convey your value with the words of your clients; testimonials create credibility through the satisfaction of others. A catalog of testimonials will go further to reducing skepticism with your service than any other tool available.
Create before and after measures. Always perform baseline measures before conducting a service so your customer knows where they started. This establishes a means to see the results created, plus reinforces the original sale of services.
Help buyers see for themselves. Use a combination of worksheets, testimonials, and measures; it's better to let prospects come up with reasons to purchase instead of your sales people telling them to buy. This reinforces individual buy-in to the service you propose, while becoming more real for the prospect.
Setup door-opening sales of tangible products. Use a small informational report or resource to identify prospective buyers. Educating the prospect pre-sale helps frame the value of your service, provides relevant measures, and delivers parameters for selection while generating leads.
Walk customer through the experience. What will it be like receiving your service? Instead of describing what you'll do, describe what the prospect will experience during, and after you provide what you offer. Keep prospects thinking about what they will gain instead of wondering about what you offer.
You don't have to struggle with selling intangibles, selling the invisible doesn't have to be difficult when you follow these strategies. While your prospect can't directly see what you have to offer, you can show them the results of choosing you. Make the invisible, visible, and you'll close more sales.
