Stop Selling Your Services
Sounds ridiculous right?
You’re doing everything leaftletting (so 1990’s IMO) Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest – sporadically. Networking with your peers, talks at yoga centres every now and then, but it’s still not happening.
Why?
It’s because you’re selling your services.
You know I like to talk, but I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.
You’re a service based professional and you’re passionate about your job and the latest training you’ve undertaken. You love the fact you now have fifty billion certificates.
The problem is you love it so much, when it comes to sharing how you can help people, you get caught up in the method and process. This means you lose people. On the spot. And whether it’s online or face to face, it stings.
People ask you what you do and you real off ‘it’s the original form of this, eight classes, one hour sessions, a bit of massage, some reflexology, blah, blah, blah.
And you think you’re selling.
But you’re not.
At best you’re potential client will have exhausted all other options and you might be the cheapest, so they’ll book on with you from the perspective of ‘this’ll do. It’s cheap’.
At worse you’re bore the person into your competitors hands.
Even when you’re at an exhibition, if you’re client is asking you about the process before you’ve had time to build rapport and a relationship, they are just killing time with you before they move onto the next stand.
How do I know this nineteen years of sales experience in the corporate world and two years in the real world.
If you’re finding you’re not selling enough courses in person or via your website it’s because you’re focusing on the service or process rather than the transformation you provide. A gorgeous friend of mine once said, It’s a bit like rocking up to a travel agent wanting to go to Italy and the travel agent tells you all about the plane – in detail. You don’t want to know about the plane you want to know about the destination and how amazing it’s going to be once you get there.
As a serviced based provider you need to focus on the transformation and right up there with it your special brand of you! This is even more important if you teach a standardized program. You have to be able to shine through, if you’re funny, be funny. If you’re dry, be dry. If you’re a no-nonsense straight talker be that!
People buy based off of emotion. They will pay you for the end result and the knowledge that you are going to be a good match.
So let’s say bye-bye to selling our services and hello Sir, to selling you and the transformation you can facilitate.
Love this, Suzy – I think it’s so true, to connect with and “grab” people (in the nicest possible way) we have to resist the urge to reel off all the details (I sometimes bore myself when I do that) and show an attractive panoramic view instead. It’s so easy to forget that we don’t need to demonstrate the ins and outs of our expertise as such, but the benefits of it to the client. “Simple and powerful” is my new mantra!
I’m so glad this resonated with you Flavia. Give people the destination and the transformation. They don’t care how you’re going to get them there…As long as it doesn’t hurt! 😉