Stop selling what you do
Your customers and clients rarely buy what it is that you offer, especially if you are a service based business. It doesn’t matter whether you are a coach, photographer or website designer – people don’t actually buy the coaching, photos or websites.
And this is why most service-based businesses fail. The life coach who is trying hard to sell coaching sessions for working mothers gives up after 3 months of networking.
The photographer who is desperately trying to sell wedding photography at every wedding fair he goes to begins to wonder whether he made the right choice leaving his corporate job.
The website designer who offers a bargain basement offer for building a 5 page website starts to discount her fees even further as she panics about next month’s cashflow.
What do all these small business owners have in common? They are trying to sell what it is that they do. A common, yet costly mistake to make.
What your clients buy are the end results. They buy the benefits and rewards to the product or service you deliver.
People don’t buy coaching – they buy the business idea or new career path they get from going through the coaching process.
People don’t buy photos – they buy a gorgeous collection of memories, beautifully presented in leather-bound book that they just know the children they plan to have together will cherish sometime in the future.
People don’t buy websites – they want to found on Page One of Google and have email enquiries flooding in to their inboxes.
It was Heather Gillam of FitBizTraining who inspired this article and it was her that I give credit to one of the best names given to a fitness programme I have come across.
10 days ago I was feeling rather desperate. My mummy tummy muffin-roll had gone beyond cute and cuddly as even my “fat” jeans where uncomfortably tight and the thought of getting in to a bikini on my summer hols was filling me with dread.
Then in popped an email in to my inbox from Heather Gillam. “Would you be interested in a joining my “guaranteed drop-a-clothes-size-in-a-month bootcamp” starting in 2 weeks?”
What me – be able to guarantee to drop a dress size in a month? Absolutely yes!!
Now, let’s go back to the context of this article. What response do you think I would have had if Heather sent me an email on that same day and asked if I fancied joining her on a fitness programe? I probably would have gone away and considered it. But by packaging up her progamme as a “guaranteed drop-a-dress-size-in-a-month” programme, there was absolutely no room for any doubt on whether I should do this or not. I even re-scheduled client appointments so I can make the twice weekly sessions.
So, how does this relate to you and your business? Take a long hard look at what it is you are selling (and coaches – you are the worst culprits in this!). Are you selling your service and products? Or you are selling a dream? A feeling? A guaranteed result?
Because if you are not selling a dream, a feeling or a guaranteed result, then you need to re-proposition your offer right now.
Give your clients the results they want – and not what it is that you do!
Other articles you may be interested in:
- Selling yourself by the hour is bad for business
- Why marketing a small business has nothing to do with selling
- Does the ease of using the internet mean that we can stop the harder face-to-face stuff?
8 Responses to “Stop selling what you do”
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Sounds like you're writing about me there and the conversation we had :)
What a super interesting article, and very true too! I will try this approach at my next wedding fair. Thanks for this one
[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Thanks Matt. Sell the memories and not the photos and you’ll get a better price for your service too!
[Reply]
Great article. From my experience a lot of organisations do not really understand what customers buy. It is important to ask people “why did you buy from me?” but also “why didn’t you buy from me?”, to find out what you might have sold.
Also to remember that speaking to a couple of people (usually the ones we like and who are like us) and assuming that customers are buying the same thing and trying to sell that may be a huge disadvantage to your business. Take care to understand some different reasons for different groups to be buying from you.
One persons “end results” are another persons “starting results”..
Thank you for the article
Liz
[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts Liz. Great points you’ve made.
[Reply]
as an extension to what you say Karen – the crucial word is WANT as opposed to need. I know from extensive experience that people need to evaluate their business ideas, do market studies, feasibility studies etc but if I offer those services – other than to corporate clients via my ‘conventional’ website – I know I will have zero clients. People do not WANT boring old time consuming market and feasibility studies they WANT a business that brings in money working from home as of now. Took me a while to move away from the ‘I know what they need’ to the mindset of ‘offer what they WANT’. I actually offer the same things but present them in a way that ensures that the potential client gets what they WANT.
[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
A common problem this need v want! And so many businesses just don’t get it. Thanks for adding this important point
[Reply]
Gillian Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I think also being able to make the switch from giving people what they want rather than what your own experence tells you they need is possibly a function of personality and or work experience. If you are nurturing by nature, if you work in education then you tend to want to help people and so you seek to give them what they need whereas if you are more a sales type then you want to sell so you sell them what they want the heck with what they need. Karen I feel a need for a course on mindset issues such as these – you should put it on your to do list and offer it to people like me who struggle to make the switch in mindset.
[Reply]
Karen Skidmore Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Thanks Gillian – certainly a theme worth considering. It could be a great topic one month for my new marketing club coming out this Autumn.