IF ONLY I HAD A TANGIBLE ITEM TO SELL

Service providers sometimes get into a “funk”. So many times small business owners tell me that it would be a lot easier if they could meet with a prospect and show a tangible product.

The following is the best definition I have heard to define a service business:

Services are invisible – they are just promises that somebody will do something.

With this as a starting point, the word promise is the key to everything that happens in the future; your ability to deliver on your promise is the key to your future business success.

Today, the majority of small businesses are service providers; in fact, today America is a service economy. The important thing to remember is that the core of service marketing is the service itself.

Service providers have to differentiate and then have to deliver. For service providers, their real business is marketing; that means that every action you take is a marketing action.

There are two main requirements for marketing services:

1. Know what your target market is really buying. Before you can sell you must know what it takes to satisfy your prospect. Remember that we live and work in a climate where change is the only constant. That means the opportunity to differentiate yourself requires you to know how these disruptive forces that are causing these changes can be applied to your customer to make their lives better.
2. Service businesses are about relationships. “No time” has become a major issue with all potential customers. What that means is that they are apt to make first impressions as snap judgments, and then base all their later decisions on them.

If everything you do as a service business owner is marketing and the goal of that marketing is to develop a strong relationship, then your entire marketing platform has to adhere to that principle.  It starts with the way you dress, with your compelling story, your WHY, the benefit you provide and how you listen.

I believe that as a service provider you have to become known for one distinctive thing; that will give you a competitive advantage. One main focus will allow you to position yourself as the expert in your field.

As a service provider it is important that you become familiar with and use all the different types of media outlets as well as human touch marketing.