If you go to just about any professional services firm website, across several industry sectors, you will find a long list of services they hope potential clients might wish to buy.
The problem is, clients don’t buy services, they buy the results of those services. And sometimes it is not made obvious to them what the outcomes will be. Therein lies both a challenge and an opportunity.
Back in the 1980’s when I was taught the basics of selling (Business Development as professionals prefer to call it), it was stressed you needed to understand the difference between the features and benefits of any product or service.
Whether you sell family law, tax advice, Adwords campaigns, build roads & bridges or administer wealth management schemes you owe it to yourselves and your clients to work out what the “outcomes and afters” are. In other words, what is the client left with when you have finished.
Can I suggest you get together with some team members and senior stakeholders and revisit your written communications, on and off line, and how they describe the results of each of your service offering outcomes.
I guarantee your investment of time will pay dividends via new instructions.
To assist you, I have listed below some of the benefits I talk about on my website.
Enjoy the process!
ARTICLE BY ALISTAIR MARSHALL
