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I witness service business and consulting practices all over the world handicapping their success and limiting their profits by making the same avoidable mistakes. It’s not hard to understand really as so many business people have been trained to think in terms of selling their time as service or expertise rather than selling what they really provide—value.
Below are seven ways that service providers hold their businesses back from climbing out of the ranks of also-ran commodity to brand and value leader.
1. No product methodology
Services can be hard to sell because there’s often nothing tangible for the prospect to hold and witness. You can make promises of returns, but often they’re the same ones that your competition claims. Lack of consistent methodology is one of the biggest profit and brand drains going for the service business.
It’s essential for service providers and consultants to package their service offerings in ways that resemble products. By creating a very definable brand name, methodology, deliverable, path and even price, you can paint the picture of exactly what the customer will receive and that turns the job of lead conversion into a simple affair.
2. No time lock key
Most consultants still offer their services on an hourly basis. The same is true of accountants and attorneys. This type of arrangement doesn’t really work well for the service provider or the service recipient.
How many attorneys have been fired over the years for offering to provide a solution only to turn in a bill that was shockingly high in the eyes of the customer. On the other side, how many consultants are locked into a fix amount of income because they simply can’t make any more time to sell?
Packaged deliverables, with associated pricing, are the answer: A will of this type costs X, a tax return of this type costs X, a marketing plan of this type costs X. In the end both parties win in this type of arrangement.
The service provider gets much more profitable selling a result and the buyer knows exactly what they are getting and how much it will cost.
3. No teaching platform
A reputation for expertise is garnered by doing work on behalf clients and in public forums that benefit potential clients and the industry as a whole.
Service firms must commit to creating incredibly valuable content—the kind that tells people exactly how to do what they need done—and making that content available to the market in as many forms as possible.
This includes teaching customers and strategic partners how to do things to be more successful, even if those things are seemingly unrelated to their core business.
4. No value mirror
Because service providers and consultants oftentimes make recommendations that they are not around to implement fully, the focus on end results can get a bit hazy.
If you want to raise your firm out the ranks of competitive commodity then get serious about turning the mirror on value. Measure results and get very serious about helping your clients understand the actual results you played a part in delivering.
When you do this you put your firm in position to gather tangible proof of results and this is absolutely your best weapon for warding off price shopping. When you package your methodology as a product and back it up with documented results, you’ll have no competitors and price will actually become a function of value.
5. No revenue multiplier
Most every business strives for some method of deriving multiple streams of revenue. The most profitable service businesses understand the correlation between revenue streams and tap the confluence of these streams to multiply profits.
A book drives profits, but also increases speaking fees and frequency. Speaking drives profit, but also increases exposure and elevates fees. A membership program drives revenue, but also offers opportunity for exclusive product offerings.
All of the elements above are strategically crafted to support and amplify each other and create a revenue multiplier.
6. No RFP repellant
RFPs should be banned from your vocabulary if you want to take your business to a much higher level. Simply addressing most of the elements stated previously will take most businesses out of the RFP game.
The problem with the RFP process in most cases is that it takes businesses that are substantially different and effectively attempts to make them the same. Entering this type of game limits what makes your firm unique and certainly crushes the ability to provide your work based on value.
The surest way repel RFPs is to address them with your completely unique methodology and proof of value. In some cases, your prospective client may have no recourse other than the RPF process, that’s that point where you want to ask if that’s the kind of client you want to attract. In many cases, you can attract prospective clients by teaching them a better way.
7. No collaboration network
Your practice can gain tremendous momentum when you understand how to attract and ignite a select team of providers that you can bring to your clients to help them get even greater results.
By building a network around you, you make your firm much more valuable to its clients and open the door for reciprocal collaboration and introductions to potentially thousands of new clients.
Once you take the time to teach your strategic partners about value and your unique approach, and then further teach them how to bring this approach to their business strategy, you can grow the most profitable lead generation pipeline possible.
by our friends at DTM
Image credit: red11group via Flickr
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