Are You Selling as a Service?
Not selling your service, but selling in service of your customers.
Do you struggle with sales? Do you feel like you are trying to convince someone to use your product or service? Are you considering the service that selling your product provides?
I was listening to the Entreleadership Podcast this morning and I think Dave had a great point when it came to selling. There was a call (I think it was the second or third) that had invented a new hair care product, and was struggling with the selling aspect of business. That is something I hear often and honestly the reason that I started this newsletter. A lot of folks consider selling only what car salespeople do. Or maybe that one guy that is always on the golf course, or happy hour. However, that is not really selling, sure those are things you can do to sell, but that is not what true selling is. Selling is a service to your customers, or potential customers.
Selling is a Service
This is the main point that Dave drove home to the caller, so please listen to his take on it, but here is what started rattling around in my brain. When you started your company there was a target market that you wanted to reach. You had the best solution for this target market. You had more care and more love in the process than the “big corporate guys”. You had experienced the problem yourself and you know the pain your customers feel. That probably sounds familiar, so you went out and started your small businesses. Now you are trying to get the word out there and help all those in your target market. Selling is how you do that. By getting the word out and selling the product or service to your market you are helping solve all of those problems that you saw. That is why your selling is a service. you are serving your customers by approaching them with great quality and a caring approach to their problem. So go out and sell your vision, sell the benefits of working with a small business like yours. You have a lot of advantages and there is a passion there that your customers need to solve their problems. Also do not forget to “hire” your best evangelists.
Hire your evangelists
Your best customers will beat any great sales professional. Why, you might ask? Because just like your selling is a service to your customers they are a service to others. They see the value of the product. They have experienced it first hand. They can share real life stories of how the product actually works. It’s not just a marketing campaign, this is Tom that actually used the product and here are his results. For that reason you should consider “hiring” them to sell for you. That could come in a couple of different forms. You can offer discounts on future work that is referred, think referral programs. You can ask them to provide a statement for your website. You could ask them to be a reference for future customers. Whatever is the right way for you to gain the benefit from those top clients make sure you use them to help you sell. Remember you are not trying to put together the best most polished marketing campaign. You are trying to get the word out so you can help more customers solve the problem your company is specifically equipped to solve. You want to help more customers so you need your current customers to share their experience working with your company. A quick note, even if they had a bad experience working with you, you can learn from that as well. So make sure you ask your customers to help you sell.
So remember:
Selling to your customers is a service to them, it should not feel gross or icky.
Your customers can beat any great sales professional.
They will not sell for you, unless you ask them to help.
Thank you again for your time and attention today. I hope you have a great day and found one nugget that will help you. If you did please share this post with a friend or twelve. Thank you!