Businesses that sell services sell something intangible. The buyer can’t see it, can’t touch it and can’t take it out of the box to try it out. Instead, during the sales process, the buyer purchases a promise from the service provider and must simply trust that that promise will be delivered as expected.

So how do you, as a small business owner, convince prospective clients that they do, in fact, need your services? By making them easy to buy. Imagine how simple your job would be if every time you spoke with a client, they said, “I get it! When can we get started?”

 

1. Understand your target market

Sector specialization is a big deal in the B2B world. Understanding your prospects’ pain points and what they need is the key to successfully selling within the sector. If you don’t truly understand their needs, then it may be time to re-examine why you are choosing to sell in that market.

Regardless of your business’s target market, the tactic is the same — know your market, know what it needs and know how your services fit in. Making a sale is not about focusing on your overall capabilities but about focusing on what makes your capabilities applicable to your market.

Focus on the specifics as a differentiator. It’s safe to assume that your market already knows the general about the services you offer — so why should they buy your service instead of a similar one from the next salesperson who walks through the door? 

 

2. Productize your services

Think of a service like a piece of string; the length of that string depends on where someone makes a cut. For prospective clients, buying a service can be like wondering where someone will cut the string. For example, a business that needs to work with a lawyer to draft an employment agreement may be scared away by the indefinite length of the hourly rate. But if that same lawyer offered a flat rate for the same service, it becomes a product with defined deliverables and a fixed price.

Productizing services takes the consumer’s risk out of the purchase and makes for an easier buy decision. You’re not re-inventing the wheel by productizing your services. You’re not even offering a new service. You’re simply standardizing your execution and your pricing — making it easier to manage and more attractive for customers to purchase.

And the easier and more attractive you make your services, the faster you will close deals.