Tangibility - Key to More Clients Pt. 1

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Tangibility is the Key to Selling Services

When I give presentations on marketing business to business services, the most frequent question I hear is: How can I win more clients, more quickly? Prospects will only become clients if they see the benefits of your services so compellingly demonstrated that they consider you the solution to a problem that is so critical they are willing to pay you to solve it for them.

You can’t, of course, control which problems are foremost in a prospect’s mind, but you can make every effort to demonstrate how effectively you relieve certain types of pain. By analogy to the world of real estate, there are three keys to selling services: tangibility, tangibility, tangibility.

Think of the best-case scenario for converting a prospect into a client: a prospect is in such pain from a particular business problem that they can?t help but talk about it over coffee with a friend, who, come to find out, once had the same problem and solved it to their company?s complete satisfaction by hiring YOU. . .

What makes this situation so easy for you to sell into? The key is the tangibility of your services at that moment. First, the prospective client has a testimonial from someone who counts. And second, that person has a practical case study that exactly matches a current need. Between them, these demonstrate that you feel the prospect?s pain, that you have solved this exact problem before, and that you can do it for them.

This particular scenario may not happen very often, but the principles are still valid. Whatever marketing materials you produce should reflect a clear sense of the various types of problems you solve. You corroborate these through testimonials and case studies.

Your testimonials--providing you get permission first--should carry both the name of the person and the name of the company. To be most effective, your testimonials should highlight the qualities that most differentiate you from your competitors. And the company should be one that matters to your target audience.

Case studies drive the point home. Among them, your case studies should vividly characterize a variety of the problems you have solved. They should also represent a variety of the industries you serve and the various levels in the organization at which you work. Any one of these could be the hook for a prospective client.

To make your case studies more tangible, you should use each company?s logo--if they’ll let you--and perhaps even a picture of their facilities.

Tangibility is a critically important part of any marketing program to sell services business to business. You can’t spend too much time thinking about it, and you can use it as a standard against which to measure your marketing materials.

Next month, I’ll give you my thoughts on the benefits of having a website as a means to conveying tangibility.

Holton | Writing for Results
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