What Do You REALLY Sell?

It’s hard to admit but for the first 3 years of working on my own I didn’t realize what I was really selling. Needless to say, that one thing alone slowed down my business growth for that time.

I approached the business as a technician, I knew I was great at what I was doing and I also knew that that’s what I wanted to do. And in my eyes, what I worked at was exactly what I was offering.

It never even crossed my mind to wonder how my prospects perceived my offer.

Luckily to me, some of them saw through my marketing pitch and figured out that I was selling exactly what they needed. They became my clients. Others though, and there were many of them, went on to stuff my competitions pockets with their cash.

But what’s even worse, without even knowing it, I relied on my prospects to find out what I am really selling before. All my sales were not happening because I was so great at it but because some of my potential clients took time to figure out BY THEMSELVES whether I can fulfill their needs. Yes, I was losing big and my company wasn’t growing at all..

Does this sound familiar? Do you worry sometimes why you don’t get more jobs in and why you can’t charge higher fees?

Here’s the funny thing about business. You don’t sell what it is that you claim you offer. Although most of us think otherwise. In reality you sell what your clients think they are getting from your product or service.

A web designer doesn’t sell websites, he sells an ability to expand the business to new markets. Similarly a chiropractor doesn’t sell massage but a relief and accountant a piece of mind that the tax man won’t go after you.

And have you ever wondered what implications does selling the wrong thing may have for your business?

1. You get less jobs in.
2. Earn smaller fees (yes, there is a relation between how your client perceives you and how much you are being paid).
3. You get less referrals too and your business grows at much slower rate, if at all.

Which means that by simply changing your marketing message to present what your clients think they get from you, you can attract even more prospects, increase your prospect to client conversion and start charging higher rates.

But how can I find out what I am really selling?

It’s actually quite simple.

Ask 5 of your last clients what were their expectations for projects you did for them and whether they were fulfilled. Find out what was the result of the project too. Ask them if there wasn’t anything missing in what you delivered, something they were hoping to get but ultimately didn’t.

All that will reveal how they perceive your offer.

But here is the catch. Once you know it, you not only have to change all your marketing message. You also need to keep revising that as as you will soon discover, new clients can bring in new expectations that you fulfill.

To do that, send a questionnaire to every new client you completed a project for asking about the outcome and their expectations. Keep a track of how your clients perceive you and modify your marketing message to be in line with that.