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One of the keys to success in professional services is to move from transactional services, in which you perform a function in exchange for payment, towards becoming a trusted advisor. As an advisor, the work is more interesting, it pays better, and you’re less likely to be undercut by a competitor who lowballs a fee in order to grab the business.
The right content strategy can get you there.
Gaining your clients’ trust is huge. If your clients trust you,
• They’ll believe your recommendations on other ways you can help them.
• They’ll leave you some breathing room if you’re overworked – because you’ve shown them you’ll deliver.
• If you make a mistake, they’re confident you’ll make it right, because that’s what you’ve done in the past.
• When one of your competitors calls, they’ll just say, “Thanks, we’re happy with our current supplier.”
Would you rather build your business by meeting prospective clients who already know, like and trust you – or trying to convince people who’ve never heard of you before?
I know which one I’d pick.
What kind of work do you really, really want to do for your clients?
• Move out of repetitive, dull work you’ve done too many times before, through showing your clients you can help them in other, more interesting ways?
• Escape the “commodity trap” – you’re performing the same functions as your competitors, which means you can’t raise your fees without getting undercut by someone who’ll work cheaper?
• Stop “performing a function” for your clients, and move into being a strategic partner with them?
Do you need to reach the top levels of your target clients, if you’re to sell your services successfully?
It could be that you do large, long-term projects with budgets that can only be signed off at the highest level. Or, you’re all about helping create strategic change, and that’s a top-level decision. Maybe you’re not targeting the top level yet in your work, but you want to be.
As I’ve found out in building my own business, reaching an organization’s top tier can be frustrating.
Have you ever gone shopping for new shoes, clothing, electronics or whatever – and come across a product that is exactly right? The features you need, in the design that works best for you? That suddenly becomes a “must have” purchase for you – and the price isn’t much of a factor.
It’s not a coincidence. Manufacturers put a lot of effort into consumer research and testing – focus groups and other ways to find out what customers are looking for. Their purpose is to create a product that will appeal to the customers they want to reach.
As a businessperson, that should be your purpose too – to understand your prospective clients so well that you can design a service offering that becomes a “must have” purchase for them.
