I’ve been writing about some of the keys Harry Beckwith has in his book called The Invisible Touch.  The final key, and the one he considers to be the most important, is that of Relationships.

Beckwith makes the point that the other three keys – price, packaging and brand are important, but when you sell a service, the most important factor is your relationship with your clients.

Business is personal; it’s about caring for people, making them feel important, understanding what they’re after and helping them to achieve it.

When you sell a service, you’re selling a piece of yourself, a relationship, and clients will buy that if they’re comfortable with who you are.

Beckwith lists 8 keys to lasting relationships:

• 1. Natural affinity – select clients like you.
• 2. Trust – do this by being consistent and doing what you’ve promised to do.
• 3. Speed – deliver what your clients want – quickly and accurately.
• 4. Apparent expertise – Beckwith says ‘you’re only as expert as you appear’. Look the part.
• 5. Sacrifice – Give something extra to cement your client relationships.
• 6. Completeness – what else can you offer that your clients may value?
• 7. Magic Words – say thank you, welcome customers, use their name.
• 8. Passion – this is what keeps clients. If you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll build strong relationships and get clients for life.

If you work in a service industry where you sell knowledge or information, I encourage you to get hold of every Harry Beckwith book you can and read them.  Have a think about the 8 keys above – how can you demonstrate them better?  What experiences have you had where someone invested into their relationship with you?

Photo credit Katie Tegtmeyer

I’ve been writing about Harry Beckwith’s book The Invisible Touch.  I mentioned how Beckwith looks at four key areas for the marketing of services businesses.  In previous articles I’ve written about how Price and Brand affects the perception of your service.  This week I’ll look at how the packaging of your service can influence your client’s perceptions.

I’ve written before about how clients look for cues as to the quality of your service – if they can’t see the physical service you provide, they look at how it is presented.

Beckwith points out that many service businesses cut costs when it comes to promoting their business – using cheap looking brochures, having their office poorly presented etc.  When clients look at those businesses they’re seeing that you lack confidence in how you present your business and they react accordingly.  If you don’t have the confidence to invest in your business, why should they?

How you package your business also gives you an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors.  When you design a brochure or an advertisement do you use similar images to those your competitors use, or do you use something completely different that’s unique to your business?

The packaging you use speaks volumes about your business.  In one of my previous jobs I used to visit financial advisers.  Their waiting rooms created a mixed range of first impressions in me.  Some were very professional in their look whilst others seemed to be behind the times.  I sat in one office where the most recent magazine to read was over 2 years old!  I’ve seen some great offices – one had a book full of client testimonials that were glowing in their praise of that financial planning business.  Reading those testimonials helps potential clients become more comfortable with the business.

I’ve sat in an accountant’s office where client files were everywhere – including all over his desk and on the seat I was supposed to be sitting in.  So much for privacy!  I’ve visited other offices where all the interviews were conducted in dedicated interview offices – clean environments that existed solely to help create a good impression.

Beckwith concludes his section on packaging with the following questions:

What does what your offer look like?

Does it look like excellence?  Does it fit the prospect’s image of an extraordinary service?

Does your package, your place, and even your person enhance the experience?

Your package is your service.

And he’s right.  Your package really is your service in the eyes of your clients.

So, how do we apply this to our businesses?

What does the packaging of your business look like?  Are you cutting costs but also compromising the look and feel of your service?  Does your web site look fresh and new, or is it dated and cheap?  Do you look like you’re worth what you charge?  How do clients perceive the packaging of your brand – does it look like they expect it should?  Do you know what they expect?  Remember, when I can’t see the physical product you sell, I begin to look at all the other aspects of your offer, and the packaging is one of the main things I look at.

Please leave your comments and let’s share ways we can improve the packaging of our businesses.

Photo by MarkHillary

photo credit: mangee 

 I’ve been reading The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith.  I like Beckwith’s books – he’s one of the few writers around who writes specifically for those of us who sell services.  In the book he looks at four keys to selling a service:

1. Price
2. Brand
3. Packaging, and
4. Relationships

In today’s article I’ll share some of his thoughts on Price.  Over the next week I’ll blog on the other three points.  As I outline some of these ideas, have a think about how they could apply to your business.

Beckwith explains how price is seen as an indicator of how good the service is likely to be.  He says

A price tells us how good a service probably is, then convinces us how good the service probably was.

I’ve read other articles through my MBA studies that back this up.  When you buy a physical product i.e. a TV, you tend to shop based on price unless there are other factors that you see as highly important to the overall deal.  When you buy a service, it’s difficult to compare apples with apples as the service you buy will be slightly different depending on who delivers it.  I’ve spoken before how consumers look for things that make the service become more tangible – one of these factors is price.

Harry uses the example of how in the 80′s Gibson were losing share in the guitar market.  They tried lowering prices and that actually led to a further reduction in sales.  They decided to increase prices and, you guessed it, sales increased.  Faced with a choice, if a consumer can afford to, they are more likely to pay a higher price for a service to gain the benefit of the perceived higher quality.

Harry is also against discounting, arguing that the discount buyer is only buying your price and doesn’t value your service.  He suggests if you offer a discount once, the client will expect it every time.  And the won’t value your skills or abilities – they only value the price.

He speaks about pricing based on the value you create instead of an hourly rate.  My last article touched on something similar.  He suggests creating a tiered pricing structure, where clients can pick from a menu of services that are combined in a set of pre-determined packages.

So have a think about these ideas.  Are you guilty of discounting prices to gain business when in fact you should be increasing them?  Is the service you sell sufficiently differentiated from your competitors that you’re able to charge a premium price?  Are there opportunities for you to change the way you charge and introduce service packages?

Please feel free to leave some comments on this article and let me know what you think.