Sadly, sometimes products are positioned to the customer with these words coming out of the salesperson’s mouth: “Our products don’t break. You don’t need any additional services,” or “It is so easy to implement our software. Just read the manual and you can do it, no worries.” This is all a bunch of baloney, especially if you are dealing with a fairly complex situation, an important customer process,
and/or the customer has little if any familiarity with the implementation.

Rare is the product that will not need some type of service in its life cycle, whether a tailored implementation, ongoing maintenance, software updates, refurbishing, and on and on. Not positioning this reality of life with the customer upfront is negligent selling.

Services appropriately sold up front greatly improves the probability that:
• The product will work the way it is supposed to work the first time.
• Greater functionality of the product will be utilized.
• Irritated customers ringing the bell of the fire engine, escalating their concerns up your organization ladder, will be greatly minimized.

GIST: Selling services upfront saves your organization, time, hassle, and money over the long term.

Tags: selling services

Here is a bit of blasphemy: Most customers view your products as commodities! Regardless of how truly unique or elegant or innovative your products are from your perspective, in most all buying situations, customers see no meaningful difference in the top two or three products in any category, across all industries, across all geographies.

Yes, I understand this may not be 100% factual, but from the perception of the customer it is true. Hence, the old adage comes into play: Perception is reality. Kind of a sobering thought.

Once customers have determined their short list of the two or three potential products or bundles of products that they will seriously consider buying, they almost always cast their product ballot based on what they believe are the best services that surround the product—services that will best ensure the product works as promised, keeps working, and does so with a minimum of hassle and added expense. It is important to note that, in many cases, they will pay a premium for your offering if they understand the higher value your services bring to them. In essence, they vote with their pocketbook.

Furthermore, if your salespeople were strategic and sold an assessment early in the buying process—before needs were clear and products were specified—the probability of you getting the product business later on is greatly improved, giving you the chance to shape the final recommendations early while building relationships with people key to the final purchase.

Tags: selling services