Sell services to grown-ups-

If you sell accounting, legal or computer services you are probably very concerned about your brand.  You want to look appropriately serious in your marketing materials so that your clients take you seriously.  Your clients are making serious, numbers-based decisions.  You’ve got to prove your professional caliber in front of your clients.

Here-here!  Just remember: every one of the decision-makers and influences in your clients’ organizations was a little kid before they grew into business consumers.  Even your gruffest and toughest customers were trained as humans first and in their vocations, second.  As such, they still have emotions and it is critical in your marketing to factor in their emotions.

Marketing Tips

Here are some tips to set your company apart from your competitors.  Try this formula next time you are building a new brochure or website or PowerPoint presentation:

1. Tell a “Story-In-a-Split-Second”. What works well is a photo of people showing some type of emotion, coupled with a strong headline, and a subhead.  If you are selling business-to-business, photos that create a sense of trust or satisfaction are excellent.  The emotion to pursue is reassurance; a calming of lurking fears regarding the purchase.
2. Trundle Out Some Benefits — What’s in it for the customer? What benefit does your product or service provide?  Here you can start a short list of benefits, bullet points work well.  Remember, you are writing for the customer so don’t bury the benefit.
3. Features – You may be tempted to begin writing something like: “Our XYZ feature is the fastest in the industry” or, our “XYZ feature sets us apart from our competitors”.  Yes, features are important because they, “back up the benefits”; they add legitimacy. However, I have seen time and again lists of features that soon degenerate into industry jargon that only the most familiar and technically savvy can understand.  Features are the “supporting cast” in your collateral marketing — critical to the overall effect, but don’t let features become the star of the show.
4. To recap:   1 – Story,  2 – Benefits,  3 – Features.

Use this combination to create a repeatable message in the client’s mind and that’s what a story will provide.