
I sell services. What the %$& do I sell? - superchink
http://www.mimiran.com/proposals/i-sell-services-what-the-do-i-sell/
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mkonda
This! The hard part is figuring out how to spend enough time with the customer
to give them a meaningful deliverable that is not hard for them to understand!

I like your points. Clock watching, limited upside and inviting
commoditization all seem like pretty obvious limitations.

I would love to see a way to put a more meaningful, customized idea in front
of a customer ...

~~~
reubenswartz
Finding enough time is always a challenge. Although you can help yourself by
pricing appropriately and valuing your time.

There's no easy, silver bullet to presenting a customer with a customized view
of their problem. The approach I take, which seems to work reasonably well,
especially for someone who is not a sales guy, is to start with a few
templates for common projects. These include examples of how I think the
project might go, which encourages me to ask questions to make sure I can fill
in the particulars for that client. Then, TAKE DETAILED NOTES when you talk to
the prospect. Things that seem vivid during the discussion may be hazy the
next day, week, or month when you sit down to write the proposal. Then you can
take those notes, and plug them into your template, and you have as close to
the best of the both worlds (convenience and efficiency of a template,
effectiveness of targeting the customer very specifically).

