How to sell your service to clients

As a service-based business, whether you’re a coach, a mentor, a therapist or a consultant, you’re selling something intangible.

If you’re also working online, then you’re selling something that’s already intangible and you’re not even delivering it in person! How on earth can you make this work?

To do this effectively, you need to understand the neuroscience of emotions and storytelling, the psychology of buying, how customer research works and you’re also likely to need to work on some blocks you may have around selling.

What all of this boils down to is empathy. If you can make sure potential customers feel seen, heard and understood, that they believe you’ll treat them with respect, and that you’ve started building rapport with them just via the words on your website, you’ll be set up for success.

Know, like, trust

You need to be able to build trust, often through social proof - testimonials, case studies, being featured in interviews, podcasts and in the media. But you can also build trust through generating consistent valuable content, and through expressing a well thought-through point of view.

Words that sell

And then you’re going to have to put it all into words, on your website - because online businesses are built on words (not just web copy of course, but social media and blog posts too, and guest posts and free challenges, and so on and so on).

And however much you’ve generated trust by means of regular blogging and bringing together a community of people who are interested in whatever it is you have to sell, ultimately you have to sell your specific services to your audience.

The power of messaging

To do that you have to be able to express the real value that your work creates for your clients, in words that directly resonate with them. If you can’t clearly articulate the transformation that your service offers, no one will buy - or at the very least, you’ll find yourself on overly long sales calls, with bad-fit clients, over-explaining what you do. And that’s not fun for anyone.

Actually asking for the sale is something many people struggle with, but a good sales page will make it roughly one hundred times easier, by doing most of the heavy lifting for you. A good website and an aligned marketing strategy will filter out your poor-fit potential clients and will leave you just talking to people who already know that they want what you’ve got.

For that, you need a strong, compelling copy, based on a foundation of a clear and unique marketing message. If that sounds good, have a look at my 1:1 services.