I’ve been selling a service for many, many years and I can tell you that selling something people can’t touch and feel has its challenges.

No amount of explaining, documenting and outlining can replicate the conditions of actually experiencing the service in action.

That’s why I’ve always felt that the best way to effectively sell a service is to start by giving it away.

Here’s how that might play out in, say, a consulting model.

• A prospective client hears you present some valuable information in a webinar.
• Some of the things you touched on directly hit on an issue they’re struggling with
• They call you up and ask you to come out and present some ideas on working them
• Instead of agreeing to what is basically a sales call you suggest another approach
• You send them a detailed form you use in the Discovery phase of working with a client and ask that each member of their executive team complete the form
• When you meet you simply start consulting with them by conducting a session to help the team get alignment on key issues based on their form responses
• At the end of the allotted time you make observations and global recommendation about solving their issue
• They determine they would like to see a proposal on how you could help them as a team

The reason this approach is so effective is that no real selling has to occur, you get to control the course of the entire meeting, the client gets value whether they agree to hire you or not, you get a valuable start in the engagement, trust and information aspects of the work should they agree to move forward.

This is the precise approach I’ve used for a number of years as it always leads to a more productive sales call and it effectively allows the prospective client to experience just a bit of what it would be like to work with me.

If you want to sell more services, figure out a formal process that turns your sales presentation into a sample service and watch any resistance melt away.