You’ve probably already heard “sell transformations”

Yet after hearing that about 1,000 times – and even preaching it myself

I still see many struggle with this concept.

Probably because we can understand an idea, but when we apply it in our business, bridging the gap between what we do and what our clients think we do seems intangible.

My hope with this conversation is to highlight 3 real-world examples to give you perspective.

The prerequisites for you to get the most of these examples are to:
1 – Have preset bundles/offerings of productized services (predictable outcomes)
2 – Have had several conversations with your clients about the key reasons of why they hired you
3 – BONUS: have completed your client’s Inner Dialogue exercise

Example #1 Digital Marketing Agency – Selling Activity

What do they sell:
• Digital marketing activities: social media, PPC, email, automation, graphic design.

Specialization:
• Industry niched but general marketing service. No specialization.

How they sell it:
• Services billed by hours/a la carte with bundles.

From the client’s perspective:
• I could see their services as if reading a restaurant menu. Made me question why 1 email costs $500. No value conversation. Made it too easy to compare to freelancers charging a fraction of the cost because the conversation was about “here’s what we’ll do for you” vs. “here’s the outcome you’re buying”.

Positioning:
• Commodity. Easily replaceable.

Example #2 Digital Marketing Agency – Selling A Future State

What do they sell:
• Digital marketing activities: paid advertising services.

Specialization:
• Industry niched. Specialization in paid customer acquisition.

How they sell it:
• Selling future revenue at a discount.

From the client’s perspective:
• Selling the experience to be able to generate revenue for clients and not discussing the 78 things the team does to get results. Focusing on the end outcome and what changes in my (the client) world when they achieve our goals.

Positioning:
• Specialist. Hard to replace the strategy, IP, and execution.

Example #3 Freelancer – Selling Access

What do they sell:
• Copywriting services.

Specialization:
• Industry niched.

How they sell it:
• Access to them.

From the client’s perspective:
• I personally worked with this freelancer to avoid the mistake of Example #1 (selling activity) because I knew access to their way of writing (yes even with AI), thinking, and nuanced experience in the niche they are writing for is hard to replicate. So rather than buying X number of emails, posts, or pages for $X, we worked a deal for unlimited writing as a set retainer price.
• I, as a client, don’t want to feel constrained to a set number of deliverables when 1 month we may need a little more, and another month we may be coasting doing the average amount (creating a true collaboration). I want access to their brain and that gives peace of mind knowing quality will be there.

Positioning:
• Specialist. Hard to replace the industry IP.

What are you selling? How are you selling it?​