1.- An important and intangible service is difficult to sell. Confidence is sold with all that that means. This is a critical service for the Client who cannot test it beforehand or test it beforehand. The Client always thinks if he really needs it, or maybe he can do it himself.
Unknown the relationship between profit and cost and do not know how to select the best option. You may even have this uncertainty after the service has been provided. Sometimes what was expected was a miracle. To request the purchase is to acquire only a promise of satisfaction.
2.- The Client runs much more risk than in the purchase of tangible products that he can inspect before buying them. Here it is difficult for quality to be "constant", because it is subject to human failure; therefore the quality of execution must be high.
This makes the buying process more rigorous and the buyer's power higher. Selling is difficult because you have to sell yourself; therefore the Client always asks: "What have you done so far?" . And the degree of interaction between the Supplier and the Client in the Sales Process, and also later, is much narrower.
3.- The Customer, first of all, what they value most, in general, from their supplier is that they understand their problem well, even if it is difficult to formulate it. Understanding the Customer's problem is vital; it even seems difficult to understand the meaning of "understand". A surprising and proven fact is the strong divergence between the Quality attributes that are important to the Client and those that the Buyer is important to. Several studies show that, in order of importance:
5.- The only viable strategy for this business is necessarily that of specialization. Therefore, it must be a segmented and differentiated service, or due to the nature of the market, or of the product or service or of the technology; or by two or three of them at the same time. Another very different thing is that this segmentation - differentiation - specialization is clearly appreciated by the Client, something very difficult to achieve (especially the higher the intangible).
6.- If not someone of extraordinary prestige, as far as possible:
a) The service must be "industrialized" in order to make it as independent as possible from people as much as possible. Only those who have a lot of prestige, knowledge and experience should make personal contributions.
b) Continuous personal contact must be practiced, and it is preferable that, as far as possible, the service be provided by the same person who sells it, since the Client is always puzzled to see an unknown new face.
c) Be also aware of the latest technologies and advances
7.- Each and every one of the elements that correspond to the service, without exception, are important. Not one can fail. When one is disappointed, first it is very difficult to recover it, but what is worse, all the other elements, without exception, are also disappointed, even if they were good. The problem of Quality Control is enormous. For example, there is hardly any point in making a good offer, if the communication is not continuous and creative.
8.- Perhaps the most important point of all turns out to be the need for an essential, constant and very good personalized service. The more intangible, the greater the "dependency" between buyer and seller (not in tangibles). That is why it is key to take care of the quality of the personal relationship.
Permanent creative communication by phone, letter, e-mail, lunches, etc. is required. to reassure and give confidence. An almost continuous dialogue in one way or another is essential to rediscover the true needs of the Client in an atmosphere of creative Communication. Sometimes the seller will have to act as an animator, stimulator, facilitator, informant, reassuring… and all this can be much more important than issuing a correct technical opinion. The regularity of dealing with the Client must be regularly controlled without leaving him and without remembering him from time to time, when it suits us. Be careful with this since it is the most important and arduous work that the supplier has to carry out. There must be an uninterrupted presence and a continuous reminder,because the Client has a strong tendency to forget the good service and to consider it as "normal".
(Unless it goes wrong or sees a competitor who does better).
9.- Marketing in this type of companies is a fundamental priority; but it is based on everything said so far, also remembering three things:
a) The testimonies of personal satisfaction of those who have already benefited from the service are important. It is a powerful weapon to ask a satisfied Customer to recommend the service to their friends. The most effective sale is word of mouth.
b) The heavy burden for the Client of not being able to check the service beforehand must be balanced by focusing on the benefits that will be obtained rather than on the characteristics of the service.
c) External communication must always repeat over and over the same slogan, metaphor or message.
d) Advertising expenses are usually useless and the correct advertising message is almost impossible to create. Even, according to authors, advertising can be counterproductive.
e) It is good to write articles, books and participate in forums and conferences that enhance prestige and fame.
10.- The price must be high to the extent that the service:
a) has no substitute,
b) it is difficult to compare with another, c) it is urgent to give, d) meet higher-level human needs. The price reflects the quality, specialization and value that it has for its buyer. When the human element, with experience and knowledge, intervenes with intensity, the price to the buyer is more indifferent.
When a lot is charged, the Client gives importance to the service; and not otherwise.
