“Services are those separately identifiable, essential intangible activities which provide want satisfaction and are not necessarily tied to the sale of a product or another service- William Stanton.
A concept, which was later turned into a service offering, is what I am going to be writing about. In the process of doing so, how the content was made the king, the methods used to grab attention, the trust built, and finally the transactions that happened both monetary and as a benefit to the client, will be highlighted. Not to forget at every step the laws of service marketing and implementation of social media strategies will also be covered.
The challenge however on my side is to keep this article in different silos (Marketing, Digital Marketing, CATT, Brand etc.) as the way I have experienced all went hand in hand. There surely was first step, then the second and maybe third too; however after a point I had to amalgamate all the practices to have a smooth ride.
So let me go back a few steps, in my previous article, I had tried to highlight, how Sales Operations Compliance was made a sought after service in the market. This was a concept, a concept primarily conceived, whilst I was working as a Sales Personnel in a software product company. An employee, who had experience in getting the foot in of any large conglomerate, however was exasperated by the urgency shown by the management to close the deal. It was no different when it came to dealing with small accounts. One can call it as my temperament of being a farmer rather than being a hunter in the sales role; still I would say the time required to get a deal, which has fewer loopholes in it, takes time. This is where the concept of me bringing Sales Operations compliance came up.
What did I do before stepping out of my job (During my notice period)?
As highlighted, I had the concept ready, now I had to get on to turning it into my product/service, which I wanted to bring to the market. Now as it was a service, an intangible element, I felt it would be the right thing to do if I get to feel the pulse of the market. To be more precise, I wanted to see the acceptance level in the market for the service that I wanted to offer.
So I started conducting interviews of MD’s and CEO’s of small software product companies. This was the market research activity that I performed. The results of these interviews were mixed, some showed me the door and some had requests/requirements, which for sure instilled my confidence back in my concept.
The interactions that I had, the results and findings had to find its way in bringing in more clarity into the subject. One of the tasks I took up was to start writing about it. I started blogging. The content, which I was creating for my audience to consume, paved way for further interactions. These activities eventually lead to more refinement of content.
Journey after I was no longer a regular employee:
As I was directly reaching out to my audience in my circle, which was one of the methods that I employed to build my database. Some database was purchased and some was gathered via my LinkedIn articles, tweets and Facebook ads as well (Steadily posted on these platforms after flying solo). People, who would read these articles, eventually were diverted to my website and blog. Up until now my posts on various platforms, was about grabbing my audience’s attention. Trust was built and was evident, when I had more and more stakeholders coming in wanting to consume more information and requesting for additional details. Needless to say the transactions commenced. I was not only conducting training for them but also was able to provide additional support in formalizing their sales process.
Pricing was a tricky part, considering it all that I was offering was intangible, the numbers and outcome was always a wait and watch game, with some tweaks and interventions needed at one or the other point. It surely helped me build more case studies.
Growth in business:
Owing to the tangible results, which were seen over a period of time, I started my promotional activities, where-in I could highlight the results derived by my clients. This helped in getting a larger set of audience and furthering the service offering.
One of the articles I read online on Service Marketing said, “Service marketing is an art. Capacity of a service provider is of prime importance because it can attract the clients to obtain the services. It also requires impressive public relations. The organization, which maintains good rapport with client, is always a winner”.
I couldn’t agree more, as at every step of my way, I not only had to ensure that my communication skills are at their prime, but also subtle in conveying my message. The challenge, when you are dealing with the brass of any organization, is that you don’t want to sound pushy, needy or condescending in any manner. The emails that I had deployed in my drip marketing for the audience who had signed up for emails or even for the ones who I had identified as my target audience, needed to be very crisp and engaging.
The understanding of the market, dynamics and economics also played in the very important role in building the business. Considering there are about 15000+ companies in India in IT industry segment, with an employee base of 100-500, which essentially was my target segment, it became easy as well as difficult at the same time for me to build the business. Easy as there was a larger pool and difficult as there was lot of competition. In an event to cut the competition I chose not to go the conventional way of being a Sales Trainer. The niche of being into the game of Sales Operation Compliance, a chapter, which was superficially touched upon during sales training, I opted to make it as a subject in itself.
Am I there, yet?
This focused approach till now has helped me create the Brand “TakeTheRightStrideConsulting” whether it will become a Personal Brand or not is yet to be seen.
I believe I am yet to reach a point where-in I become synonymous with my service offering as yet. The efforts are being taken, by being a Life Long Learner, continuously working on honing my skills, blogging about it, and taking up consulting assignments. The start-up for sure will soon follow.
In the entire journey of me building my company, the elements of digital marketing such as Content Marketing, Email, Social Media, Paid Advertisements, SEO, Sell and Convert went hand in hand with my content creation, attention, trust building and transactional activities. There were instances where I had cold calling activities and only few brochures sent in snail mail to specific set of audience as I had to try traditional marketing channels as well. My experience says one cannot rely on one channel at a time to build the business. The framework and techniques if they are not in sync the system fails. In order to have a reliable brand, one must have all the wheels turning in sync.
In conclusion, the essence of marketing is to have a hungry crowd lined up to consume your product and service.