Your System Could Be Your Product

People who run services. If you have a business that sells products this can also benefit you because what makes your product standout from another businesses' could be your service.

Your service is your product and your product is your service.

Concretize your service so that it comes across like a product. Your service is usually delivered in stages, you do this, and that second. Even though it may look like a decision tree, I want you to create a distinct, concrete, step-by-step core system of steps that your client goes through.

For Example:

Step 1- Assess needs
Step 2- Apply them to the correct program
Step 3- Take them through the preview stage of project
Step 4- Complete scope of work for what the project is
Step 5- Implementation of the scope
Step 6- Clean up all unfinished product and getting client review
Step 7- Finish any last call-outs to customer specification
Step 8- Deliver project

What are the core stages you pass your client through?

I want you to do it in detail because it makes it much easier to sell your service. When someone asks what your service is you can name each stage and identify for them the value the client gets. The name you give each stage can be made so that it's clear that the focus is on the client. We often think of things on the functional level, but your client wants to understand what you're giving them. If need be, have an internal and external name for each step, the internal one being function and the external one being value to the client.

After you've mapped out the stages of your service, break down the product so you can sell it as a well-organized, and well thought out service. This will help your client understand the value they will receive in the 5-7 step system you will take them through. Make the service concrete and purchasable and approachable because confused minds don't purchase. 

Once you have the workflow, the steps, make that into a checklist and put it into the client's file so that you can follow up and be sure that each step is being followed by you and/or your employees. Holding to what you sold your client will help lead to a greater level of trust and a greater level of customer satisfaction.

I have a client who implements a 6 month-year long process and her business has more than doubled in the past year. She took her checklist of steps and made it into a book where each step has a description behind it and she can give the book away or sell the book and she can give the book to each client and make sure each client was getting everything she promised them. Another important thing the checklist book allowed her to do was to track her cost of goods and the cost of each system to her business on the backend. We repriced her product based on that information and confirm how many clients use her service for 6 months versus how many used it for a year. Her profit analysis was made possible because she set up a tracking system.

Take your service from something that is abstract and make it concrete. The value travels with your business to your bottom line, the future growth of the business, and to your customers.