How to Sell MORE of Your Services

If you want to grow your service business and make more money, there are two ways to make that happen. You can either charge more for your services, or you can sell more of your services.

If you’re booked out for the month to come and completely overwhelmed with inquiries from potential clients, you’re likely facing a pricing problem, and it’s time for you to raise your rates. The goal should be to work with fewer clients at a higher rate.

But here’s the truth: 90% of you don’t have this problem. In fact, in all my years of working with service business owners, this is pretty much NEVER the problem. Most people are simply not this much in demand.

The more common problem is that people need to learn how to sell more of their services in order to be able to make more money. And if you have this challenge, you’re not alone. I say these problems are common because most of us face them. They’re universal challenges and something you have to consistently work on to be able to sell your services and meet your income goals.

Here are five proven ways to help you sell more of your services.

#1: Increase Your Pool of Potential Clients

If you don’t have enough clients, it may be because you simply don’t have enough potential clients coming your way. Getting clients to sign on to work with you is a numbers game — which means you need a consistent marketing plan, so you’re increasing your pool of would-be clients.

The good news is that finding more potential clients is a fixable marketing problem that — with some time and effort — you can remedy. And before you decide you need to create a fancy funnel or run Facebook ads, stop that right now. Simply start with referrals and networking as one-to-one relationships will help you land potential clients much, much faster.

But what if you have a solid number of leads, but you have a hard time closing the business? If that’s the case, you likely have a sales problem, and some specific strategies are outlined below.

#2: Consults that Convert

If you want to sell more of your services, you need to master the art of the consult call. To do that, it starts with understanding what the purpose of a consult call really is.

A consult call is designed to be a sales conversation. Not a chit-chat or a free strategy session. Do you know how hard it is to close someone who’s not ready to buy or doesn’t have the budget unless you’re the bombdiggity of salespeople? I don’t know about you, but that’s not pressure I want in my life.

Before you get on the phone, you need to pre-qualify your potential clients with either a short intake form or a back and forth via email. Your potential clients need to come to the consult call with the understanding that it’s to talk about working together and what’s involved in that type of engagement.

Once you’re on the call, your job is to learn more about them and their needs, position how you can work together, and discuss next steps. Do NOT talk strategy on the call — clients should be paying for that as the first part of working together.

When you wrap up the call, be sure to communicate clear next steps such as sending a proposal or a contract. Don’t waffle about it and leave the conversation way too open-ended.

#3: Design a Signature Service

Hands down the easiest way to sell your services is to have clearly defined ways in which you work with clients. For me, this saved a lot of conversations about “Well, I can do a lot of things” and made it clear who exactly should hire me. Plus, when I got on the phone with people, I was able to explain in detail exactly how things worked and what results they would expect.

A signature service offers you a way to productize your services, so you can command higher prices for what you do while positioning yourself as an expert.

#4. Create Winning Proposals

I know that most of us really don’t like creating proposals — and with good reason. They can feel like a lot of time and energy for an uncertain result. That’s why you should never send a proposal until someone has been pre-screened, and you’ve had a productive consult call.

Next up, you need to create the kind of proposal that makes working with you a no-brainer. Anyone can send a two-page quote, but you want to stand out, and position yourself as the solution to their problem, and paint a picture of what it will be like to work with. Spend some time beefing up your proposals, and then use a proposal tool like Bidsketch to help systematize the process.

#5. Close with Confidence

You had a great conversation, you sent your proposal…and crickets. We’ve all been there, and it can be super frustrating when a client doesn’t respond.

First order of business is ensuring that they actually received the proposal. This is why I’m a fan of Bidsketch as it notifies you when your potential client opens the proposal. If you’re not using something like this, you may want to use a tool like Yesware on your email to at least know the email was received.

Once you know they’ve seen the proposal, you need a plan for your close. What you don’t want to do is to send a bunch of emails that sound like you’re chasing them. Sure, you can do that the first time, but if you want to follow-up more than the “did you have any questions” email, you need to add value.

Take some time to create templates you can use to help you stay accountable for your follow-up. Recently, I closed a relatively big project by sending a well-timed follow-up that offered some relevant, valued added ideas. That demonstrated to the potential client that I was diligent and committed to going the extra mile.

Remember, with your follow-up, it’s a YES until the client actually says no. Be the service provider that follows-through so you can close the business and not be another annoying email in their inbox.

Take one of these strategies and implement it starting this week in your business, so you’re on your way to selling more of your services. Small changes to your sales and marketing can make a significant difference when it comes to growing your business.