Selling Intangibles

byLisaDSampson

205 followers

8 years ago

I've never sold anything concrete. Nothing you can pick up, wear or bite into. Its not what I'm good at. But give me an idea? I'll sell that. But it has to be a certain type of idea. An idea that changes people's lives for the better. These ideas most often manifest as a "service". The services may already exist, but how you access it is difficult and/or difficult to find. Hotels.com and booking.com are good examples of this. Lots of hotels offering accommodation existed long before these websites sprang up. Its just that these websites made it easier to access, compare and find the right one - just for you.

So, what intangibles have I sold? Mostly entertainment experiences, healthcare services, community care services and education courses. These industries are perfect candidates for people with good skills in selling intangibles. Traditionally, these industries are great at creating content (thought/soul provoking art, therapeutic interventions, learning experiences etc.) - but lousy at getting these intangible products in front of their desired consumers. That's where you come in. And I can tell you from long experience that by following the steps below and then making pitches to leading or growing companies in one or more of these content-rich sectors, you're almost certain to get some bites for your intangible selling services:

1. Identify an industry whose content you respect and whose vision you understand - I advise choosing a Not For Profit corporation with a substantial endowment or grant income base. This is because you can and SHOULD get the company's last 3 Annual Reports and analyse these. Pay especial attention to their budget sections (see point 3, below as to why) - as these contain the most financially transparent information for you to understand when you are starting out selling your intangible selling services.

2. List all the company's services and potential markets for each service (countries, user demographics, income levels of the ideal user etc.)

3. Identify which product delivers at least a 1:4 ROI (Return on Investment) in Year 1 where the marketing budget will not exceed 0.25% of the firm's annual budget. Note that a sizeable Not for Profit company's marketing budget should generally be around 4% of their annual operational budget. By the time you approach for profit companies with your services, the proportion of the annual budget devoted to marketing rises to around 9%.

4. Research what the company are doing to market that service currently.

5. Develop a marketing strategy for that service, identifying the company's gaps and identifying key new marketing distribution channels they are currently not utilising or are under utilising. Pay attention to social media channeling and web media opportunities.

6. Pitch that strategy to the Operations Manager or CEO - be prepared to donate it to them for free as long as you can operationalise the strategy for them and they pay for actual marketing costs (eg. Facebook ads) BUT strike a bargain. The bargain is: if you attain the desired results for them on the service in question, the company agree to contract you to sell X, Y and/or Z service(s) with a higher ROI and base your fee/commission structure on this.

7. Cultivate the company as a champion and referee for your ongoing pitches to other companies you approach with your services. When you're starting off, make sure it is in a service sector that does not compete with your fab #1 client.

Happy intangible selling to you all!