Marketing and selling services in the HR Marketplace (and in most industries) isn’t the same as selling “widgets” – the tangible always trumps the intangible. Buyers can kick the tires of an ATS, or a web-based employee benefit portal, or an e-learning software tool. It’s not the same if you’re an executive coach, or a recruiting and staffing firm, or an employee benefit broker, or an insurance carrier.
Setting realistic expectations, delivery and execution, and customer service are only some of the factors that can help establish you as a successful services firm.
There’s a great new article at MarketingProfs.com that goes into detail about services marketing. It’s entitled Four Factors That Distinguish Services Marketing and here’s an excerpt:
It's been called "selling the invisible"—delivering intangible services as a core "product" offering.
Law firms, management consultants, IT services and telecom providers, architectural groups, healthcare and educational organizations, financial and insurance institutions, and a multitude of business-to-consumer operations profit from performing and delivering people-based services.
But invisibility, or intangibility, is just one factor that distinguishes services marketing from product marketing. Along with inseparability, variability, and perishability, these four characteristics affect the way clients behave during the buying process and the way organizations must interact with them.
Additionally, these characteristics influence the development of marketing strategies and the more tactical marketing mix—from the "packaging" and pricing of services bundles, to defining distribution plans and promotions options.
To ensure business success, services marketing professionals must clearly understand these characteristics, how they affect client behavior, and how their organization can respond to diminish engagement risk, improve customer perceptions, and enhance market opportunities.
Read the full article.