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‘David Deakin – Selling The Invisible.’

Posted: Tuesday 12th Feb 2008

As those who turned up at our last networking event in January will tell you, David Deakin of marketing mentors Zee2A gave a rather interesting talk about selling the invisible… Or at least, being able to flog something you can’t just whip out and throw on a table, like a plucked turkey or a nice lava lamp

But anyway, David, please introduce yourself and Zee2A “Certainly! Zee2A is a company that focuses on marketing and customer satisfaction. I work on the marketing side with professional services organisations that are struggling to attract clients to their business and close deals at profitable rates. So I work with them on a mentoring basis and I coach them in proven protocols that allow them to attract as many customers as their business can handle and close business at the right rate to include a proper profit margin.”

Sounds interesting, as did what you said at our event… “We went through cracking the code of professional services marketing and we used two of the seven principles of professional services marketing, which forms the basis of Zee2A’s mentoring programme. The two principles we covered were firstly the marketing relay, which is a metaphor for the process that professional service organisations should use in turning strangers to profitable clients and how to establish the value of the service before talking about closing a sale.

“The other principle we went through was what we call ‘marketing syntax’. It was about framing our marketing messages in a way that makes clear to our target market up-front what is in it for them. And we specifically talked about structuring a verbal signature which is, if you will, a positioning statement or speech that is a very quick 45 second presentation which makes clear how what you do impacts in a positive way on people who are your target clients.”

It sounds like what’s most important here is being a good middleman or being able to get hold of one. “I’m not sure of that. What’s really needed is to understand that strangers don’t know you, don’t like you and don’t trust you. And therefore they’re unlikely to buy from you. So you have to follow a process which allows you, in a non-threatening manner, to build up your credibility in the eyes of your prospect, and the trust that the prospect has on you, so when you come to talking business, you’re not talking business with a suspicious stranger, but with someone who’s already convinced you can help them. And therefore your sales conversation goes much more smoothly and hangs up less about price and discounting.”

So it’s trust, and developing trust, which is key here. “Absolutely. It’s about allowing a customer who cannot see a tangible product, because you sell professional services, to build trust in the value your service will deliver to them before you talk about price.”

Sounds good! But any last words? “When we’re selling the invisible, when we’re selling our skills, and our professional services, then it is vitally important to take time to allow the prospects that are our key prospects, to understand the value of what we deliver before we start trying to extract money from them. That’s the key message.”

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