Service Business Marketing

Your service business marketing efforts sometimes depend on “not-so-important” thing, like a simple question that you must answer correctly… such as The Million-Dollar Question.

Believe it or not, you’ve been asked The Million-Dollar Question hundreds of times. How you answer it is critical to the success of your practice. It can literally make the difference between having a practice that struggles financially month after month, or having a thriving, dynamic practice that will make you a millionaire.

Yet, if you’re like most professionals, you’ve never given your answer a moment of serious consideration.

When asked The Million-Dollar Question, you simply reply automatically, never realizing how much you could be costing
your business.

Do you know what The Million-Dollar Question is? It’s simple, but sometimes you have a hard time to answer it…
because it’s just a silly question:

“What do you do for a living?”

For your service business marketing, how well did you answer this crucial question? I can tell you with absolute certainty without even knowing your answer. Why? Not because I’m from some strange planet with intuitive powers far beyond those of mere mortals, but because there’s a simple way to gauge your answer that works wonders every time.

Here’s how it works. Imagine again that you’re at some social function or industry event. Only now, instead of
someone asking you ‘The Million-Dollar Question’, you’ve just answered them and you watch how they respond.

If they reply, “That’s interesting” then go on to quickly change the subject, you’ve given a business-killing answer.

However, if they reply, “Really? That sounds like something I could use.”, you just gave a hands-down winning
answer. Another variation of a reply that indicates a winning answer is, “Tell me more. I have a friend who could
definitely use that.”

Now do you see why I call it ‘The Million-Dollar Question’?

Because the success of your service business marketing depends on you being able to answer… with one clear, tight statement… in a way that elicits the second type of response. And you must be able to do it, without fail, every time someone asks you, “What do you do for a living?”

Let’s take a look at some of the answers you may have given to ‘The Million-Dollar Question’. Unfortunately, most
of the typical answers service professionals give are quite harmful to your practice.

The first, and most common, practice-damaging answer is saying what you are.

“I’m a management consultant here in the midwest.”

“I’m a trainer specializing in workplace diversity.”

“I’m a web site designer.”

“I’m an IT consultant.”

Or any other answer that’s a flat, dull statement of what you do. This kind of answer makes the person you’re talking
to say to themself, “OK, let’s move on to another, more interesting topic.”

The second service business marketing damaging answer is the kill them with my credentials answer.

“I’m the head of a financial planning firm specializing in exit packages for senior executives. Tomorrow I meet with
a Senior Vice President at Microsoft to counsel them on high-yield roll-over annuities”.

Let me ask you something: Does this kind of statement make you want to find out more about this person? Or does it
make you think, “I’m not so sure I can keep up my end of the conversation here. I think I’ll go get another plate of
those deep fried cheese balls.”

Next on the agenda is the hard sell, close ‘em now, take-no-prisoners answer.

“I’m in mutual funds. You know the market is performing beyond all expectations. Are you invested? I could put you
into a fund that’s outperforming the S&P by 35% every month. Are you available this Monday? I’ll give you a call and we
can get you started.”

This is the type of answer that makes people hate the very idea of marketing, especially service business marketing. It totally turns people off because everything you do is geared toward closing a deal, not toward anything of mutual interest.

And for our final example, there’s the mystery man (or woman) answer.

“It’s really hard to say. You see I do a lot of different things for my clients and no two of them are really alike.”

Great… it was nice talking to you. If you ever figure out what the heck it is that you do, I’m sure we’ll have a dazzling conversation.

These are just some of the most common mistakes people make when answering ‘The Million-Dollar Question’. There are
many more that we’ve all been subjected to (and used ourselves), but I’m sure you’re starting to get the picture.

So how do you answer ‘The Million-Dollar Question’ to help your business?

Here’s one quick tip: You must identify your “Core Benefits”

Maybe you ask, “What is this ‘Core Benefits’ thing?”

Actually “Core Benefits” consist of two components based on what clients really buy from you:

1. A solution to their most difficult problems

2. Ways to achieve most important goals

Once you’ve identified these “Core Benefits”, marketing your service and create an answer to ‘The Million-Dollar
Question’ becomes far more easier.

This article is just the tip of an iceberg. You’ll find many other winning techniques and unique marketing strategies on service business marketing topics on the most comprehesive marketing course program specifically designed for independent professionals and service business owners called “How To Market Your Way To A Million-Dollar Professional Service Practice” Please click here to download a free sample of this marketing course program.