Marketing Issues Facing Transformational Services Professionals
If you are your own commodity, selling your ability to do something (such as healers, therapists, counselors, light workers, energy practitioners, hands-on touch, etc.), you have distinct issues in marketing yourself. To help you get a grip on your marketing, you need a framework of reference; here is a list of the unique challenges you face (and likely need to address to get your marketing on track).
- It’s difficult to articulate what you do; ‘soft skills’ have different outcomes for each person who experiences your work.
- ‘You’ are an intangible product – how do you put value on who you are through what you do?
- Since each person has their own experience, the results vary and it’s hard to say that each person will get a guaranteed same result.
- You’ve likely invested a lot of time and energy in understand and cultivating your gift or talent, and now lack basic marketing skills.
- It’s likely you are a creative and non-linear thinker, which can be challenging to organize all that’s necessary to create a logical marketing / sales process.
- It can be hard to package your services because you may not know how many follow up visits are needed, or what the next visit needs to include, or how to state the outcome of the future with some sort of guarantees.
- You recognize, and take seriously, the very act of being in business as the conduit for doing “the work”. It’s a disincentive, in a way, to actually be in business.
- You don’t ‘do’ personal branding, because it’s about the gift.
- It can be challenging to explain your unique niche/service in plain language.
- Your services may not connote a sense of urgency for people to act on.
- It’s important to increase your confidence and organization to have a professional image and presence in the marketplace; it’s daunting to try to fit in that way.
- You may find yourself having to overcome common stereotypes about your services.