BUT WHAT ABOUT SELLING?

In thinking about what marketing strategies to use, it may have occurred to you to ask where selling enters the picture. This is another way in which marketing a service can differ from marketing a product. When you are selling professional services, marketing and sales are not two separate activities that occur at different times; instead, they must be seamlessly integrated. Think about it. If you are talking to someone about what you do, you may think you are networking. But if she expresses an interest in doing business with you, you are instantly in a selling situation.

The opposite is equally true: If you make contact with a prospect in order to sell your service, the person may tell you that he isn’t interested but has a colleague who might be. Then you would switch from selling to networking.

The marketing strategy of direct contact and follow-up could also be thought of as personal selling. But it would be misleading to call it that, since in many cases when you make contact, you are not “selling” at all. You may be asking a potential client how her business is going or what she’s working on these days. You could be inviting her to your upcoming open house or speaking engagement. When you are speaking with a prospect, selling may not always happen, but it can begin at any point in the conversation.

So think about everything you do to get clients as being both marketing and sales at the same time. Think about every marketing strategy as a selling strategy, and vice versa.