If you ever pitched any B2B product or service, you probably realize how challenging this sector can be. Selling UX services is no different.
Add UX to the mix, and sales are bound to get even more demanding. Only sales professionals who keep a close eye on their industry and instantly adapt to changes can generate and convert leads.
Here are 5 smart hacks to help you engage qualified leads and boost your UX service sales.
1. Build a brand narrative
By National Research
Every marketing effort you put in should add to the story you create around your brand. Remember that you’re not selling a product – you’re also selling the expertise and awesomeness of your team.
That’s why you should focus on building a brand narrative that showcases key features and achievements that make your team so efficient. It’s not like you need to invent them every time – strong customer satisfaction, on-time delivery and crystal clear results all speak for themselves and should serve as the core of your story.
And you don’t even need a dedicated team of content marketers to do that. Start with creating a company blog. Share your success stories. Encourage your team to pitch in and help you become recognized as experts in your field.
Make sure to blog consistently and offer some fresh perspectives on your industry every week. Before you know it, you’ll have tons of valuable content at your fingertips to use whenever you’re approaching potential clients.
2. Prove it with hard data
If you’re selling a UX service, data makes for the best pitch ever.
Nothing speaks more than quantifiable results of a successful UX re-do. Choose data that shows how your service translates into customer satisfaction and ultimately higher revenue generated by clients.
Naturally, you can’t walk around saying how great you are without any proof to your story. Make a connection between your pricing and results your clients achieved with your help. Finding data to back up your expertise shouldn’t be a problem – UX is practically based on metrics. And what potential clients care most about is the additional revenue generated thanks to your service.
Sure, not everyone will be willing to share this kind of data with you, but some clients can be persuaded. Once you’ve got your case studies ready to be published, just run them through your clients to make sure they agree to showcase their results in your success stories.
3. Move into new industries by addressing common pain-points
By CGN Global
Approaching clients in a new industry can be tough. Here’s what you can do to build an awareness of your brand among clients who might not even know what UX is.
Research the industry to identify that one issue no UX company had a go at yet. Offer your smallest viable service to solve it. It can be a conversion test or a website review – the important thing is that you secure your first deal.
And once you show how valuable your service can be, work hard to maintain your collaboration with the client. Sooner or later, word will spread and other companies from the industry will be knocking on your door.
4. Offer your expertise for free
If the right occasion strikes, working for free can be well-worth it. But it makes sense to do it only in specific cases. If you’re approaching a highly influential client, offer to run a review or solve a problem for free.
One referral or social mention from them will earn you unbeatable brand exposure and generate a host of new leads.
5. Market what’s unique about you
By UserTesting
Just to be clear, this strategy is a bit risky. You’ll need to invest a lot of work to become recognized as someone with a unique skillset that adds something special to your UX service. Use individual case studies to showcase your skills and demonstrate what you can do for a potential client.
It can be a cluster of small changes on a client’s website, backed-up by solid data to prove their effectiveness in boosting its conversion rate. It’s not easy, but diving all the way into the process will help you bring in new clients who are simply curious about that special UX skillset you’ve got to offer.
What truly matters
When it comes to sales, it doesn’t really matter what you’re selling – your basic job is to offer value and exchange it to secure new deals. What are your key values for selling UX services online? Think agile workflow, expertise that delivers and a stack of solid data to prove your efficiency. Use them all in your pitches and you’ll be on your way to boosting your UX service sales.
Got any other tricks up your sleeve or need more advice? Comment below 🙂
Torsten is CEO and founder of Userpeek. He is an old stager in the online business with 20 years of experience as an online marketer, conversion rate optimizer and UX strategist.
