How to Package Your Service as a Product

A recent question from a new member of the scale exclusive circle prompted this article.

“I feel stuck guys, how can I productise my service offering?”

And while a lot of answers were provided by other members of the circle, we decided to write something about it.

According to Investopedia, “Productize refers to the process of developing or altering a process, an idea, skill or service to make it marketable for sale to the public.”. It involves taking a skill or service and processing them into a packaged and marketed product. Productised services are just like the physical products you purchase in the supermarket. Just like you have a wide range of products on the shelf to choose from and buy, so do you have different service packages to select from.

If you, like our exclusive member, are confused about how to process your intellectual capital or knowledge into a standard product to offer to customers and generate income from, this article will teach you how to. 

Below are the basics:

Make a list of your services

Here is the most important step of the process; make a list of the services. Before you think of selling your services, you should consider creating a list of the services you are offering in a crystal-clear manner. Let’s say you are a writer for instance, below are some of the services you are most likely to offer: 

• About page
• Announcement
• Article
• Blogging
• Branding: Business, personal
• Business plan 
• Content marketing
• Copywriting
• Course content 
• Editing
• Essay
• Interview
• Landing page
• Proofreading 
• Technical writing
• Web content
• Webinar 

Select the ones you are most competent at 

There’s no way you can be efficient in all the above-mentioned services, even as a professional writer. You’ll be weak at some, and great at others. You can identify your strengths through previous work you’ve done and received positive feedback from. Let go of the ones you’re weak at and focus on your strengths.  

Identify your target audience 

The importance of knowing your target market cannot be overemphasised. Your target audience is a specific group of people who would be interested in purchasing your services. They’re the ones you’ll be directly communicating with about your services. Identifying and understanding your target audience will help you define your marketing plan and strategy.  

Know their needs, wants, and pain points

Customers will be eager to patronise your services when they know you are addressing their pain points and providing solutions to their problems. For the above services, your clients will most likely be marketers who need to convey ideas, messages, or brands and write compelling content to attract and engage their target audience; tech companies that need to prepare instruction manuals, how-to guides, documentation, FAQs, and other supporting materials for their customers; publishing houses that need editors to refine their works; businesses that need professionals to manage their social networks (writers are more suitable for social media roles) and so on.

Find the problems these companies have, and through your services, provide solutions to them.

Define your value proposition

A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It is a clear statement that explains why a potential customer should hire your services or do business with you. It is the first thing they encounter when they visit your home page and all your major entry points and landing pages. Your value proposition should define what you do and how your product provides a solution to customers’ problems; easy for prospective clients to find online; it should be clear, concise, and easy to understand; it should be able to convince your customers to patronise your services instead of your competition’s.

Validate your product idea and start selling

This is one of the most critical points in bringing your products to the market. If you are certain that there is a market for your services, then you need to confirm that people will be willing to pay for your services. Validate your product idea by sharing it with a few people to go through it and give their first impression. Share your services with friends, family, your neighbours, the people you interact with on social media platforms if you have to.

If your product is an ebook, you could write an outline, an introduction, and the first chapter to get feedback from your readers. Their feedback will help you know if you are on the right track or there’s a need to go back to the drawing board.

If the feedback is positive, that’s a sign that you are ready to start selling. See how to validate your product idea here.

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Featured image: istockphoto