Selling services on the Internet

The other day I was speaking at an NRG meeting in London, UK. Afterwards one member of the audience came up to me and said that what I spoke about made sense for selling physical products but couldn’t possibly apply to selling services online. However, I disagreed. All our purchasing decisions are related to trust. When you buy a new car you are deciding whether or not your trust the manufacturer to build a reliable and safe vehicle. You are deciding whether you trust the warranty terms. You are deciding whether you trust the dealer’s company to service your vehicle properly. Similarly, when you bought your house you decided whether or not you trusted the structure not to fall down. And when you bought that new DVD player, you had to trust that the device would do what it said it would do. In the world of physical products, trust plays a huge part in our decisions as to whether or not to make a purchase. The same is true, of course, for services. When you buy the advice of an Internet marketing adviser you decide whether or not you trust the individual to help you. Equally, if you want the help of any kind of consultant you are entering into a relationship of trust. So, what the Internet does in these cases is help you build trust between yourself and your potential clients and customers. Online, there is no real difference between selling products or services.