How much do you love what you do?

Don't get me wrong. I know you are thinking what has loving your work got to do with selling more. The answer is simple, a lot!

If you don't love your service business, your lack lustre approach and indifference will show when you approach a new prospect. Or when you serve a client. And you can easily forget about impressing them. May be they will place an order because they badly need your service and don't have an alternative in mind. But they will not be excited as well. And referrals will be a strict no-no.

Yes, and that's easy! You have got to love what you do. You have to be passionate about it. And I can bet, it will show when you approach a new prospect. Or when you serve a client. So what!

Many things will happen. You will be converting more of your prospects because when they see your love for what you do, they know they are going to get a great job done.

And when your client sees you enjoying your work and turning some great results in, they will become evangelists. And feel great about spreading a word about you. And a flood of referrals will start. And you will need to spend lesser time marketing and more serving your clients.

How does this sound? Are you game?

Let me tell you a story!

Recently I had to get a photo taken for a visa. I was not sure if my favorite photo studio opens on a Sunday. So I tried to Google their name to get the phone number and found no results. Since I could not call them and I was in a hurry, I got the photo taken somewhere else. A regular client was lost.

Want to know who got my business? I searched for my area name + "sunday open", got a few results and chose the one who was close to my home.

Do you still think you don't need an Internet web site because you have a local business serving only a small neighborhood?

Almost every business can benefit by educating the client. The service business owner can benefit the most.

When you share tips to get the most out of your service and other industry news, you are perceived as the industry leader and expert in your field. This gives you a major benefit when the prospect is finalising the vendor from a short list, because he has heard your name several times before and people like to do busines with people they know.

The best way to have an Internet presence for your services business without getting into too much technical detail, is to set up a website with this tool.

A service business should never try to sell on price. Since the service is largely intangible with no firm measure to compare two service providers, you should focus on the value you are offering.

It is OK to charge $100 when you are saving the client from a pain or a future expense that might cost him $500. It does not matter whether you spent 5 minutes providing that service or 2 hours.

Most of the times, charging the client based on time spent hurts you because you may do something in 1 hour that others will do in 5 hours, just because you spent several years perfecting your skill.