Selling complex services: what we can learn from large-scale product development processes

Team coaches can learn a lot from the deep science of product development life cycles (PDLC). We can also adapt some lessons from processes developed to support productization, like identifying customer personas, mapping customer journeys and paying attention to every moment of the customer experience (CX).

What makes selling team coaching and consulting so different to conventional products

• Our customer numbers are relatively small – we sell few, high value services rather than many widgets, software iterations or micro-services.
• The depth of our customer relationships is consequently much greater and more personal.
• What we are selling is co-created with our clients: it is inherently customizable, and scaling does not produce the same economies of scale as expected in software or physical product sales.

Too often, team coaches try to productize too soon. This can involve changing your offer from genuinely valuable coaching and consulting to easier-to-sell training packages. Nonetheless, we can learn from the massive investments that have gone into product development and marketing.

Learning from PDLC

The benefit of product development life cycle models for team coaches and consultants is that they urge us to step back from the product or service we love, and examine our plan strategically. In my video I will outline how you can adapt the PDLC lifecycle into a structured process to examine

• the market need for your team coaching,
• how to test and validate your offer in the real world,
• how to create ways to consciously learn from each iteration as you begin delivering.

In the seminar we will kick at the tires of our PDLC adaptation for team coaches and consultants, testing how solid it is. Where does it serve us, and where are we simply so different that we have to chart a fresh course to sell complex, high-value services like ours?

Learning from customer persona and journey mapping

There is so much that is rich in the world of Customer Experience (CX) design and research. Team coaches can and should be

• Identifying their ideal customer persona at two levels:
  • What kind of organizational “persona” is your sweet spot for the kind of team coaching and/or consulting you offer;
  • What kind of people within each organization will be most open to your message and capable of driving it to a positive decision within the organization?
• How many team coaches really create a customer journey map? The process of stepping into your client’s shoes is deeply explored in the Wider Value Core Program – and in this seminar we will look at the ways CX research and design methods can be built into our regular processes for every offer and every client we engage with.

Seminar participants will get tips and templates for building and validating customer personas at both organization (systemic) and individual (human contact) levels as well as ways to creatively review your clients’ overall customer journey and experience.

What you will get from the seminar on selling complex services

We are not selling some kind of mass produced, infinitely scalable standard product. But we can learn a lot by adapting the relevant elements to support our kind of complex B2B engagements.

If you sign up for the Wider Value Advanced Seminar for team coaches and consultants on Tuesday March 3rd, you will get in advance a smart expert video from Mish on the topic, plus 90 minutes of interactive building with peers on the day.

And you will be able take away insights and concrete action steps to improve your own business. Please note that this advanced seminar is only for experienced team coaches/consultants who are already selling significant B2B services and want to raise their game.