Introducing a New Service to the Market

Before you take a new product to market, you need to test it with poten­tial buyers. Companies in many industries conduct beta tests using early adopters; they are just as important in the accounting industry.

An early adopter (a.k.a. guinea pig) is an early tester of a potential offering. In exchange for preferential pricing (often starting at free and increasing from there), your early adopter provides feedback on the offering. You’ll ask them to tell you what they liked, what they didn’t and what they would like to see different. This will allow you to refine your offering until you get it to a stage when you know others will buy it. Read more

Packaging Your Services

If I say Big Mac, what comes to mind? You probably have an image in your head of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun. It’s easy to picture since the Big Mac is a tangible item that you can touch, feel, see and even taste.

Now, if I say tax return, what do you think of? Is it a corporate return or a personal return? How long is it? How many schedules are attached? It’s a little more challenging to picture. And you sure don’t want to taste it.

However, clients and prospective clients need to picture the “product” they get from you. They want to be able to walk into your store, pick a service off a shelf and take it to the checkout. That’s how purchases happen in our minds. So how do you take a service and make it appear as if it’s a product? Well, Progressive Insurance made a series of commercials doing just that.

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