Each week, I get calls and e-mails from companies looking for qualified service marketers. I can assure you that the supply does not meet the demand. Increasingly, I am getting calls for service sellers as well. By this, I mean salespeople who sell services exclusively. Product salespeople continue to sell services at the time of product purchase, but there is an emerging trend in the growth of telesales and field-located service sales specialists. As with marketers, the supply is falling increasingly short of the demand.
     For those with experience in marketing or selling services, it is a great time in the job market. You can practically name your price, and, in some cases, your location. This also raises the demand for training. Unable to find enough experienced candidates, service organizations are hiring product marketers, product sellers, and recent college graduates and training them to handle intangible services.
     Many of these people are in for some surprises. Service marketing and selling has some wrinkles that are far from obvious. Sales techniques that work for tangible products, such as product demos, don’t work particularly well for services.

Sharpen the Saw
Even experienced service marketers and sellers have training needs. Promotional opportunities abound, but you have to be up to the tasks to succeed. Herein lies the premise for this month’s column: We all need training. For some of us it may be fundamental; for some, it is to understand how industry practices are different for services than for products; for others, it is to maintain our edge at the forefront of our profession. Steven Covey refers to this as "sharpening the saw." Every once in a while, we have to stop cutting wood long enough to sharpen the saw, so we can cut faster and more efficiently. If we fail to do this, we eventually cut slower and slower, until the saw is so dull it takes tremendous effort to get it to cut at all.

AFSMI Targets Service Sales and Marketing
I am pleased to report that AFSMI has targeted service sales and marketing as one of several areas that it selected to address with increased member activities. The effort began over a year ago when we agreed to publish this column every other month. This year, to provide more value to our sales and marketing members, the association has asked me to chair the service sales and marketing track at their 29th Annual World Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida, October 17-19. Although I am still putting the finishing touches on the agenda, I can share a few of the many outstanding topics and presenters we are expecting.
     First of all, I have tried to consider the different needs of both sellers and marketers. There are topics of interest to both, some for sellers and others for marketers. There also is a mix of fundamental topics, such as pricing and advertising, along with leading-edge topics, such as Linux support and e-commerce. Of course, fundamental techniques change in terms of industry practice, so I can safely say that any seller or marketer could benefit from any of the presentations.
     Take pricing, as an example. My friend, Eric Mitchell, will be presenting. He is president of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Eric is an accomplished presenter and an expert in pricing. He is virtually unknown in service circles, however. This is his first time attending our conference. Given his position in the PPS, he has a different perspective from most of our members. He sees pricing techniques from all industries and many countries. I look forward to being enlightened and challenged by his presentation.
     A different view of pricing will be presented by Sid Saleh of Service Management International. Sid will present the technique of using conjoint analysis to price new services. Conjoint analysis is a research methodology often used in consumer marketing. It is one of the few ways to test the effect of price as part of a feature set. It provides a relatively unbiased and accurate method to test different price points. This tool has not been widely used in high-technology, particularly for services. Sid will tell us how it is done, and when to use it. If you haven’t used this tool, maybe it is time for an upgrade to your techniques.
     As service marketing is still relatively new to many companies, I have observed that we are not using advertising and other forms of promotion as much or as well as we could. To help us understand the leading edge in this area, I contacted IBM’s Global Services organization. They are sending Dave McGovern, their manager of worldwide advertising and promotion, to address us on this element of the four Ps of marketing. I have reviewed Dave’s thoughts on the subject and you are certain to find some new ideas in his presentation. In addition to traditional advertising, he will be addressing the use of the Internet for service marketing.

Best-Practice Selling Techniques
For salespeople, Cathy Brewer, director of research at Hahn Consulting, will team with John Garofalo, our training director, to present information from our ongoing study of the best practices of selling services. This research started in January of this year and is being conducted internationally. We have been seeking the world’s most effective sellers of both traditional and professional services. As they are discovered, we are interviewing the sellers and their managers to determine what techniques differentiate them from their peers. This valuable information has a few surprises in store. Don’t miss it.

More Highlights
Other presentations include Shera Mikelson of Oracle speaking on "Portfolio Management, Stopping Urban Sprawl." Oracle is a formidable marketer of support services. I know Shera and she is a world-class service marketer. This is another one you won’t want to miss.
     Most of us have customer satisfaction programs, and some have evolved into customer loyalty. Fred Von Bennekom, a college professor and consultant at Great Brook Consulting, will help us tie marketing into these programs. Perhaps you have information flowing into your organization that you have not been taking advantage of.
     On the leading edge, Melinda Watson of BEA Software will be discussing how e-commerce will change the face of service marketing. We don’t usually have repeat speakers from one year to the next, but Melinda was one of the most exciting speakers at last year’s conference, so I invited her back with a new topic. I have no idea where she will be taking us, but this is one presentation where I will be one of the most attentive listeners. Melinda is a dynamo, so fasten your seat belt.

Linux, Changing the Desktop for the Next Decade
Finally, and what may arguably be the most exciting topic, will be a discussion of the challenges presented by Linux, the operation system that may challenge Microsoft’s dominance. This free operating system has the potential to threaten Microsoft, but the key challenge is in providing support. Since the software is provided free, the developers are unable to support it. Many vendors are moving to address this opportunity. At Silicon Graphics, Nithya Ruff is leading this particular effort. She will be presenting at our conference. This is a key strategic issue that may change the desktop business for the next decade. AFSMI is bringing one of Silicon Valley’s leading-edge companies to share its view of the challenges presented by Linux. This presentation alone is worth the conference registration fee and the trip to Orlando.
     If you attend the conference, and I sincerely hope that you will, look for me there. I’ll be introducing speakers in the sales and marketing track, grinning wildly, and taking lots of notes. If you’d like to talk about selling or marketing services, stop and introduce yourself. I’d love to hear what you have to say. Maybe you’ll even find your ideas or words appearing in a future column.

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