One of the tools I’ve successfully employed over the years is packaging.

For many people, the idea of packaging is limited to boxes and bows. In service businesses, packaging is all about how you package concepts and principles in ways that define your core difference, methodology and brand.

Here’s the thing I know for certain – effective packaging of your particular form of service is the path to far greater profits.

I’ll use some examples from my company to shed light on the various opportunities behind this concept of packaging for service-oriented businesses.

Brand

The name of my company was not always Duct Tape Marketing, but I chose that name as the foundation for my “packaged” approach to installing a small business marketing system. Even the concept of “installing” marketing created a new package for how to think about marketing.

My brand then inherited some of the mostly positive associations that people already had about duct tape, further enhancing the idea that what I was doing was unique.

Point of view

Another crucial element to this idea of packaging is what I call your “point of view.” I developed seven foundational principles upon which the Duct Tape Marketing system is built. Each of these steps became the building blocks for creating a consistent and persistent message for how my approach to marketing is unique. (Here’s the ebook that outlines those 7 steps if you’re interested.)

The point of view runs through most every element of content for awareness, education, trust-building, conversion and follow-up. It’s the basis of ebooks, webinars and paid speaking engagements worldwide.

When you create and nurture a meaningful package of principles you also start to build a common language that your community – in my case, network of Duct Tape Marketing consultants – can begin to understand, share and extend.

Methodology

While our point of view helps tell the story that attracts potential clients, it’s our working method that helps us stand out and deliver results. We have seven stages, all named and communicated, that each client goes through on the way to creating and implementing its unique marketing action plan and system.

When providing a service it’s essential that you are able to both demonstrate the tangible deliverables that are coming down the path as well as where they have been, are now and are going in the process.

Process

Every one of our stages breaks down into a series of named and branded deliverables. This tightly packaged approach has lots of flexibility but it also keeps the level of consulting consistent in a way that it can be duplicated in the hands of others. Packaging like this allows you to turn intangibles into tangibles consequently making them much easier to sell.

Tools

We’ve created a set of about fifty tools that we employ in various ways with most engagements. Tools are used to manage the routine and help us be more efficient so we can focus on the creative. Again, these tools have names, many are client-facing and most are used to educate as much as help in the delivery of a consistent end product. Here’s an example we call The Talking Logo.

Pricing

Perhaps the most important aspect of packaging has to do with pricing. Most service firms sell their time and are often assessed by the “going rate” in the industry. When you sell a package, you are selling a result based on the accumulation of previous results. It no longer matters how long it takes you to get a result, the evaluation is based on the elements of the package and the total perceived value. A sale of a seemingly intangible thing comes down to:

1. here’s what I’m going to do,
2. here’s what you’re going to do,
3. here are the results we can expect, and
4. here’s what it costs.

That’s the value of a highly developed and fully packaged service.

When you own the package and it is completely aligned with a point of view, methodology, process and tool set, you effectively eliminate comparison and ultimately stand the chance to own the game.