Providing a service is more stressful than selling a product

[radhika]

If you are a web designer or graphic desiner or article writer or copywriter etc, you should have known that this statement is so true because the client demands changes, options changes, new ideas come out while the work is in progress ... all of these prolong your work.

But selling a product is an easy task compared to a service. Client already has something in mind after reading your sales page and he knows, it is not custom made for him. So he can use if off the shelf. Most of them fit their needs too.

What do you say? especially if you are a service provider.

.

[winebuddy]

I agree with you because I have hired copywriters or graphics creators and have an idea and then try to communicate that idea but it is very difficult to communicate an image idea to a graphics designer.

With a product sale, you just provide support for the product. Totally different and much easier.

[sbucciarel]

Absolutely. I used to be a service provider exclusively but have moved away from it to a large degree. I still have quite a bit of customer service to deal with but less than I had as a freelance graphic designer. 97% of the customers are great to deal with but the other 3% can make your life hell.

Yep ... Most stressful job in the world website developer / website designer. This is one reason I have changed my business model. Yes I sell products, yes I provide services, No I do not take clients on any longer for website development. What I develop now is to be sold as a product or developed for myself.

Needless to say I am much happier now ....

James

[George Wright]

James,

Right On.

I work cheap anyway. So I find it much more rewarding and less stressful.

In other words. I can Ghost Write an eBook for someone for say $500 or I can Write an eBook and sell 50 copies @ $10, 25 copies @ $20 or any other combination, rinse and repeat. And after the initial $500 surge it keeps earning forever.

Small thinking I know, however, no stress.

George Wright

[LogoNerds]

One thing great about selling services are the connections you make. You're always dealing with and meeting new people from across the globe.

[blur]

Agree on this!

Selling a product means the work is already done and the client knows it' a finished product.

[jitterbug978]

Selling a product is also more or less passive income, a service requires continuous work.

[ppcpimp]

It is by far more stressful especially when having to deal with uneducated clients. Their expectations are not in check alot of times.

[Clyde Dennis]

I've found providing a service is a great way to generate consistent revenue that can (and in my opinion should) be invested in other passive revenue streams.

[Zeus66]

Clyde beat me to it. Grrr! Starting a service is often the first step for IM'ers. You can freelance, ghostwrite, do links, whatever. Then the idea is to take some of those earnings and apply to your more passive income stream development, like affiliate marketing or info products. Eventually, the goal is to ween yourself off of the job-like work of providing a service and get into the passive stuff full-time.

[Paul Coleman]

Originally Posted by radhika

But selling a product is an easy task compared to a service.

I have to agree on that. I started off making custom products for marketers, now I make and sell my own. After completing the product, the rest is almost automatic.

If you make a great product, customer support is actually fun. And I like talking/exchanging ideas with people.

Paul

[Jamie Mailhot]

I would have to agree that selling a product, especially somebody else's product is the way to go at first. Of course, you still want to list build! I decided to go into services because I saw an opportunity, while the income may be higher for me at times, the work load is much higher.
With services, unfortunately, you may get stuck trading time for dollars.

[jewin]

I owned a design & programming firm (16 developers) and a shared hosting company. Trust me - selling products is FAAAAR easier. That being said, there is generally a more intimate relationship with a lead in the sales cycle if you're selling a service... and more opportunity to say, "I'll do that" if the client is looking for something special. With a product, unless it's a custom product, you don't have the same kind of flexibility in the sales process.

[he_august]

100% agree with you Radhika...
sometimes stress for me too, and its inevitable :<

But i think this is the first step to be taken as service provider designer to get money online, but we should think for the future plan... Which is make other work for us, or maybe create a product that will let the money works for us :>

You're not alone, friend... :P

[Josef_Benjamin]

Not a big fan of service related side of my business, but I do it
because I really want people to succeed on online.

I can reach far more people with my products than I can myself.

the more people you serve, the more you make. So I perfer showing
people my blueprint or someone else blueprint for success than to
sit and try to teach them how to do it one on one.

It's actually very difficult the service sector and fustrating if you've
never done it before. In service, you have to go at their pace and
it's often very slow. It's fustrating to know how to set up an auction
in less than 5 minutes or a squeeze page in less than 1hour and turn
around and it takes 3 days to get those things running.

[davidomni]

I would suggest getting a good outsource team of VA's.

[RedHat39]

Depending on the service you sell and if there is a negotiated final price you usually make more money from services. I used to give flat out quotes for website and graphic design. Now I charge by the hour and that alone has helped tremendously on the asking for tidbit changes.

[jitterbug978]

Outsourcing can be a real pain, it is hard finding competent people to outsource to and the one's that do know what they are doing really let you know by their outrageous prices. Either that or they simple price their low quality service very high.

[Traffic-Bug]

Yeah yeah right. If selling a service it is more difficult than selling some physical tangible product. I completely agree with that.

[TyBrown]

The key is outlining the terms of the service beforehand so you don't get caught with time consuming problems. Having said that, I still prefer selling my products to my services.

[NightWriter]

Well, I hope you are all correct. It's a little too soon to tell. But, I got into the idea of writing and selling my own material - my own "product" - and now in an effort to understand affiliate marketing from the inside out, I'm pushing other people's stuff - all because I was too stressed out, over worked and underpaid writing for other people.

The problem is that people don't have any friggin' idea what they want - even when they say they do. When you have a finished product and they can see it, then they can choose to accept or reject it as is. The end.

The other problem with providing a service is that you finally establish a relationship of mutual understanding with a client and something happens to them! I would think that marketing your own product would involve not only some loyal customers, but streams of new ones who are interested in what you have to offer.

[JenniferHardings]

Isn't a product a service to people anyways, as you are addressing a problem they have, and are attempting to solve it or offer them a solution. That is a service in itself, just a different form of servicing people, because they can choose to buy it, whereas with something like writing for someone else, they can demand the specifications from you.


But of course if the person is really picky- you can always choose to politely ask them to work on it alone, and just show them the progress as you go along- or you can just flat out explain that you are not capable of completing the services for them, as hard as that may be to do.

But certainly it can be stressful having someone demanding something of you- whereas if you create your own products, you are only demanding of yourself. But if you are good at what you do, and you love doing it, the above wont be much of an issue... especially when you put out your OWN offer to provide services in the first place.

[Bev Clement]

I recently did a teleseminar on ghostwriting, and one thing I said applies to all service providers.

We are ghostwriters ... not mind readers.

If a client doesn't know what they want and can't communicate it effectively, then they shouldn't conisder hiring until they do.

Remember you're not hiring a mind reader.

[SusanneUK]

I certainly can accept what you are all saying but in my own case, I have thoroughly enjoyed providing services (perhaps I have just been lucky with the clients I have had so far).

The services I provide I have found just really suit me and have revealed to me where my talent lies and at the moment (this could change of course) product creation and the thought of it just simply does not appeal to me.

Before slipping into providing design and teaching services I used to try and think of what product could I make and could never think of anything, however, now that I am a service provider and in particular the tuition side of things I am getting loads of ideas of products I could create so we will see.

I can't say whether creating a product is less stressful than service provision simply because I have never made a product but I can say, I love what I do as a service provider and have not found it stressful.

Oh and I agree, wherever possible, if you can charge by the hour, much better.

Sue

[AJ Silvers]

Wow, what an interesting thread!

I agree that for some IMers the service route can be the best way to generate cash to kick off training and product development and that there are nightmare customers...

However, I have found that managing expectations at the beginning is the best way to reduce support issues and allow you to over deliver for the Wow factor at the end (about 30secs before you ask them for testimonials and referrals!).

You can combine the two. Build a service for a niche but make it very well packaged, defined and with a tight contract. That way you can get a high ticket item for sale with minimal hassles.

I know two guys who build niche websites for Tax Accountants here in the UK. £80 per accountant per month (approx $130).

And that is all in, hosting, data feeds coming in from the UK government, basic site mods, etc and tax accountants have limited CMS access so they cannot break it!

I know $130 does not sound like a lot but that is per month per customer (last time I spoke to them they had almost 200 clients) they are doing more than $300k per year and they have tight control over the damage the clients can do to their sites lol.

I bet there are more Tax Accountants in the US than in the UK...new niche anyone?

[AndrewCavanagh]

The equation is not quite that simple.

You also have to figure in the price of the product or service you're selling.

You can get paid many thousands of dollars for a service whereas most good selling products are in the $7-$97 range with very few being over $1,000.

So while selling ONE service to one client does require more work you should figure in the amount of customer service you'll provide to make the same amount of money selling products.

For example how much customer service would you have to provide to sell 125 products at $20 each compared to the extra work you might have to do selling one service at $2,500.

You also need to figure in the effort required to sell those 125 products (lead generation etc) compared to the effort required to find just one $2,500 client (who may hire you again).

For most people wanting to make a full time living selling a service is the faster path but it's really not an either/or question...you should seriously consider doing both.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[marciayudkin]

it's really not an either/or question...you should seriously consider doing both.

I agree with Andrew.

In addition, for most people I know, the original content of their products comes from their service work. Don't forget that product content can't come out of nowhere! If you are not serving clients, then you either recycle what everyone else has said, rely on your personal experience or you must do research.

Think about all the people you know who have produced awesome, groundbreaking products. At least 80 percent of the time, their distinctive content comes from their work with clients (which include coaching and mentoring).

I know that if I stopped working with clients, my original thinking about marketing would gradually wind down and my work would inevitably become derivative.

Marcia Yudkin

[la dominatrix]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

97% of the customers are great to deal with but the other 3% can make your life hell.

Could not be truer 96% of customers fasll into the average and two percent fall into the super sweeites and two percent make your life a misery! Funnily enough though they are never satisfied becasue you would never ever take another commision from them and they leave disgruntled to take it out on someone else later
La dominatrix

[ntarvin]

Up until yesterday I did both - I sold several ebooks and my Word template package, and I also designed ebook interiors, covers and websites.

The "service" aspect was - by far - much more stressful, frustrating, and aggravating than the product aspects.

How much stress is involved in opening an email from PayPal saying I sold another item, compared with trying to tell someone that yellow type just isn't a good idea on a white background, or that 14 different animated ads on their website isn't going to work the way they think it is, or that they can't pick any graphic off the web and use it on their website or ebook cover?

Yesterday I shut down the design side of my business on doctor's orders - mainly because the stress was causing my MS to be in a continual state of flareup. (I never did find anyone to take it over, btw... so now it's closed - I'll stick to the non-stressful parts of online business - opening emails from PayPal! LOL!)

[achivement84]

I agree you, selling a product is much easier, main effort is to find your customer then you provide a pre-designed product with certain spec. which your customer already look for it, then you give him good after sale service to keep your customers and better promote your product.

Providing a service especially designing is much harder, as we dont have the same tastes, your client view may differ alot from yours may be in some times the service provider will have to repeat his work to satisfy his client.

Regards..

[danielmcclure]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that stress is probably healthy for you. Generally speaking I see two types of stress; there is the one that keeps you up at night worrying about something you have no control over (this one can be bad) and then there is the type that means you are moving outside of your comfort zone and developing skills and ways to deal with new situations.

Personally I've had a mixture of both types of stress which I would guess is pretty common for most people, but the positive stress definitely outweighs the negative. Funnily enough the most bad stress I've bad is from outsourcing and this can happen on either side of the spectrum so at least by also providing services you can build relationships with key people which will be beneficial for your product development in turn.

If you feel stressed, take a minute to figure out why and you may find that it's the type of stress you should be actively seeking, not hiding from. Equally if something is giving you a ton of headaches for no apparent benefit then maybe it's time to reconsider you direction.

[Aljiro]

Hi,

Service Providing IS more stressful yet can be just as rewarding. It highly depends on the person though

I hope to build my passive income soon.

Thanks.

[radhika]

Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh

The equation is not quite that simple.

You also have to figure in the price of the product or service you're selling.

You can get paid many thousands of dollars for a service whereas most good selling products are in the $7-$97 range with very few being over $1,000.

So while selling ONE service to one client does require more work you should figure in the amount of customer service you'll provide to make the same amount of money selling products.

For example how much customer service would you have to provide to sell 125 products at $20 each compared to the extra work you might have to do selling one service at $2,500.

You also need to figure in the effort required to sell those 125 products (lead generation etc) compared to the effort required to find just one $2,500 client (who may hire you again).

For most people wanting to make a full time living selling a service is the faster path but it's really not an either/or question...you should seriously consider doing both.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Yes. I agree with you that price of services are more when compared to a product.

But read this equation:

You have a product selling $100.00. You realized that you need to promote it with a discount than your competitor product. Most of the times you would not end up providing lot of customer service.

Now coming to a service, if you offer discount still you end up spending same amount of time developing/creating it and providing customer service.

What I meant is People don't offer discounts that easy for a service when compared to a product because service really needs you to put effort into it.

Plus while selling a product you end up selling samething again and again that generates money, while service, each will be different, client needs will be different etc. It will be exhaustive most of the times.

.

[kimvalerio05]

Yes I have the same opinion with you I know that those work are very stressful. Unlike when you are already selling product, you just need to be a good sales talk or just write something impressive about your product.

[RebeccaL]

I found that it was only stressful if I took on my work than I knew I could handle, and that happened a few times. But by forming an honest and open relationship with your clients, 95% of them will be understanding if you aren't as fast as you possibly should be in delivering their work.

[Ralf Skirr]

I would not generally say selling a product is easier.

It depends on where you are at.

If you have no list, no reputation, no marketing budget, no proven and tested sales process, no top notch sales copy...you can put out a $10 product and no one will find it anytime soon. How many internet marketing e-books are out there that never sold more than 20 copies?

Maybe it did cost you weeks to put out that ebook, considering all the tasks that needed to be done.

You may just walk through your town using the offline business model and make $ 1000 in a day.

Until you have a solid foundation in IM you will make money much easier selling higher priced services.

Now about fulfilling the service, stress and profits:
- you can reduce stress by developing systems on how to deliver your service. Especially web site creation becomes a joke once you develop good systems.
- you can reduce stress by
a) making clear contracts that define what is your job and what is not
b) making also clear in the contract how additional work will be charged
c) educating your client about what he needs to do. You can use pre-created material for that.
- you can rise your service price, thus getting more money from less customers

For services and products however it is true (most of the time) that it is easier to make significant money with higher priced items.

Ralf