What Is A Productized Service? Should...

In the old days of this site, I used to talk about how to monetize your blog. It typically involved the sale of digital products (often online courses or memberships) put together into nice sales funnels.

That stuff still works, but these days I do something much different. Beginning in 2021, I began a entire business pivot into client services. Today, my Concierge service is pretty much at the core of what I do. In the Blog Monetization Model I created awhile back, Concierge would now be my Core Offer. A content-focused membership is no longer my main focus.

Concierge is an example of what is often called a productized service.

I think productized services are awesome. Often, much easier to sell. And they have a higher perceived value since the results are tangible.

Let’s face it… we live in a sea of noise. We live in a world full of content and tons of things vying for the attention of our customers. So, trying to sell them access to more content just isn’t workable. People want real results. And what better way to get them those results than to just do it for them?

What Is A Productized Service?

It is simply a service which is packaged up and sold as a product.

This means pre-defined deliverables, specific processes for getting them, and upfront pricing.

This is very different than what traditional service providers or agencies do where they provide custom quotes and invoice for services rendered. With a productized service, you don’t do any of that.

A productized service is a packaged service. It is pre-defined and customers know upfront exactly what it costs. When they buy it, you do a certain set of things that you and they know upfront. You don’t prepare estimates. You don’t prepare quotes. The price is the price and they buy it for that price.

A productized service can be a one-time purchase or a subscription. For instance, in my case with Concierge, it is a pre-packaged service that is ongoing and is a monthly subscription plan. Whereas my WP Speed Fix service is another example of a productized service being offered as a one-time purchase.

Examples of Productized Services

It is easy to see examples of productized services in the online arena and in business/marketing circles. Some examples might be:

• A graphics designer selling a logo package at a pre-set amount, which includes certain deliverables and certain amount of revisions.
• A web services agency offering something like “Website In A Week”, where they promise to build a custom website of up to 5 pages with certain pre-defined features and do so within 1 week.
• A copywriter that charges an upfront fee for writing a sales letter up to a certain length.
• A business consultant that sells a business audit or a marketing audit.
• Selling a podcast launch kit, where you help somebody launch a new podcast, including technical setup, cover art, etc.

But, in no way is this limited to the online arena. You see productized services in all kinds of businesses, such as:

• Car washes that sell monthly subscription plans for unlimited car washes.
• Legal services offered on a monthly or annual subscription plan
• Getting a haircut. We always know what we’re going to pay upfront.
• A yoga instructor that sells 10 yoga training classes in person for a set, upfront price.

Here’s the pricing for a car wash right down the road from me. You can buy individual car washes or subscribe to a monthly plan. Fantastic idea for a car wash business!

You get the idea. In many cases, these same providers may do custom work at higher prices, but they may still have some productized services on offer. For instance, a web designer may do full custom projects where the rate is different for each client, but that doesn’t mean that same designer can’t also offer productized services for predictable services like logo design.

The Benefits Of Productized Services

The entire idea behind productized services is about scalability. It allows you expand your offerings, scale your revenue, and dial in delivery. In many ways, it makes business easier.

Here are some of the core advantages:

• Reduces haggling for service providers. It makes the sales cycle simpler by forgoing the expectation of custom quotes and estimates.
• Easier to sell. The results are tangible and it is much more direct than trying to teach them what to do in some online course they’ll probably never consume.
• Easier to launch. A service offer can be created almost out of thin air. You only need the ability and willingness to do it. This is quite different from selling a training product where you feel compelled to have deliverables ready before they even buy.
• Scalable. It is very difficult to scale custom services you bill hourly for. You can’t really systematize something which is different every time you do it. By alleviating all that, a productized service is much more scalable.
• Efficient Delivery. You can really systematize a productized service and dial it in for faster delivery. Templates, processes, custom tools… all focused on delivering the promised outcome as quickly as possible. And people will pay more for speed.
• Better client experience. Clients want clarity and speed. They also appreciate simplicity. There’s not much that kills conversions on a website than “Contact Us For A Quote”. 😉
• More Profitable. This is a great way to increase your effective hourly rate. Less time spent on customizations, quotes, estimates, etc.

Building Sales Funnels With Productized Services

In the original Blog Monetization Model, the basic funnel went like this:

1. Lead magnet.
2. Front-end offer.
3. Core offer.
4. High-End Offers

Certainly you’ve seen this before. It isn’t like I invented it. 😉 I just wrote about it and taught it in my own way. At the time, however, the main focus was information products. A typical front-end offer might have been some mini-course. A typical core offer would be a flagship course or a membership. And high-end offers might be something like coaching or masterminds.

And the prices often ended in “7”, which I thought was hilarious. 🤣

Well, productized services fit into all this just as well. In fact, perhaps even better because you don’t have to feel compelled to create some upfront training product in order to sell it. You can dream up a service offer out of thin air! You just need to be able and willing to do the work.

So, you can absolutely build your sales funnels with service offers.

• A lead magnet could be a quick “discovery call” or, in my case, a Roadmap call. Or perhaps a lead magnet could be a free website audit. Something of value other than some PDF file, but they opt-in for it and you have the ability to follow up.
• Front-end offers are just “instant win” offers, usually on the cheaper end. For a web designer, it could be a quick 5-page site for a set price, but the upsell opportunities to a more customized site are easy to imagine. You’ve seen A/C repairman offer cheap diagnostic and tune-up services for your A/C unit. That’s a front-end offer.
• Core offers. This is your main offer. In my case, it is Concierge. I happen to love making a subscription product into your core offer. Subscription services provide a lot of longevity and stability to a business.
• High-End Offers. What you consider high-end will be different for every market, but you should have some high-ticket stuff for those who want it. This is where the fully custom stuff or bigger products come in.

You can mix and match. You can also extend your sales funnels using services. For example, offer productized services after they just bought an online course from you. The course is the “how to” and the service is the “done for you”.

How To Create Your Own Productized Service

Yes, it is a great idea. But, let’s talk about how…

If you’re already in the service business in some way, but are doing upfront estimates and quotes, then look first at the kinds of services you do frequently. What are the repeatable ones? Those are your productized services. Funnily enough, maybe you already think of them that way and include them in your custom estimates with pre-set pricing…. but yet don’t present it as a standalone offer. So, this could be a simple matter of packaging up stuff you already do in a way where people can pay for it upfront.

If you’re in the content business selling online courses and memberships, then you want to look at the stuff you’re already teaching and ways where you can just do it for them. You can also listen to the issues your students have… and develop a service based around solving those specific issues for them.

Keep in mind, too, that a productized service can be a hybrid. It can definitely include content or consultatations. But, the idea of the service is to get them from point A to point B as quickly as possible and to remove the time and hassle from it. So, your service may include hands-on help, but it can also include shortcuts, templates, tools and anything else that is designed to fulfill your promises quicker and more effeciently.

Your productized service has to be specific and structured. Any hands-on work you provide needs to be defined upfront. You can’t call it a productized service if you allow “feature creep” to kick in. That’s what upsells are for. 😉

Also, set the price. The pricing must be upfront. And remember, your time is involved. Price based on the value of your time, your experise, your speed of delivery, and the value of the problem you’re solving for them.

Refine and Iterate

When you first launch a productized service, you’re probably not going to have it all completely perfected and dialed in yet. The Concierge services I provide today are not the same as when I first began. My systems have improved and things are way more organized now.

So, expect to make changes. You will systematize things. You will create shortcuts. You will tweak the offer as you learn more about what people need and want.

This is all part of the process. Over time, you will have an offer which converts well to your target audience… and you’ll have delivery so dialed in you can almost do it in your sleep.

Get Testimonials!

Every service delivery is a process. They enroll, they onboard, you do the thing, you test…. then you ask for testimonials and referrals.

Testimonials improve social proof and establish your expertise. Not only for your specific productized service, but for anything else you may offer as well.

At the end of every service delivery, it should be part of your standard operating procedure to collect a success story from the client. Every time I deduct a credit from a client’s account for services rendered, they get an email with a link to submit a success story. And as you can see, I collect those successes via a form and they are displayed on this website.

Conclusion

I remember spending years giving the side eye to people who “traded time for money”. I stayed well clear of offering services because I thought it was stupid and that the real money was in selling information products.

Boy, was I wrong.

That isn’t to say you can’t make money selling information anymore, but in a world of Youtube and Netflix and social media and searches on AI platforms like Grok and ChatGPT… do you really think YOUR information is worth paying a ton of money for?

Nah. In my opinion, selling OUTCOMES is the way. And there’s no more concrete way to sell an outcome than to offer to simply do it for them. They come to you with a problem… and you offer to just fix it for them.

For an upfront price. 😉

Want some help brainstorming productized services for your business? A strategy call with me would be your best bet. Just put at least one Anytime Credit on your account and book a call. Look forward to talking with you!