I have been trying to persuade my wife for years to start commercialising her business.
She is a self employed Osteopath and works from home. She is working 2 days a week, and is pretty much fully booked for those days with loyal existing clients and referred new clients. She has the odd day when it is a bit quiet, but otherwise it suits her down to the ground.
She has resisted all my attempts since she feels that commercialising a complimentary health service will undermine her professional reputation and make her look desperate for business thus undermining her client’s perception of the quality service she provides. She doesn’t want to “sell” appointments.
I was recently working with a sizeable law firm and it made me think that perhaps she has a point. Law firms are built on reputation. Reputation allows them to charge the fees that they do. It allows them to make the difficult decisions for us, when we don’t understand the technically difficult aspects of company law or government regulation.
Typically, solicitors resist the idea of selling and even are often not prepared to mention the word “sales”. It is considered almost rude and definitely down market – the sort of thing an ambulance chasing lawyer might do. You know the ones – “If you’ve had an accident, then call Johnson Spooners on 0870 123 123”.
So why is reputation so important?
So if you get it right, a good reputation is a very real form of “sales”.
Whilst my wife is still reticent to use the word sell”, I am now eating humble pie as I now recognise that actually she is already extremly commercial!
Published by James Osborne October 6th 2015
James Osborne
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