Project Clarity

Smart people will tell you that if you’re selling a service (a broad term, I know) you need to focus on selling the process and not the product.

What they mean is that you sell your expertise and experience along with the thing that you deliver to them. There’s a couple of reasons for this, I think.

One, your product, whether it’s a logo, a marketing plan, or a legal document, has more value in the eyes of your customer if they understand that there’s a process behind it and that you, as expert, know this process inside and out.

Secondly, process can be a safety net for your product as well. If your customer doesn’t like your product, take them through the process for how you got from point to point to the product. You may not change their mind on the product, but you’ll start a dialog. If they’re astute, they will ask questions and point things out as you retrace your steps that will help you with round two of revisions.

Todd Henry, in a recent Accidental Creative podcast talks about process versus product in terms of creative individuals and their managers, and how if each will look to the process, better results can be had for the entire team - the same scenario as above.

For managers, Todd points out the need to understand that process and product are often one and the same in the mind of a creative individual. If you don’t like what you’re getting, ask them to take you through their process and (tactfully) point out along the way where they can think differently. Likewise, Todd calls on the creative to constantly promote their process so that coworkers, bosses or clients don’t “get lost in the product.”