Over the last few months, I’ve analysed hundreds of professional service websites and noticed a common pattern: the content is extremely inwardly focused. This is both a serious problem and an opportunity.
The content on a typical website for a professional service firm is almost exclusively about the firm: its services, philosophy, culture, clients, team, methodology, history, and so on.
Clients do care about these things to a degree, but they're not the only issues they think about.
When prospects don’t see their issues being addressed or acknowledged, they may feel unsure or assume the worst.
Unresolved concerns create hesitation.
In professional services, where the decisions can feel complex, costly, and high stakes, hesitation can lead to no decision at all.
Research by the authors of The JOLT Effect [1] shows indecision has an enormous effect: indecision causes 40 to 60 per cent of sales opportunities to be lost!
These are prospects who showed interest but ultimately took no action.
Why? Because they were worried about making the wrong choice, not doing enough homework, or not getting what they paid for. These fears stop people from moving forward.
One of the key insights from decision science is that people are more motivated to avoid a potential loss than to pursue a potential gain.
Research also shows that people feel the pain of a loss twice as much as the joy of an equivalent gain. For example, people feel the pain of losing $50 about twice as intensely as they feel the pleasure of gaining $50 [2].
As a result, even when a service could clearly benefit them, prospects may still hesitate if they fear it could go wrong in some way.
In the context of buying professional services, that means prospects are often less concerned about missing a good opportunity than they are about making a bad decision.
The good news is that this creates an opportunity to differentiate. Most professional service firms do not explicitly address prospects' concerns, so the few who do will stand out as being noticeably different in their prospects' minds.
It is not complicated, but it does require a shift in perspective. It starts with stepping into the shoes of prospects and asking what concerns might be holding them back. Then, acknowledge and address as many of those concerns as possible.
Doing this shows your empathy and understanding and demonstrates your commitment to helping clients.
[1] McKenna, T., & Dixon, M. (2022). The JOLT effect: How high performers overcome customer indecision. Penguin Portfolio.
[2] Why do we buy insurance? Loss-aversion explained. The Decision Lab