Just for a moment, I want you to stop and think about all the things you’ve purchased in the last month. Your mind probably went immediately to BIG purchases you’ve made like a new car, a new phone, or a cute pair of shoes. If I asked you to think a bit more you might get to the routine stuff like groceries or gasoline. What do all these things have in common? They are all physical, tangible items that we can see, touch, smell, and taste. Why do our minds go immediately t the tangible though when so many of our purchases are completely intangible.
I’m not a rocket scientist, but I would assume that most if not all of you have insurance. In fact you all probably have a lot of insurance: home, car, health, etc. I would also assume that I great many of you enjoy the benefits of electricity, indoor plumbing, and climate control. In fact, we each benefit from so many different services a day that it is hard to list them all out. So how do these boring, tedious, everyday phenomenon factor their way into the world of sales?
Selling services is different from selling a physical object like a dog or a purse, because unlike a dog or a purse, electricity doesn’t cause any immediate excitement or pride of ownership in many of us. Even services that we witness occurring, like exterminators, or yard care experts are seen as a kind of necessary evil we must pay for. So as a salesman, how do your get your customer excited about buying something that is so inherently unexciting?
Service professionals must be great salesmen, in many ways , they must be better salesmen then the rest of us, because no matter how bad I am, you’re still driving away in an exciting new car. If a service salesman is bad, there is literally no upside. This is why service salesmen must sell more than their services- they must sell themselves.
When you are spending money you naturally are going to desire some level of instant 
gratification, which a service in and of itself cannot provide. That is why it is so necessary for service salesmen to build a rapport with the customer early on. Scope them out early and figure out what kind of person they are; are they funny, sad, serious, jovial, crazy, calm, etc.? Figure this out an then mimic their mood.
Be afraid of blending in. In fact be terrified of it! 
Service salesmen are selling themselves so they need to make sure that they are NOT FORGETTABLE. Make yourself stand out from the crowd. Engage the customer on a personal level and connect with them. Find some unique quirky thing that you want the customer to remember you for and then accent it. It could be a funny pen, an interesting story, a memorable car (like the Terminex car), it can literally be anything. The important part is to differentiate yourself because THAT is your Brand Differentiation!
BoweryJE22
Good distinction between product and service selling. And I agree, a service salesperson must do his job extremely well since it’s more of an experience you’re walking away with than something you can see and touch.
I agree – the service salesman must be far greater than the product salesman. He has a lot more work and a lot more time with the customer in front of him. The bulk of the product salesman’s work is done once the product is in the customer’s hands (of course, today, we emphasize continued customer service a great deal, but this is generally the case). The service salesman must build a longer-term relationship with the customer to make a sale. He must have genuine integrity to stick it out as long as is required.