This is one of the most valuable ideas I have shared with you here on the blog. It’s something, which is behind all great marketing and every successfully marketed business.
It’s all about clarity
Many small business owners are fuzzy or vague when it comes to explaining exactly what they do and why you should work with them or buy from them. Yes, they know what their profession is and what range of products or services they offer, but that’s not enough if you want to market your services effectively.
Before you can successfully market anything, you need to be able to answer the following 3 questions uncommonly well:
- What is your service? This needs to be expressed in clear, buzz-word free terms and in as few words as possible. Around 1 in every 100 small businesses I see online gets this right; including those in my own profession!
- What is the true value of your service to a client? This also needs to be expressed clearly, with the focus on how the prospective client will benefit as a direct result of your offering.
- Why should they purchase that product or service from you in particular? There are probably thousands, maybe millions of people working in your industry; all claiming to know what they are doing. So, why should a prospective client hire you? What is uniquely valuable about what you provide? This is the most common mistake I see and yet it is the most important element of your whole marketing! In fact, unless you can give someone a genuinely good reason to trade with you, rather than one of your competitors, you are NOT READY to market your services. If you try, your results will be disappointing no matter how hard you work.
A confused mind always says no
Clarity is extremely important. When I started out in sales, my boss taught me that, “a confused mind always says no!” In other words, if you ask someone to make a buying decision before they are clear regarding the offer, they will almost always opt for the status quo; to keep things as they are.
If your prospective clients or customers are unclear in any way about specifically what you do and the value (to them) of what you do, you are wasting your time and theirs, trying to market to them. They will find your marketing fuzzy and you will miss out on all that business you deserve to win.
So:
- Get specific.
- Give prospective clients a uniquely valuable reason to hire you or buy from you.
- Cut the fluff from your marketing messages.
Then watch the results!