When it comes to marketing, it is so crucial we understand that our clients interpret our value on different levels.
What I mean by that is our clients recognize value on several levels: our unique selling point, our framework, the results we’re most excited about, and the results our clients desire. We have to be VERY clear when to market to – and when to talk about – each one.
What I see happening too often is that we market something that our potential clients are not yet ready for. We take it to mean they’re not interested in buying, but in reality we’re speaking a LANGUAGE they’re not ready for.
Instead, we’ve to got to talk about our unique selling point (our golden egg in marketing terms) as it relates to our clients. THIS is how to market like a boss.
MINDSET
This means that to start marketing like a boss, we need to be sold on…
- The value of the marketing we do and the content we provide
- The value of the results our potential clients think they most need NOW
- The value of the process we take our clients through to get those results
- The value of the additional results we’re most excited about delivering
When we can see those as separate, but connected, pieces of our business, everything will begin to shift in our sales process. We’ll feel more connected to our marketing, to our potential clients, and to our value. Rather than trying to shove them all into one tiny box, we’ll have a different box for each and be able to recognize that we bring value on several levels and that we can communicate each in a different way and at a different time.
STRATEGY
Taking this mindset and turning it into a mindset strategy looks like speaking to what your clients want NOW, not necessarily to what you love to give.
Meaning, if our clients want money NOW, but you love to give empowerment (cause this is so me!)… it’s SO valuable to speak to money WHILE you support them with empowerment.
This doesn’t mean that the rest of what we bring to the table doesn’t matter. Or even that our clients leave feeling like what they originally wanted was most important. It’s all about using your marketing, and your unique selling point, to meet your clients where they are TO START.
For example, if I didn’t focus my marketing correctly, that would look like me marketing to empowerment and creating greater impact when really my clients typically feel like all of that would come if they could get the income.
Now, can I speak to those things? Certainly, AS LONG AS I’m tying it back to the results my potential clients want now.
I might understand that the empowerment is a hugely important part of the process to creating the income, however I don’t need them to understand that yet! That is part of the work we do to get them the result they want!
What we’re talking about is often why ideal client exercises can be so confusing. We write out who would be perfect – someone who thinks this, this, and this. However, a lot of times our job is to help them GET to that thought process during our work together. They don’t have to start with it.
The best service providers are marketing to where their potential clients currently ARE and what their CLIENTS currently think they need help with. Then, they deliver the services needed to create those results on the backend.
EXECUTION
Since we often think our marketing + our work should look exactly the same, THIS is where we need to focus our execution efforts. Because THIS is the problem.
Here’s what I mean. Think about the result you’re most proud of when it comes to the work you do with your clients. Then, think about what most of your clients first come to you wanting.
Usually, this is slightly (if not VASTLY) different! This becomes a problem when we forget which is our unique selling point. Because what I see a lot of people do is market to the piece that they are most proud of instead of the piece that their potential client most desires!
The other problem I see when it come to marketing and specifically marketing copy is that service providers talk about the process ONLY and leave out the results. For example they might say something like…
I help my clients create an amazing launch plan for their course.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t convey the RESULT to our clients who are coming to us for a solution to their most pressing problem.
Now, if we add “so that” to the sentence it changes everything.
For example, I help my clients create an amazing launch plan for their course, SO THAT they can fill their course with more ease and ditch the overwhelm.
Now THAT is what they’re paying us for right? We can get them bought into our process, but they’re paying us for the “so that” solution.
One more example…I help my clients create a vision for their brand and a way to showcase it, SO THAT they can create a website they’re proud to share and one that brings in the clients they desire.
Again, including your process AND the “so that” result is key to making your work resonate with your potential client.
Now, it’s your turn. I’d love to hear from you! Where are your potential clients RIGHT NOW? How do you speak to them where they’re at (when you know you’re so excited about where they could go)?! Share with us below how you make sure to communicate the results you get your clients!