…if you can articulate your customer’s problems better than they can, they’re much more likely to believe that you also have the answers. What are their deepest fears? What keeps them awake at night? What are their hopes for their own lives and possibly for their children or parents? What problems are they having right now that are bad enough to drive them to seek help? At the end of this process, you should end up with a much richer understanding of your customer or client, and if you do, you’ll be able to speak to their concerns and needs in words that feel like their own, maybe even better than they can. I believe that if you can articulate your customer’s problems as well or better than they can, they’re much more likely to believe that you also have the answers. And that leads us to… Messaging Most businesses we work with struggle with their messaging. It’s not easy distilling your values, service offerings, and your unique qualities into a concise, clear, and compelling set of messages. But hang on a second… Maybe we’re starting from the wrong place.
Go back to that customer avatar we were talking about and try to see things from their point of view. What are they looking for? Wondering about? Skeptical of? How can your messaging be re-considered as a response to the thoughts and questions that are already running through your customers’ minds? From that perspective, your mission at least gets clearer. Consider an example of a “We Buy Houses” company in Philadelphia. Their target customer is someone who wants to sell a property quickly with a minimum of hassle and paperwork. Often these customers are burned-out landlords, outof-state heirs to an estate, or homeowners who have tried and failed to sell a property using a real estate agent. (Each type is worthy of its own avatar, by the way.) Knowing that each of these avatars or types is afraid of being saddled with a property and the related expenses and liabilities, and each wants out as quickly and painlessly as possible, what could their message be? If you’re asking questions like these, you’re much more likely to get good answers. Lead Generation & Follow Up Once you nail down your goals, targeting, and messaging, you’re going to start attracting customers. If you’re smart, you’ll have a variety of