Why is it that your past customers rave about you, but prospective customers often don’t realize how much you have to offer them? It’s so frustrating when they don’t “get it” and they don’t buy.
It’s because conventional marketing is selling you short! I’ve developed this new process so you can quickly crate marketing that WOW’s customers–by turning your marketing on its head. After 10 years of helping businesses grow faster than ever before, I had a huge AHA! moment when I figured this out! Today I’ll show you what’s holding most companies back from getting A LOT more customers.
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The Problem: Our Stuff is Awesome! But They Don’t Get It.
If you’re like most of my clients, you have really happy customers. A lot of them rave about you. Which makes it so FRUSTRATING that prospective customers often don’t understand how awesome you are. “If only they tried us, they’d understand!” you say.
Introducing the ABC’s of Marketing
To understand the problem, let’s look at the experience from the customer’s perspective. Any time a customer buys a product or service, there are three parts to their experience:
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The Issue: Your Marketing is All About YOU
Right now, when customers hear your marketing, it sounds like this:
Most of our marketing focuses on explaining ourselves and how amazing we are. There are a thousand reasons why what we’re doing is awesome, and we share them: what we do, what we bring to the table, how we’re better than the competition. But actually this is NOT the best way to excite the customer!
Here’s the thing: Our customers are much less interested in us, than they are in the results we can get them. (Click here to tweet this!)
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re choosing a doctor for shoulder surgery. Doctor A tells you that she graduated top of her class from medical school and has been practicing for over 20 years. Great credentials. And Doctor B tells you only that 99% of her patients have regained full use of their shoulder within 4 weeks. Who would you rather hire? Doctor B, because we know she gets us the results we want.
The Solution: Flip Your Marketing on its Head
If you want customers to get REALLY REALLY excited to buy from you, this is what your marketing SHOULD look like:
That’s right. Flip your marketing 180 degrees, to focus on A and C, and a lot less of B.
Show You Understand Your Customer’s Problem (Part A)
There’s an old adage in sales that people don’t buy from people they understand, people buy from people they feel understood by. (Click here to tweet this!) You see, instead of trying to explain ourselves, our energy would be much better spent showing the customer that we understand THEIR situation, their challenges, their desires.
My Aunt Sandy is a pro at this in her clothing boutique. In a loving, woman-to-woman sort of way, she connects with the customer about the shape of her body, including any problem areas, and empathizes about the difficulty of finding clothes that make her look fabulous. When women feel genuinely understood in this way, they are eager for her help finding a new outfit. Again and again, I see a woman come in to buy pants, and she leaves having purchased pants, a top, a dress, and a coat–all because she finally found someone who understands her challenges.
What are YOUR customers’ common concerns? What goals do they have that led them to seek you out? Connect with your customers empathetically in your marketing, and you’ll see their heads start nodding excitedly.
People Buy Results (Part C)
At the end of the day, people buy results. The more you can show them the results you can get them, the more and more eager people will be to open their wallets.
A personal trainer recently explained his work to me. He told me how he uses kettlebells, high-intensity intervals, and nutritional coaching to create customized fitness programs for his clients. It sounded impressive, but not very inspiring. What motivates someone to work out? They are looking for results! Maybe they want to lose weight quickly, they want to look good in a bathing suit, or they want to recover from an injury. If the trainer focused on results, instead of just the methods, far more people would “get it” and want to hire him.
How will your customer’s business or life change thanks to buying your product or service? What results do your customers typically see? In general, results fall into several categories: save time, save money, make money, more happiness, and less stress.
Getting to “WOW!”
To get more prospective customers to say “WOW!” and want to buy, focus on Parts A and C, and dial back how much time you spend on Part B. To summarize:
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- When you talk about what you offer (Part B), they say: “OK, I’ll get back to you if I need that.”
- When you talk about the problem they’re facing (Part A), they say: “Wow, you get me!”
- When you talk about the results you get (Part C), they say: “Wow, I want that!”
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Customize this for YOUR Business
Ready to WOW your potential clients? I get a lot of inquiries about this article, so I decided to share the worksheet I use with my clients, as a gift for you. It walks you through applying the ABC’s to your exact situation. And I’ve included some bonus pointers I didn’t put in this article.
Download the worksheet here:
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