My clients teach me a lot of lessons. The best lessons come from when they keep asking me a question that I don’t understand.
It’s not that I don’t understand the question, but rather, that I don’t understand why they are asking it because, to me, the answer is SO clear, and I think they already know the answer.
Maybe the most common question involves how to create and then deliver a COMPELLING MESSAGE to the IDEAL CLIENT.
That question comes up many times a week. I dive into a detailed answer. The client acts like they get it, and then, they ask me again tomorrow.
Shame on me! I need to remind the client that they know the answer – they just need to apply “Revenue Science™” discipline.
A sales or marketing message is always about two things.
The first thing, is the “customer problem being solved.” This is ONE sentence and is languaged from the prospective client’s frame of reference.
It would be like: “The customer problem is how to take CONTROL over the growth of profitable revenue regardless of what is going on in the world.”
The second thing, is delivering the message to the “Ideal Client.” The cool part about this is when you deliver the first part (the problem solved part) in a marketing or selling situation, the “Ideal Client” will immediately let you know they are “Ideal” because they will respond.
They respond by body language, eye contact, questions, re-reading the statement about the problem you solve, calling or going to the website to learn how the problem gets solved and to determine if any of what you promise is real.
Those who don’t care about the problem you solve aren’t your client (ideal or otherwise) and won’t pay you money for a problem they don’t have or don’t care about solving. Clients PAY to have problems solved based on the importance of the problem.
The disciple about this is that every company must answer the questions below. With no answers, there is no problem to talk about, so communication is, at best, general and vague, sounding like all your competitors and the client (when you find one) will buy based on price.
If you don’t answer the questions, you probably assume everyone is a possible client, so you invest time and money with many who were NEVER a suspect let alone a prospective client.
If you don’t answer the questions, results are based on how lucky you are, and that is not repeatable.
So get your team to answer these questions:
- What is our brand promise?
- What’s the customer “problem” that we solve that no one else solves?
- What niche/s do or will we dominate?
- Who is our ideal customer?
- What are our key offers for dominating the niche?
After you answer the questions, you must communicate your message in the most powerful way possible. There are best practices for being compelling to be sure your message is received, understood and acted on.
Sellers must communicate in a specific way using these best practices in order to keep improving the message. There are four phases to be delivered in order.
Each phase is intended to create a specific emotional response and outcome from the listener (prospective “Ideal Client”).
Phase / Emotion / Outcome
- Theme or Why / AWE – WOW / Shocked Pattern Interrupt
- Big Picture / Excitement / This is about ME!
- Value Proposition / Confidence in this / Belief this can work
- Solidify or Prove / Comfort going forward / Listener believes
The Phase I for every message is a BRIEF “theme” also known as a “WHY” that the “Ideal Client” cares about. If they care about this “theme,” they will listen for a few minutes or seconds depending on how powerful the “theme.” The emotional response is something like WOW, awe, or curiosity. It means you interrupted their self-talk (the required outcome), and they are listening (no listening means no “Ideal Client”).
Once you have their attention, Phase II is about “putting” them into the picture you are painting that started with the “theme.” If you are messaging the listener and the listener sees no value for them, they stop listening. This is why telling them about the compelling “problem you solve for the ideal client” is so critical.
Phase I and II have to happen at the same time and in order.
Phase III is about “HOW” you will go about solving the problem. This is also brief (just a few sentences) and gives the listener confidence that you really “get” the “problem” and just might be able to help them. They want to believe someone can help so you need to be that “someone.”
Phase IV is longer and only happens after the “ideal buyer” has acknowledged they have the problem and WANT it solved…NOW.
Phase IV is about “WHAT” will be done to solve the problem and the activities both parties need to deliver. This solidifies how together this problem will get solved, and makes it clear that the solution is a much better place to be than keeping the problem. This starts to make the listener comfortable.
The final part of Phase IV is to prove that this will work. This includes demos, references, examples, etc. and anything else that makes the listener a believer and willing (hopefully eager) to work with you to get this problem solved once and for all.
Sending “Compelling Messages to Ideal Buyers” is easy when you know the “problem you solve” and then, develop the discipline of sharing the “problem you solve” with the client using the four phases.
Just remember: no problem, no disciplined message, no ideal client will find you, and if they can’t find you, they won’t raise their hand to say, “here I am.”