The Biggest Threat To Solo Entrepreneurs Continued

The greatest tragedy I’ve witnessed again and again over the past 20 years in this business is seeing holistic business owners fail to articulate their compelling message.

The damage caused by this is disheartening.

Why?

Because without an articulate marketing message,  their good work in the world will not attract clients or customers.  And it’s true for every industry, service or client-base.

I hope this is not the case for your business, but just in case, I’ve been documenting for you some clues you can run against your own business to assess how well you are doing in this department.

In past weeks, I’ve covered:

1. Understanding the Spirit of your business (it’s not as wishy-washy as you might think):  Simply knowing what you do and why you do it is not enough to bring your talent to those who need it.   And it certainly is no way to build a sustainable healing business. And it doesn’t matter if you are a dentist who refuses to use almagam fillings or if you are a…
2. The Secret Ingredient To The Power Attraction: Get This And You Win:  Harnessing the power of attraction with these 3 simple questions makes the difference between a thriving business and one just scraping to get by. Navigating consistent business growth through compelling client attraction is what every holistic business owner needs to master. Miss this, and these business owners are left to struggle making ends meet and…
3. Attract More Customers By Giving Them This One Thing:  When Tom first came in contact with the notion of Spirit of Business and Pain he honestly believed his best customer was anyone who owned a dog with behavior problems.  “I am a dog trainer.  Your dog has behavior problems.  Call me,” was his motto.  He balked at the secret of…
4. The Biggest Threat To Solo Entrepreneurs:  If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you likely know exactly what I’ve been talking about in recent months: our lives continues to increase, information overload continues to mount, many solo entrepreneurs are experiencing greater fatigued, irritation and burn-out At the same time, never before in the history of man have we needed solo entrepreneurs as dearly…

Today I’m going to wrap up The Biggest Threat.

Benefits:

To get to the nitty gritty — the absolute piece of your marketing message which will attract the right people to your offers — you have to dive deep into the “benefits”.

Breaking free of “modality speak” is sometimes the toughest task, but I’ve identified the key tasks to cut to the core quickly.

1. List all possible benefits people may gain from working with you
2. Research leaders in your industry
3. Bring it together and adjust your message accordingly

Benefits are the ultimate relief and sometimes are not at all obvious.  Remember Tom?  He used to say that his ideal client is anyone who owns a dog.  After learning the principles I’m teaching in this series, he was able to communicate his business like this:

My name is Tom. I help beagle puppy owners raise wonderful companions by helping them discipline their puppies with consistency and heart. I help them potty train their pups,  set (and maintain) puppy appropriate boundaries, and navigate new social situations with ease.  My customers can safely leave their beagle home during work hours, know exactly how to read their puppy’s needs and allow them enough room to experience a joyful puppyhood.  These puppy owners rest assured that they are setting the path for enjoying a friend for life with their beagle.”

Benefits for Tom’s customers are:

• safely leave their beagle home during work hours
• know exactly how to read their puppy’s needs
• allow the puppy enough room to experience a joyful puppyhood
• know they are setting the path for enjoying a friend for life

Notice how Tom’s benefits are actually describing results in a meaningful manner which demonstrate assurance, confidence and a positive experience with their beagle.

What does this mean for you?

Well, you start by listing the benefits you can identify for your customers that they will have when they work with you.

You then go check out industry leaders — what do they have on their website, what do their customers say about them?  Take notes!

Finally, you check out any published work from those industry leaders and look especially at positive and negative reviews.  Why?  Because these will give you clues as to what your ideal customer wants and needs to hear you offer.  They will articulate the benefits they seek.

Once you’ve gathered all that, then you bring the three points together to create a powerful benefit statement.

Now it’s your turn:  What benefits does your ideal customer have for working with you?