Jeanette was a seasoned business owner. In a little over 10 years, her business had grown to multiple 7-figures! And yet, she was struggling. Her sales had flatlined; and her business was dependent on one very large client. She was worried. Each time she explained what her business actually did, she would answer and people’s eyes would glaze over and she could never get a prospect to book a follow up meeting.
Ever felt like Jeanette?
In all the years I’ve been studying and talking about business growth, I’ve noticed that for most businesses their real competition is NOT their competitors … it’s their inability to communicate the value of what they do so that they get hired.
Jeanette’s problem was that she couldn’t communicate to her prospects why they should do business with her – and not her competition.
Truth time…
Have you ever struggled to answer the question, “So what do you do?“
Have you been marketing like a squirrel and not getting any clients from all those efforts?
Have you attended trade conferences or meetings and not been able to generate leads?
That’s exactly what I mean and I know exactly how it feels! It feels frustrating! It makes you feel like ‘I just can’t seem to do this’!
I remember feeling like sh*t after attending networking meeting after networking meeting without getting any leads.
Finally, the day came that everything changed!
I was able to talk about my business so that I:
- piqued their curiosity;
- was actually remembered;
- attracted consistent leads!
I was able to communicate the real value that I offered to prospects!
What did I do, you ask?
It comes down to a few words… simplify, focus, differentiate
Simplify … Your first ‘battle’ you must win against all the noise is to narrow down your messaging. Be super-duper clear about who you help because using words like ‘people’ or ‘everyone’ isn’t the answer. Rather, try using words that people might self-identify with – such as mom-entrepreneur, health coach, etc. And sometimes even those can be made more specific.
Focus … Secondly, it doesn’t matter whether it’s your 60-second elevator speech, your content on social media or your website. You must clearly express how you can make their life/business better. You see your client doesn’t care about your business or their life, they care about theirs. Get really specific how the results or outcomes you get for your clients and be able to state those succinctly i.e. get noticed, get clients, get profitable.
Differentiate … The third way to get noticed is to stop sounding like everyone else in your industry or field. Every health coach talks about the same thing; every financial advisor, leadership coach and every real estate broker sound just like all the others. Instead, take some time and do some deep thinking. With some hard work, analysis and perhaps some mentoring, you can create your own Authority Advantage (differentiation) and your own intellectual property.
For instance, nobody else but me talks about Profitable Marketing Engine, GPS Growmeter or even Authority Advantage – those are my proprietary terms which allow prospects to see me as the obvious choice for them because not only do I sound different but I certainly sound like the expert.
If you’re having trouble getting all the clients you want and you’re doing tons of marketing, it’s my guess that YOU are your own biggest competition. In other words, your marketing isn’t very proficient!
Want to know how to increase your marketing proficiency so that every time you do a marketing activity it positively impacts your bottom line?
Let’s chat! Schedule a call here.
You can do this!
Diana
P.S. – I hope you were able to enjoy some time off last week and celebrate Canada Day. I took a 4-day vacation and with the rain, it was a perfect time to purge some files and clean up my office. What did you do?
BTW – I’m taking a 2-week vacation at the end of July. I’ll be off social media for the most part and will only answer URGENT emails. My private clients know that we will be doing some deep dive days in late August or September to finish up 2021 strong!
