There’s lots of ‘secrets’, ‘guidelines’ and ‘rules’ when it comes to business and marketing. You can call it what you want — but if you don’t get this particular rule right … nothing works!
I’m sure you will recognize it. You create what you think is a wonderful post on facebook and no one notices or comments. You create a great offer and send it to your clients, and no one takes it. You create a wonderful dynamic 60-second elevator pitch — and no one comes up to you afterwards and says – wow, I need that.
What I’m talking about is the language that you are using. The actual words in your marketing content, whether it’s your blog, your website or your LinkedIn profile. IF IT’S NOT SPOKEN IN CUSTOMER LANGUAGE — it’s not going to work!
Don’t laugh — there is such a thing as customer language. Customer language isn’t your language. It’s not your professional speak (whether that’s real estate talk, accounting talk, naturopathy talk). Unfortunately, your customer doesn’t listen to that kind of language!
So you might be asking, WHY NOT? Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How many emails; radio ads; facebook ads; television ads, etc. do you receive daily??? THOUSANDS! And so does your customer. It’s blah, blah, blah until there is something that addresses his pain! That’s right – something that makes him/her pick up there head because they are ‘suffering’.
There’s another component of ‘customer language’ and that’s emotion. Customer’s don’t really buy your product or service. That’s right. Truthfully, they don’t really care about your process and sometimes they don’t really care about the particular product. What makes them BUY is an emotional connection. Customers buy emotion. Customer language must contain emotion. Does your talk/language express those emotions?
The best way to learn ‘customer language’ is to listen. Listen again and again to your ‘dream client’ and how they are expressing their problem that you, and only you, have the solution! Listen carefully and start keeping a list of the actual words that your customer uses to express the problem that they have. D. Newman calls this developing a ‘language bank’ of customer language.
The last component of ‘customer speak’ I would like to share is ….RESULTS. Customers hear results. Lose 10 lbs; double your profits; get twice the standing ovations. Those are quantifiable results. “Get healthy” is a result but what does it mean? ‘Feel better’ is a result — but how? So in your marketing be sure to talk specific results!
An example of ‘customer language’ might be that I constantly hear customer’s tell me that they are at a ‘cross roads’. It usually means that they have a decision to make and don’t have the clarity about their business to make the decision. They are stuck; fork in the road; overwhelmed; frustrated, etc. When we work together and they get clarity about their dream client; where they see their business in 5-10 years; etc., then decisions are made easily — they get unstuck! They can easily choose which road to follow! So my marketing messages often contain the words like … crossroads, stuck, etc. I don’t tell them they are going to get clarity — I tell them they are going to get into action; we’ll build a road map; get them unstuck. Speaking your customer’s language takes time to learn and implement.
Do you speak ‘customer’? Have you created a customer language bank? The number #1 rule of marketing is to speak their language! Make it your priority.
If you’d like some help with speaking customer or if you are at a crossroads, please apply for a Business Breakthrough Session here! By the way, I’m going to be in Montreal, February 12th, and have 3 morning spots open for these session in person! Apply here!
Be sure to follow the #1 marketing rule so that you can Grow, Prosper, and Succeed!
