MARKETING MYTH #6: “My prospects know what I offer and how I can serve them.”
THE TRUTH:
If you believe prospects know your services and the benefits of those services, you are mostly likely suffering from the “curse of knowledge.” Your expertise in what you do makes you an EXCELLENT provider—but perhaps a LOUSY marketer. You are losing clients to providers who make their offering relevant and crystal clear.
What problems are on the minds of your key buyers? What pains them? What solution do you provide? What do they want from you… what would make you THEIR IDEAL provider?
Selectively repeat your key benefits when talking with your buyers because people forget most of what they hear the first time they hear it. It takes a while for them to absorb and remember what you want them to know. Unless prospects remember what you say, they won’t likely choose you when they are ready to move forward. Repetition gives you the opportunity to convey your message from two or three different perspectives.
Prospects and clients must know the range of services you provide, otherwise they will look elsewhere. Suggestion: Write a detailed list of your services and the benefits from the point of view of the buyer. Otherwise, you will lose business to your competitors.
Remember, the goal is to develop a dialogue, person-to-person. Many business owners believe their marketing message must sound “professional”, bordering on “academic” or “intelligent and complex”.
Here again crops up the “curse of knowledge.” Your potential buyers don’t want to know how smart you are, they want to know you understand them and what you can do for them. What’s more, in this day and age we all suffer from information overload.
Your message must speak to the gut or it will get lost in the clutter. Every day, your key buyers are exposed to more than 4 hours of interruption media, 17,000 new grocery store products advertised every year, $1000 of direct mail advertisements mailed to your door, multitudinous TV channels, radio bands crowded with stations packed with commercials… Not to mention brand names on clothes, billboards bumper stickers, your local paper… and the INTERNET!
The latest study estimates we are bombarded with 3,200 messages daily!
Complicated, intellectual messages get screened out. Keep your message simple and client-centered because that is the ONLY kind of message your key buyers will notice.