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Casual Articles - Your Business is a Cereal Box: Attract, then Inform
Daycare Management SoftwareHere's the scene. XYZ daycare has 200 children enrolled in it's business records. A certain child has a medical need, but the assigned physician needs to know of any possible allergies that the child may have. "Sally", of XYZ daycare company scrambles to find the child's medical file. She is on her way to retrieve the record and suddenly realizes that the records have been moved to a different room. After a few minutes, Sally finds the child's medical records and all is well.No big deal right? Actually, it could have ended up as a bad situation. What if the child was in dir
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Traversing your way through the employment market is harder than it has ever been at the moment. There is far more demand on every position available these days, especially if you are aiming to get a good, well paying job straight out of college. Getting an education is only the first step to working your way up the corporate ladder. Following graduation, you have to work your way up through the company before finally achieving the role that you always dreamed of. In most cases, it is actually getting into a company to start with that poses a problem. That is where temporary job openings actually come in.A lot of
The lesson: Ingredient lists don’t sell cereal. Look at your business features as you would the nutritional information on a cereal box: people only look at it when they are already considering buying the box. It displays important information that needs to be communicated, but it does not answer the first questions in the client’s mind.
For service providers, marketing is a challenge: you know your service is useful and has value, but because you don’t have a physical product, the benefits may be harder to define. After all, your client will only experience what you do once they actually hire you, which they won’t do if the benefits of using your services are not convincing.
How will you, as a service professional, deal with this fact? You must communicate with your clients by being focused on their needs first.
Attract, then Inform
I notice that many of my clients put too much emphasis on what they do instead of emphasizing why their audience should choose them over the competition — or choose them at all.
Note these claims:
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.<
That’s not you? Great! Bad habits are hard to break once the addiction gets hold of us. Been there. Gave up “smokes” long years ago but it took lots of willpower to kick the habit.FIRST THING IN THE MORNINGShould the question be asked? Is this YOUR best time of day or is ''night' your choice? Everyone has a different clock. Some of us like to sleep longer. Stay up later.Does it matter? You do whatever has to be done. Adjustments have to be made according to our work schedule. Kids going to school. Some of the little ones stay at home or go to day care. College students go to class. Some
For service providers, marketing is a challenge: you know your service is useful and has value, but because you don’t have a physical product, the benefits may be harder to define. After all, your client will only experience what you do once they actually hire you, which they won’t do if the benefits of using your services are not convincing.
How will you, as a service professional, deal with this fact? You must communicate with your clients by being focused on their needs first.
Attract, then Inform
I notice that many of my clients put too much emphasis on what they do instead of emphasizing why their audience should choose them over the competition — or choose them at all.
Note these claims:
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Do Business Owners Rely on Professionals Too Much? (Do They Have Any Choice?)By Art Consoli, author of “How to Evaluate and Profit from a Business Opportunity - The Entrepreneur’s Guide”I just had a conversation with a very successful real estate developer who told me two stories about lawyers; they are both worth passing on. In the first he mentioned that he had just received a bill from an attorney for sending a letter to a tenant who had not paid their last month’s rent. My friend said that the letter was less than a full page and the bill was for $1500. He decided this was excessive and took the bill to
Note these claims:
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
"The man who can think but does not know how to express what he thinks is at the same level as he who cannot think." — Pericles, leader of Athens around 450 B.C.It was the dead of winter in the middle of a very cold snap. As we approached departure time, judging by all the activity outside the plane, we weren't likely to leave on time. In a few minutes the captain announced, "You can see a lot of activity on our left wing. This is a maintenance crew trying to replace a defective fuel pump. We find it's best to fix a problem like that on the ground before we're in the air. The good news is that there is another fue
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
There are thousands of people looking for a way to stop working for someone else and become the owners of their own businesses. But the odds of succeeding, quite frankly, are not good.There’s a commonly held “theory of thirds” among business experts; it states that of all new businesses one-third never get out of the red; one-third just break even; and one-third actually make money. For those which do make money, there does not seem to be a theory regarding how many of them make enough money to support their owners. Statistics from the US Small Business Associations indicate that fewer than fifty percent of all
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Be your own client
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
The answer may be different for each target market, so it is important to know who your prospective clients are before asking yourself these questions.
Being completely objective about your own business is not easy; you’ve worked hard to build it and you know it inside out. Defining your benefits from an outside perspective can enable you to better understand how other people view your business. Getting a view of your own “big picture” is something a professional business coach can help you achieve.
Whether you do it alone or get outside help, it never hurts to think about what you have to offer to potential clients. So, next time you’re at the grocery store, stop by the cereal aisle and ask yourself: “What are MY 5 essential nutrients?”
Copyright. Cristina Favreau. All rights reserved.
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