The Desert of Arizona
Sun is Coming 28 degrees
Go up to a prospective client and ask her if she wants to sign-up for a subscription to your newsletter, and I bet you’ll get a far from enthusiastic response.
“Oh… OK,” she might say. Chances are better, however, that she’ll say something like, “Oh, no thank you, I just don’t have time to read another newsletter.” Or worse, maybe she’ll just pretend she doesn’t hear you and all of a sudden get a phone call she has to take. Ouch!
What would you say if someone asked you? Do you really want another “newsletter” from anyone?
Yesterday, I had the fourth and final session with a Platform Express Client who sells to large professional service firms.
His skills and experience have been formed over years and years of work, he has a ton of documented results, so the VALUE he brings to the table is not the issue. The issue is simply how to package those things up for maximum impact.
The first thing we worked to fix was that he was selling something his buyers weren’t interested in hearing about. They want the result he delivers, but they aren’t sold on the “how to go about it.” It doesn’t matter HOW great you are at what you do, if your potential buyer doesn’t think he wants/needs what you have, you will have a hard road. That’s why you lead with the result your buyer wants, not the path you take to get there.
But the challenge was even bigger in this example. Because this client was selling something he described using a certain word that, through no fault of his own, had grown to have a certain group of ideas associated with it in the mind of his buyers.
It’s a little bit like if you were a financial planner trying to sell 401ks to people who had JUST been through a hassle with the last company who managed their 401k. Doesn’t really matter what you showed or told them, the minute the word 401k comes out of your mouth, you’re toast.
Once we zeroed in on what the prospect actually wanted to BUY, we set about working backwards to construct a Platform that delivered content around that.
Now we’re on the track to creating something valuable the prospective buyer actually wants to read!
Next up, we solidified a few of the “big ideas” that make my client’s approach unique and more valuable. These are the foundational ideas that flavor the content of the Platform. Over time, these “big ideas” will get communicated to his readers because he will demonstrate them in many different ways.
(If you haven’t noticed, this is exactly what I do each day in The Client Letter.)
From there, we chose the format that would provide maximum impact to the prospects in mind, and created a name for the publication that would be instantly attractive to the potential buyer.
This is how you differentiate yourself from afar, without ever having to meet someone in person. It’s a lot of thinking work to end up with a few well shaped ideas. But it’s worth it.
Once you have a Platform that’s working for you, you’ll stop thinking of it as just a newsletter or a podcast or a blog. Instead, you’ll see it for what it really is: one of the most valuable client attraction assets you have in your business.
And you won’t have to try to get people to sign-up for it. Thank goodness! Because all of your hard work will make it attractive enough to your prospects that they actually WANT to get it. They’ll WANT to consume your marketing materials.
Do you understand how valuable that is? P.S. The fee for the Platform Express jumps way up after Tuesday. So if you want my help putting your Platform together the smart way, time is running out. Get onboard here.