May 31, 2012
Sedona, Arizona
Sunny 54 degrees
Here’s a very simple but powerful way to separate yourself from the long list of other service providers that do the same thing you do:
Stop talking about what you do.
Start focusing on the problems you solve.
This simple shift will have an immediate impact on your conversations with clients and prospective clients.
First of all, you’re going to start focusing on your client’s most favorite topic… themselves.
Second, you’re going to instantly set yourself apart from the competition because the conversation you’ll have with clients will be very different from everyone else they talk to.
I’ll use myself as an example…
Say a client comes to me and asks me to write a salesletter for a product they sell.
The average service provider would cut right to the chase and start negotiating scope, fee and terms. (If you’re interested in not being average, this will help.)
But doing that is a mistake.
That’s because the last thing you should do is blindly accept the premise that your client can adequately assess what they need.
Instead, you figure out what their real problem is and what they’re trying to achieve. If you don’t know how to do this, you need this skill.
In the case of my example, I might find out that the client’s real concern is that their average order value is too low to make their current ad campaigns sustainable.
Once I know that, I can start creating a solution based on my skills.
Do you see how that might feel totally different to the client?
Just because you’re a service provider doesn’t mean your client is interested in your service.
Your client has problems that need solutions. Keeping your focus on the real issue will take you far.