Published:
05/20/2011 09:24pm
Connect With Your Clients On Their Terms - And Increase Your Profits!
If you want to fill your pipeline with prospects and increase your income, you have to speak the language of your ideal clients. When you speak their language, you'll be able to connect with them on a deeper level and show that you understand their problems.
Some solo professionals struggle with describing what they do in a way that connects with their clients - but if you take the following three steps you'll be able to avoid this struggle. You can connect with more people who need what you have to offer.
1. Don't use industry jargon: There may be a difference between the way you think about your business and the way your clients think about your business. While you may know all of the nitty-gritty technical details and terms about how you deliver your services, your average customer will not. And likely, they couldn't care less about the details! So, don't alienate them by filling your website, blog, marketing materials and conversations with industry jargon! Instead, make sure the interactions you have with prospects convey your value in terms that they'll relate to.
2. Consider how your ideal clients describe their pain points: Your services should help your clients eliminate major problems and challenges. That means you need to find out exactly how your clients are describing those pain points. What terms, phrases and words do they use to describe their struggles? For example, if you are a Virtual Assistant, your clients might say that they are tired of feeling overwhelmed or that there isn't enough time in the day to get done what they need to do. Their pain point is a lack of time - which engaging your services will help them to eliminate. You can refer to overwhelmed feelings and there not being enough time in their day in your marketing materials to directly connect with their pain points and highlight the value you can bring to their life and/or business.
3. Get clear on what words are your prospects and clients using to describe the problems that you solve: In addition to describing their pain points, your prospects and clients are also using specific terms and words for the solutions you offer. If you are marketing your solutions using terms that are unfamiliar to your target market or words that don't reflect the problems that you solve, you could be missing out on opportunities to sell to your services. Look over your testimonials from previous clients and watch for words or phrases that are repeated over and over again. How are your clients describing the problems that you've solved? Knowing this will help you talk about what you do in a way that appeals to prospects.
Speaking the language of your clients is key in earning their trust, showing them how you can help and becoming a relied upon problem solver. By analyzing the language that your clients and prospects are using and eliminating industry jargon, you can speak right to their needs. That makes you the only obvious choice to work with, gets your clients what they want AND creates a much more profitable business for you!
