Putting it into your client’s context
Communication has always been the key to client success. It is key to introducing yourself to a client and explaining your value to them. It is key to educating your client about the benefit of your services in achieving their goals. It is key to delivering solutions that can be explained and implemented. It is key to encouraging your team, building their confidence and sharing successes. Every firm can benefit by being good at communicating with their clients.
It may sound overly simplistic, so let’s look at how communication can be used to focus your message in a meaningful way that resonates.
Find the right client profile and put your message into context
The key is to frame conversations around the client, not you or your firm. You need to talk about their problems and their situation, not your expertise. Doing this, however, is sometimes harder than many firms care to admit. So, let’s take a look at how we can make this easier for you.
Not every potential client should be your client. Sometimes, not even excellent communication can help. Some clients are simply not right for you, and you are not right for them. In essence, there is simply no way for you to please them. The match is not right, and you should focus your efforts elsewhere.
If you keep getting too many clients like these, then the problem is likely that you haven’t found your ideal target profile.
What you need to do is take a good look at your expertise and where you truly shine. Then you can go about formulating who your perfect customer is. Once you establish the profile of your ideal customer, you’ll know who to target with your marketing efforts.
The next step is to formulate your communications plan. You need to put your sales message in the right context.
So many firms fall into the trap of forming their message around what they are good at and what excellent qualifications they have. If you belong to this type of firm, you should know this one thing – clients don’t care about your qualifications and how good you are. They don’t. What they care about is how you can help them. They are not looking for a firm like yours to learn how good that firm is at their job, but how that firm can help fix their issues.
So, if you want to attract them to your business, you need to put your message into the client’s context – not yours.
Don’t fall into the trap of ego-driven marketing:
- Don’t talk about yourself – listen to the client
- Don’t show how great you are by giving stats and figures – listen to what the client’s pain is, then tell them how you’ll cure that pain
- Don’t use your expertise to belittle the audience – use it to build your credibility and illustrate how it has been applied to support other clients achieve their goals or resolve problems.
Key takeaways
The best way to avoid ego-driven marketing is to always put your message into the client’s context.
Always remind yourself that your paycheck will come from the client, which means that you have to do what you can to please them.
So, stop looking at yourself and start putting that message into the client’s context. Once you accomplish that, you will be bound for success. And don’t stress if you get stuck. Just give us a call, and we’ll help you.