You are first a marketer
Before you have the opportunity to deliver any professional service, that service must first be sold. If no selling happens, no one has work, no one gets paid.
Even if you do not realize it, you are in the business of marketing and client acquisition.
To produce decent results in this arena, it’s important to understand how buying decisions are made — so you can know how to craft a process that supports those decisions.
These are the 7 keys to consider.
Key 1. Attention
The first key is attention.
Simply put = how many people know your business exists.
A few attention pathways:
- Organic
- Paid ads
- Partners
- Outbound
The principle is simple here: All these pathways allow people to know that you exist because no one can buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
The goal: Increase the number of people who know you exist.
Key 2. Understanding
The second key is understanding.
Do the people you speak to understand the outcomes you can produce?
This comes down to effectively communicating the PAYOFF of your work. This is not just communicating your industry or job category, but rather the payoffs that you are involved in.
To understand the payoffs of working with you, it’s crucial to understand the desires of your market.
So are the top 5 priorities that your ideal client is working towards right now?
For instance, being “too broad” looks like:
- “They want to grow their business.”
In reality, the clear payoffs they are looking for is:
- “They want to set an additional 10-15 new sales appointments per month.”
Here’s the point: People will remember you based on how clear they understand the outcomes you produce.
That means, you must understand and list by priorities which outcomes mean the most to your ideal clients. The pitfall is if you don’t put yourself in a well-labeled box, there is a possibility that you will be mislabelled.
When you define that box yourself, there is a high chance that people will actually remember what you do.
Key 3. Relevance
The third key is relevance.
Relevance is = Is what I am offering to prospects meaningful to their circumstances right now?
Relevant could also be timing based — So your prospects might not be ready to make a buying decision right now, but they will sometime in the near future.
If you were unclear about the outcomes you produce, then when the timing is right, your prospects won’t remember you.
If you are clear about the outcomes you produce, when the timing is right, your prospects will remember you.
This is such an important nuance.
Why is this important? Because changes in circumstances can make you relevant.
Key 4. Distinction.
The fourth key is distinction.
This is all about showcasing how and why you are different.
So how are you different from any other available option? What is different about your process that presents an advantage to me? What tells your prospects that you are uniquely positioned to solve problems for them?
There are many ways to showcase simple distinctions, for example:
- In your content: How you educate your audience or even present material
- In your touchpoints: How you add value to your market and show empathy
- In your sales process: How you listen, ask questions, and serve people
- In your demonstration: The unique stories and experiences you share that proves they’ll receive a superior outcome by listening to you
All these are simple yet powerful components to get right.
This is important because as your prospects start going into that buying phase, they will create a list of who they believe are the best people to solve their problems - you want to be #1 on that list as many times as possible.
Key 5. Urgency
The fifth key is urgency.
As we have learned - timing is important. Timing can make you relevant.
Here’s the thing, you have no control over urgency, you cannot push or force your prospects into making a buying decision. Remember too that the more you persist, the more your prospects resist your selling attempts.
What you absolutely want to do though is have keys 1-4 dialed in, so that you are on your prospects list for consideration. They’ll literally make a mental or physical list of people who they believe are best qualified to solve the problem.
They’ll take into consideration things like, do I like what they say in their content, or how they’re presenting information, have they created a really cool experience that has added value to me and my team? They’ll create this list.
**Then something happens in their life and now urgency comes into play. **
What you’d want to do is turn keys 1-4 before urgency is created for these people.
But if you have not turned keys 1-4 by this time, you are not on that list for consideration. You’re out.
If you’ve done the work, you’re on the list for consideration, how well you’ve covered the previous keys determines how far up that list you are.
So the timeline belongs to the client, do the work to be on the list of consideration.
Remember, their circumstances can change real quick, making solving the problem urgent for them.
Key 6. Trust
The sixth key is trust.
The question is: Do your prospects believe that you will deliver on the promise that is being presented?
This is why my models are so effective, because if you do the work upfront, you install layers of certainty, belief, and trust that make that buying decision easier.
I’ve written quite a few posts on this matter. Make sure you check the rest of the blog out.
Key 7. Resources.
The seventh key is resources.
Simply: Can your ideal clients afford the offer that is being presented?
Do we have the manpower to complete the necessary work?
If your target audience does not have the money; you’re always going to be met with resistance.
If they don’t have the mental bandwidth or human resources to complete the work — you’ll also be met with resistance.
This is why going after the right addressable market is so important.
All these keys come together once you’ve made an offer.
There are many different factors that contribute towards an offer being considered.
It’s kinda like ticking off boxes, people are rating you based on the experience you create.
- How well they believe you understand their problems
- How qualified they believe you are to solve their problems
- How much perceived value has been communicated to them
All these components matter.
Onward and upward.
— Justin
Justin Booysen