What Are You REALLY Offering Prospects? by Connie Scholl

When someone asks you what you do, what they're really asking is, "I wonder how you can help me?" Now, the typical response, especially from professionals and business owners who are uncomfortable with marketing, is "Oh, I'm a ______ (plug in your particular title here)." Then, if the individual who asked the question is still listening, you go on to explain how you do what you do, how/where you were trained, your process, and how much you love doing what you do. By this point in time, the average person has completely tuned you out, and has switched their focus to formulating an escape strategy!

(Hint: Your potential client/listener does not want to know the "ins and outs" of HOW you do what you do, they only have one thing on their mind--they want to know what's in it for them.)

Your job as a smart and savvy marketer is to shift the focus away from you, and put it onto THEM. Here's three easy steps to help you do just that!

* Begin by writing out a list of all the services you provide along with the features of each.

* Next, make another list of all the ways in which these services help your clients. In other words, challenge yourself to write out a list of the ten biggest BENEFITS your clients experience as a result of receiving your services.

* Once you have your list of ten benefits, pick the top three and use these words as a basis for all of your verbal and written marketing communications.

A successful example of this idea is the popular home shopping network, QVC. They've actually taken their top three customer benefits, "Quality, Value and Convenience," and created their name out of them!

© Connie Scholl 2006

About The Author

Connie Scholl of ConnieCoach.com provides self- employed service professionals with simple, effective and low-cost marketing solutions designed to quickly jump-start sales and consistently generate new clients. Get free marketing tips and "how-to-articles" at http://www.conniecoach.com.