How well can your clients, customers and prospects explain what you do?

This is one of the questions that every business owner needs to be asking themselves all the time.

Too often, we focus so much on developing our business that we forget why we’re developing our business in first place. Sure, we want to make a profit – that goes without saying. Yet the most likely reason any of us got into business is because we believe we have a unique and better approach to solving a people’s problems.

Take a moment and think about all the products you see advertised in mass media. Each one tries to solve a problem. Think about Gatorade, IcyHot or Midol and I’m sure you can tell me what problems each can solve for me – even if you haven’t used the product yourself.

Sure, each of these products have massive marketing budgets, catchy slogans and world-wide mass appeal (what women doesn’t want relief from her symptoms around her period). Yet they’ve also clearly communicated the problems each can solve. And they do it so well that you’d have no problem explaining to someone else that IcyHot can relieve muscle pain.

But what would your clients and customers say about your business? Is it clear what problems you can help them solve? Not just clear to you, but clear to them. And clear enough so they’d have no problem explaining what you do to someone else?

If they don’t know, why would they work with you in the first place? And if your clients can’t explain how you’ve helped them, how can they tell their friends?

Or do you get that it’s not about you?

That’s right. If you’re the business owner – it’s not about you. So, then, who is it about?

It’s about me – the client, the customer, the patron, the prospect – whatever term we want to use to mean, “who you’re in business for.” If you’re blogging, it’s who you’re writing for. You know, the people who read and comment on your blog posts.

Yet, so much of the copy I see on the web isn’t focused on me and my needs at all. Rather it’s focused on the business and, truthfully, their needs.

Think about the sites you’ve seen. More often than not they say things like, “We can do this,” or “Our services blah, blah,” or “We have 50 years of experience.” Then there’s my favorite – “our mission is…”

As a consumer, I don’t care about your mission. I don’t care what about what you do, your services or your decades of experience. I care about me. I want to know what’s in it for me. How can knowing you benefit me? What can you do to help me?

If I’m ‘in the market’ for something, it’s likely because I have a problem. What I need is a solution to my problem. And if I’m visiting your website, I need to know first that you understand my problem and, then, second that you can help me solve my problem. But I can’t know you can solve my problems unless you tell me so.

I was going to write some tips about how to create a more customer-focused marketing message. But I’d rather have that conversation in the comment box because I really want to hear your ideas. So…let’s talk.

Would you like your customers and clients to promote your business for you? Of course you do, right?

Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, states that around 80% of online shopping time is spent researching products (and services) rather than buying. And 77% of online shoppers will read reviews before making a purchase.

So obviously what people think about you and your business is very important to your success. And with blast and interruption marketing being less and less effective, what people are saying about you becomes even more important.

In Andy’s book he says, “Traditional marketing is no longer the safe way to go. It may make you more comfortable, but it is becoming gradually less and less effective… It’s time to focus on making customers happy – earning their trust and respect and getting them talking about your stuff.”

So how do you get your customers and clients to talk about you and promote your business? Well, first, “Happy customers are your best advertisers.” (from Andy’s book).

But I go a step further…I say get your clients to fall in love with you.

Think about what happens to you when you fall in love. You’re giddy and excited. Your face carries a perpetual smile and your stride has a bit more bounce to it. And when you’re in love, you can’t help but telling people about it. Especially your friends.

That’s exactly how you want your clients and customers to feel from their work with you. You want them to leave your meetings excited, hopeful and with a bit of bounce in their stride. Then you’ll be the topic of conversation when your client talks to their friends.

So how do you get your clients and customers to fall in love with you? Here’s 7, rather easy, ways to begin:

1. Be nice
   Above all things, if you’re kind, polite and compassionate, they will feel it. And they’ll internally compare how they feel interacting with you with how they feel with others. It’s subtle, but it makes a huge difference.
2. Be fully attentive
   Whenever you’re interacting with a client or customer, put everything else on hold. If things come up during a meeting, write them down so they don’t get in the way of your being fully present. You know when someone isn’t fully there with you – and your clients do too.
3. Exceed their expectations
   Whenever the opportunity presents itself, take the extra step. Doing small tasks that have little impact on your time can pay huge dividends in how your clients see you. Going above and beyond creates a ‘wow’ affect. It makes them feel like they’re the most important client to you. And that’s what they’ll talk about with others.
4. Listen to what they’re really telling you
   People don’t always do a great job saying what they really mean. Listen to their words, AND listen to what they’re saying between the words. When you answer the unspoken questions and concerns your clients will trust you even more because they’ll feel like you really ‘get them.’
5. Help them understand how
   People have hired you or bought your products to help them solve some problem in their business. So make sure it does. If they don’t understand how to use it, they won’t and, in turn, you won’t succeed either. They have to be successful for you to be successful.
6. Always follow up
   If you say you’re going to do something by a certain time, do it. Do it earlier, if you can to exceed their expectations. And if you can’t do it on time, let them know as soon as you do. If you keep your clients well informed, it will go a long way to building respect and trust.
7. Stay in touch
   Even after you’re finished working directly with them, stay in touch. Give them a call or send an email that specifically asks them how they’re doing after working together or buying your product. Trust me, this will be a very pleasant surprise. And, it can give you valuable feedback as well.

Here are but a few ways to make your clients fall in love with you. Put them in action and you’ll have raving fans who want to tell everyone they know about you.

I know I haven’t covered all the ways to make your clients fall in love with you. So let’s talk about it. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t? And what have I left out?

Continuing our one2one conversation, Liz Strauss asked me (and you):

What’s the the part of business, besides relationships, that you look forward to doing more of?

Okay, so here’s how I read your question…”what other part of business, besides building relationships.” I hope this is what you meant, because my entire business is about relationships. From how I market to how I work with my clients, what I see in my business IS relationships.

But I can look through building more and stronger relationships at aspects of my business. So that’s what I’m going to run with.

I’ve been building websites for more than a decade at this point. So it’s mostly what I’m known for. It’s also the easiest way people can describe what I do to their friends, clients and colleagues. So more often than not, I get calls about website design.

What ends up happening, however, is that the people soon find out that I do so much more than most web designers. They learn that I understand business development, marketing, product development, copy editing, etc. And often, they hire me to consult and coach them while we’re working on their website.

So really, I’m really a born teacher. I know that sounds like a vast, presumptuous statement. Yet at every point in my life this fact has been mirrored back to me. In elementary school I used to show my classmates how to do math problems when they didn’t get it. As a baseball player I could spot mistakes in a teammate’s swing and help them feel the correction. Even when I had a private healing practice I would somehow find a way to explain complex spiritual concepts in a way that people just understood.

Even as a web designer, I’ve been very successful at making the technical easy to understand – even a neophyte. This gives clients the power to make their own, informed decisions about their business.

So like you, Liz, I am a teacher. I’m a teacher and I love to solve problems. And this has led me to doing more consulting/coaching/educating-type work. I love it. And it’s opened up a whole new part of my business.

Now people don’t have to need a new website to work with me. They can hire me to help them with any number of projects or aspects of their business: from service and product development to marketing, increasing traffic and building relationships to branding, utilizing a newsletter to just plain problem solving.

And best of all, they can hire me to help them learn how to use social media – blogging, social networking, etc, – more effectively, to grow their business or to increase the visibility of their blog. That I’m doing already with a handful of clients.

So that’s what I want to do more of…coach people to a more rewarding and successful business, consult with people to solve their business problems and educate people on how to do anything they need without being dependent on me. Does that make me a coaching strategist? Maybe.

So Liz (and you, reading this, too), speaking of strategy:

What do you feel is necessary to create an effective strategy to promote a business?

If you got this far, I’d love to hear your answers to either question. Join our one2one conversation in the comment box below.

And if you need some help with your business, let’s talk about it.

Ever lose your client calendar? Well, neither had I…until Friday.

By some odd combination of keystrokes, I deleted my client calendar within Apple’s iCal.

iCal is neat in that I can have multiple calendars that can service different puposes. I have different calendars for family, home, personal appointments, holidays, birthdays, etc…and, of course, my work calendar where I keep detailed track of all my client work.

But not any more. The client calendar is gone. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking…just select ‘undo.’ Tried it, it was grayed out. Next I spent two hours on the phone with Apple trying to get the calendar back – only to be told that once it’s deleted it’s deleted. Not in Trash. Not in cache. Gone. This I found odd that the file wouldn’t end up in Trash or that it couldn’t be rebuilt.

Funny thing, I wasn’t asked to confirm if I wanted it deleted. It just got wiped away. And I still have no idea what keys I hit that made it happen. Could this be rare? Do I feel safe using iCal for business anymore? Not sure yet.

Yes, there is a backup feature. But it’s manual and I’ve never bothered with it. That will change.

In the meantime, I’m looking for a new calendar program for the Mac. I do like iCal, but am thinking maybe it’s time for a change.

I’ve been running all my client work through iCal, Address Book and Merlin (project management software) because they all easily integrate. I do have Filemaker Pro and use it to store client passwords, etc. I’ve been thinking of moving my address book and calendar to it, but I’m not fond of the learning curve nor the time it’ll take to create the database layout I’ll want.

Any suggestions on other calendar systems for the Mac? And remember, back up your calendar.

As I’m restructuring my business offers, I’ve been struggling a bit with branding. Though I help my clients with this all the time, it’s seems hard to help myself. No worries, I do have some excellent brand experts in my corner.

While branding was fresh on my mind the other day, I stumbled across a video on Phil Gerbysak’s site. The video, put together by ZeFrank, brings branding down to a simple concept:

A brand is an emotional aftertaste that’s conjured up by, but not necessarily dependent on, a series of experiences.
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As he does often, Seth Godin grabbed my attention yesterday with his post titled, May I Help You?. It’s short, sweet and to the point. So� here it is in� its entirety.

“May I help you?”

… is almost a useless thing to say.

If you want to end a conversation with a teenager, just ask, “How was school today?”

If you want to end a conversation with a customer, just ask if you can help. Instead, ask, “can I get you a hot drink?” or “what’s the worst thing about your insurance company?” or “one slice or two?”

I couldn’t agree more. You see, your clients/customers/patrons don’t often know what they need. They only know something isn’t working – which is why they’re searching for you in the first place.

If you ask them what they need, they’ll likely give you answer. But that answer will be pointed directly into the problem their facing. It’s highly unlikely it will lead them to a solution. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need you.

It’s much more effective to first listen to their story a bit and then ask specific and pointed questions that will help you identify further their need. The best questions can even get them thinking about the solution as though they thought of it themselves.

I find this the most effective method, when it works. Why? It puts the client back in power over their business. And ultimately as a coach or consultant that’s what you want.

How do you engage your clients/customers that unveil the solution?�

As part of Thursday Thirteen, Char from Essential Keystrokes has listed her 13 favorite WordPress Resources. Since she’s listed a number of my own favorites, I thought it would be great to share them with you.
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As far back as I can remember I’ve wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. When I was 3 years old, I told my parents I was going to be a firefighter so I could “make people’s houses not burn down.” Around 10 I decided I wanted to be a doctor so I could help sick kids. By the time I was on my way to college, I was set on being a surgeon.

Well, I never did go to medical school. The awakening to alternative medicine when I was a freshmen at Purdue made sure of that. By the end of my second year I left college to pursue studies in alternative healing.

The next ten years or so was an amazing adventure. I studied various forms of healing, supporting myself as a website designer along the way. I eventually opened a healing practice and saw clients regularly. Sometimes the results clients got were nothing short of miraculous. Other times, the healing caused them turmoil – as though they didn’t want to accept change in their lives. Either way, within a few years, I was burned out.

One thing my healing work and my studies gave me was the sense of constantly looking inside myself for the meaning in things. It gave me the tools of self-reflection; tools I could use to look back at my life and see that I’d always wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. I know I didn’t want a private healing practice any longer. What I did know was I wanted my work to have meaning – to me and to my clients.

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For a few weeks I’ve been on a campaign to rid the blogosphere of the dreaded nofollow attribute. Of course, I didn’t start this. But I’m convinced that nofollow must go. So much so that I’ve been asking everyone I know to spread the word.

A few days ago, Randa Clay had the great idea of creating a badge. Great idea, I thought. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, the great thing is, she has.
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