“When you can articulate another person's problem better than they can, they automatically and unconsciously credit you with knowing the solution” - Wyatt Woodsmall
This is one of the most influential quotes of my consulting journey so far, because by following this seemingly simple advice you lay the strongest possible foundations for success in your business. Once your ideal client hears you articulate their problem in a way that they have tried, but failed, to do - they will look for ways to work with you and your sales process will become a breeze.
Most people struggle early on in business because they don’t know their specific client avatar - the person they are most well equipped and eager to serve. However this takes it to another level - but how do we get here…?
I’ll give you three of my top strategies to be able to articulate your ideal client’s problems better than they can.
Conduct Market Research
Go and talk to your ideal client, as many of them as you can. Ask them what their obstacles are, their challenges, their pains and problems; and find out where they want to go. Find out their aspirations and dreams.
The more you spend time with and listen to your ideal clients, the more you will understand their specific needs, struggles and desires. There simply is no better way to create the most powerful messaging than doing this. Ignore this part of the process at your peril.
Create Specific Client Avatars
From the market research you have undertaken, create specific client avatars and document everything as you go. I would even go as far as putting a name and picture to each client avatar that you create and write at least one page of detailed information about them.
Where do they spend their time?
Where do they spend their money?
Who are the influencers in their world?
What would they wish for if they found a genie in a bottle?
What do they believe is holding them back from their dreams and desires?
This takes time, a lot of time, however the work you do here will pay enormous dividends down the road. Always remember the compounding effect of laying the best possible foundations - if you are experiencing success today, it is because you were really killing it 6 months ago!
So keep going!
The work you do here will allow you to create a message that speaks to your ideal client on such a deep and personal level that they will feel compelled to work with you.
Test Your Messaging
In order to be truly successful you can never take anything for granted, you can never make assumptions and you must be willing to separate yourself from your work.
What I often see is that people get overly attached to their work, they become emotionally invested in the assumptions they make and as a result they aren’t willing to test and measure without bias.
This is dangerous and is the cause of a lot of failure, lost time and wasted money in our industry.
We cannot simply assume that our messaging is on point, we have to test it on our ideal clients.
We can test it for free by reaching out to our ideal clients, explaining our messaging and asking for feedback. This will give you incredible information that will allow you to continue to refine your messaging so that you can reach, talk to and make an impact on more people.
We can test it through ads by split testing different ad angles against each other, and it won’t take long. The market will always tell you what it loves, what it wants and what it doesn’t connect with - you just have to make sure that you’re listening and taking notes.
Simply by following the process laid out in this blog, you will be miles ahead of many of your competition. Focus on laying the strongest foundations and you will set yourself up to have the impact you dream of on the world.
