What Are You Selling?
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I am with the Growth Coach; we help our clients with a unique, affordable coaching process to become more focused and strategic in their businesses and balance their professional and personal lives. The value for our clients is being able to get away from every detail, slow down, gain clarity of where they are now, where they want to be and creating a strategy to close the gap.
So far so good? The person did not seem to be overly impressed and certainly not ready to ask "where can I learn more"? Did you ever encounter conversations like this? What were your next steps? In my next session with my personal business coach I revisited the conversation and discussed the lack of engagement and motivation I created in the potential client to take actions.
After intensely listening, she ask me several questions. She started with "why are you passionate about your services?". I stated how satisfied I am when my clients grow and change as a result of our coaching relationship and how happy I am when I see the impact this makes on their business and their lives.
The next question somewhat threw a wrench into my train of thought: "So what would your clients say about the value they receive from working with you and going through the programs? "Simple answer? Right? Wrong! I started to give her my elevator speech and point out all the great value propositions I had built into it. Unimpressed she asked me again: "So what would your clients say about the value they receive from working with you? "By now I had long seen the disconnect and promised to follow up with my clients. The answers I got were different and eye opening:
- Overcoming isolation; having somebody who listens and asking questions without telling me what to do topped the list
- Companionship and advice from fellow business owners
- Clarity about the direction they want to go in
- Confidence into their direction
- Being held accountable for working towards the goals
Different? Yes! However, there is a lot of overlap between the key points in my elevator speech and their list and I am sure you will have the same findings. Did I have the same priority and should the elevator speech be adjusted? You bet it should.
So, look at your business, at what you are passionate about, and determine what you are selling. Take my lead and challenge your message by asking your clients, friends and family what benefits they see in working with you and your services or products. Listen carefully and be prepared to ask a lot of open-ended questions:
- Tell me more ...
- How would you rate ...
- What would you ...
Most important: listen with an open mind. Don't prepare answers as they speak. Prepare more questions! Take the input and rewrite your elevator speech to show your passion and the value customers see in working with you or buying your products and services. I bet you will interest more people in your products and services and engage them in deeper conversations.
© 2009 Copyrighted by Dr. Joe Mayer, Managing Partner of The Growth Coach, who helps owners grow their businesses by focusing on vision and strategy. Joe can be reached at J.Mayer@Thegrowthcoach.com; http://www.mayerbusinessgroup.com/
