Focusing on the Wrong Problem

I was doing a series of talks recently, always to rooms full of business owners.

Most of them were SERVICE business owners.

I was asked the same questions time and time again …

… “should I be paying to use Facebook ads?”

… “does anyone get business from LinkedIn?”

… “how can I use Twitter better?”

… “I’ve been sending emails but it doesn’t work — what am I doing wrong?”

These were questions from people who REALLY want to improve their situation.

These were people who, when they heard about the 3Fs concept, realised they didn’t have the 1stF, financial security.

They THINK the answer to getting financial security is in the PLATFORM they need to choose.

They THINK the solution is to generate more LEADS.

It isn’t.

It’s neither of these.

When I asked them about their “business” so I could help them with these questions, I found a deeper problem:

*******

They think their problem is a MARKETING problem, so they’re trying to work out how to generate more leads … when the problem is actually an OFFER problem, and generating more leads will only make their problem WORSE.

*******

=> It’s worth reading that a few times to let it hit home. <=

They tell themselves “people NEED what I have to offer!”

Doesn’t matter.

They tell themselves “my pricing is competitive”.

Missing the point.

Worse, they’re probably making their own financial security harder to achieve.

Here’s the reality:

… people don’t buy what they NEED … they buy what they WANT.

And without a brilliant, compelling, “got-to-get-my-hands-on-that” kind of OFFER … they don’t WANT it.

Or, more accurately, they haven’t yet realised why they SHOULD want it.

Big difference.

Focusing on questions like “should I use Facebook?” is not going to help.

Feels like it will though … it’s seductive like that.

But it won’t.

Not if the OFFER is weak.

Or confusing.

Or unclear.

There are a few key ingredients to making sure you’ve got a GREAT offer.

Those are worth posts on their own so I’ll cover those soon.

In the meantime … it’s worth asking YOURSELF the question:

“What is MY offer, and how do I DESCRIBE it?”

Originally published at www.strategicmentors.co.uk on March 19, 2018.