What You Need to Know About Your Business Now...So You Can Tell Your Clients!

We, as business owners, have all heard about giving elevator speeches or a 30 second intro, preparing vision and mission statements, having a business plan and a marketing plan, and how important marketing is to the success of our companies. But how many of us actually have this important material? Many of my friends and some of my clients are business owners. And many of them have none of these. I hear reasons such as "I don't have time" or "I don't really know how to do them" or "I hate marketing" for not taking the time to create these products. So why are these documents important? Is it just for marketing? Or just for your clients or bankers? No, the real significance of all of these is what it does for you and how you run and market your business. There are five key things you must know that can make or break your business and speed up or slow down your success.

Write the answers to these questions as completely and with as much thought and consideration as you can. It may take some time, even days or weeks to thoroughly explore them. After you've delved deeply, fully described and then narrowed down your answers, try to sum each up in a single statement.

First, what is it that you/your business does for people? What specifically do you provide for your clients and customers? This is not just your title, such as accountant or psychiatrist, but deeper. What problems do you solve and how? What are your products and/or services? How do you provide them?

Second, who is your ideal client or customer, that is, who do you do the above for? Here you must describe the person you are trying to reach, and the answer is almost never "everyone". What do your clients do as a profession? What gender and age are they? What are their problems and aspirations? Where do they hang out? What religion are they? What hobbies or interests do they have? How would you recognize one? What problems do they have that you can solve? If you had to ask a friend to refer people to you, how would you describe a prospective client?

Third, what are the benefits your clients receive from you and your services? What is your value proposition or what value do your services or products have for your customers? What tangible and intangible benefits do they receive? How are their lives better for having used your business? Why should they buy from you?

Fourth, what makes you the one they should spend their money with? What makes your products and services unique? Why you? What sets you apart and above the rest of your competitors? This is where you bring in your background, education, specialties, experience, and the extras that you bring to the table.

And finally, what is your call to action? It is all fine and good if you can describe what you do, who you do it for, what the benefits are and how you are special, but do your clients and customers know how to contact you? Have you given them a reason to reach for the phone? You must make it as easy as possible to find and contact you. And oftentimes, given them a reason to contact you, just as a free gift or complimentary session.

The biggest impact doing this exercise has is on the amount of clarity you gain around your business. Many business owners do not think through what they actually serve and who they serve. This makes for confusion, missed opportunities, weak and scattered marketing efforts and slow or no growth and movement. Clarity about why you are in business, what your business is and who your customers are can fuel your business and marketing efforts like nothing else. If you know these things, then they become the meat of the business plan, the marketing plan, your elevator speech, your direct mail piece, your website, etc.

If you are trying to reach everyone, then you typically are reaching no one. If you know your target is adolescent males, that gives you a strong leg up on how and where to market. It probably won't be advertizing in Martha Stewart's Magazine! Or in the senior section of your local newspaper. Just knowing what problem (for the client) you are trying to solve, gives you the information to include in your advertizing. People must be able to relate to your services and the best way is by appealing to their own problem..."losing your hair or going bald?" or "feeling overwhelmed and out of sorts?". You get the idea.

So start now and develop a very clear picture about what your business is and who your ideal clients are. You may not know all the answers today. This information may evolve over time. But any clarity is better than no clarity!

All blog content is copyrighted, all rights reserved, Mary Anne Fields and Life Unfolds, 2006

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