Let’s talk about a trap that I see so many of you falling into and I wonder if you’ve actually fallen foul of this yourself. And it’s this, that when you try and target everyone you end up attracting no one.
And I see so many of you falling into that trap.
I was just on the phone with a client earlier today and we were just talking about this very thing. We’re talking about unpacking who it is that they help. And so I said to them I said well ok give me a little bit of a sense of who your client is and amongst other things, I got the typical, well look we work with small businesses.
Now that is so vague that it?s dangerous. Not only that, it’s incredibly costly. You see there’s only a million plus small businesses in Australia and surely a small practice can?t appeal to all of them.
So you’ve got to get quite clear about who it is that you’re helping. And I’d rather go an inch wide and a mile deep than a mile wide and an inch deep and there’s one thing that you have to be really clear on when you’re trying to target your messages to your prospective clients through your target market.
And that is we all come with these fears and frustrations and these wants and aspirations and they are the motivators that make us buy. They are the things upon which we base our buy decisions.
And if I’ve got a problem and I look at a particular adviser putting out a message that can solve that problem and I feel like they’re speaking just to me. That’s who I’m going to. But if I hear a message, it’s kind of so vague that I don’t really connect with it and it doesn’t really mean anything your money and your message is wasted on me.
So if you want me to come on board as an advice client, accounting firm, legal firm, doesn’t really matter, I need to know that you are the vehicle to solve my problem.
So get really clear on who you help and I mean really clear. Understand what keeps them awake at night and start tailoring your message to meet that need.
I’m Andrew Abel.
