If you want to fill your pipeline with prospects and increase your income, you have to speak the language of your ideal clients. When you speak their language, you’ll be able to connect with them on a deeper level and show that you understand their problems.
Some solo professionals struggle with describing what they do in a way that connects with their clients – but if you take the following three steps you’ll be able to avoid this struggle. You can connect with more people who need what you have to offer.
- Don’t use industry jargon: There may be a difference between the way you think about your business and the way your clients think about your business. While you may know all of the nitty-gritty technical details and terms about how you deliver your services, your average customer will not. And likely, they couldn’t care less about the details! So, don’t alienate them by filling your website, blog, marketing materials and conversations with industry jargon! Instead, make sure the interactions you have with prospects convey your value in terms that they’ll relate to.
- Consider how your ideal clients describe their pain points: Your services should help your clients eliminate major problems and challenges. That means you need to find out exactly how your clients are describing those pain points. What terms, phrases and words do they use to describe their struggles? For example, if you are a Virtual Assistant, your clients might say that they are tired of feeling overwhelmed or that there isn’t enough time in the day to get done what they need to do. Their pain point is a lack of time – which engaging your services will help them to eliminate. You can refer to overwhelmed feelings and there not being enough time in their day in your marketing materials to directly connect with their pain points and highlight the value you can bring to their life and/or business.
- Get clear on what words are your prospects and clients using to describe the problems that you solve: In addition to describing their pain points, your prospects and clients are also using specific terms and words for the solutions you offer. If you are marketing your solutions using terms that are unfamiliar to your target market or words that don’t reflect the problems that you solve, you could be missing out on opportunities to sell to your services. Look over your testimonials from previous clients and watch for words or phrases that are repeated over and over again. How are your clients describing the problems that you’ve solved? Knowing this will help you talk about what you do in a way that appeals to prospects.
Speaking the language of your clients is key in earning their trust, showing them how you can help and becoming a relied upon problem solver. By analyzing the language that your clients and prospects are using and eliminating industry jargon, you can speak right to their needs. That makes you the only obvious choice to work with with, gets your clients what they want AND creates a much more profitable business for you!
How can you apply this strategy to your business? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below and get feedback!
Your Action Plan For The Week:
- Scan through your website and marketing materials and look for jargon. Eliminate any words and phrases that your average prospect would find confusing or not care about.
- Look at all of the requests for help you’ve gotten via email in the past several months. How are your prospects describing their pain points? What words and descriptions are they using?
- Browse through social media and forums where your ideal clients are spending time. Look for the ways that they describe their pain points.
- Review your testimonials and emails that you’ve gotten from satisfied clients. Look for common terms and words that are used to describe the problems that you solve.
- Take all of the terms and phrases that you’ve found in your research and incorporate them into your website, marketing materials and the way that you talk about your business.
Kris Jamieson says
Well said! Thank you so much!
Sydni Craig-Hart says
You’re quite welcome Kris! I’d love to know, what in particular struck you about the article?
Karen May Dy says
Sydni, this post is really helpful. I can’t thank you enough for writing something that is so valuable. I am currently working on this and have been slowly implementing some of the things you mentioned in the action plan over the past couple of months. Sometimes I would use jargon but I’ve tried my best to speak in the terms that my potential clients would understand. Again, thank you. I’m learning a lot from your blog.
Sydni Craig-Hart says
You’re so welcome Karen! Thanks for the feedback. I love helping entrepreneurs just like you! 🙂 Kudos to you for implementing the strategies you’ve learned. What have been the results thus far?
Karen May Dy says
Hi Sydni! After I’ve started speaking my target market’s language on my home page, blog posts, and revised my free offer, I attracted 2 new potential clients in just a week. It’s amazing cause these 2 really fit my ideal client checklist. I’ve already confirmed my meetings for this week and I’m excited to help them.
Sydni Craig-Hart says
OMG Karen! That’s awesome! Thanks so much for sharing your success with me. I’m so thrilled for you! Be sure to update me after you enroll those two clients, I want to celebrate with you!!! 🙂
Warm hugs to you,
Sydni