“Why does someone pay you?” – A five-word question that starts every lead generation marketing strategy in my book.
And you’d be amazed how hard it is for some people to answer what seems such a simple question. Feel free to lump me into this category as well, something that became apparent (once again) following a great chat I had last week with a design agency, where we were both trying to explain to each other what we did.
There’s clever old me, trying to prove my point about what clients buy compared to what you think you sell, only to have the tables turned with the question, “Yeh, but what do you actually do, Craig?”. Twice.
Having a succinct answer is trickier than it sounds, especially if you genuinely believe you are more than people’s stereotypical assumptions of your profession. After all, not all designers, marketers, lawyers or accountants are the same, right?
The answer lies in the initial question: Why do they pay you?
They had a problem, and you solved it.
I often come back to an anecdote from around ten years ago when I was pushing websites to double-glazing companies. I had a whole section on my website about “How To Attract Sales Leads For Your Double Glazing Company”. I’m effectively selling websites, but my messaging was geared towards what, in my experience, the owners of these businesses really wanted – sales leads.
I missed a call in the office one day, and, it being a time when Google was a little more ‘sharey’, I discovered that the person had searched and found my website for the phrase “Rent Double Glazing Website”. I called him back, and we had a chat. He’s still a client today.
That was his starting point – renting a website. I’d like to see a brainstorming meeting come up with that one. But strip away what you think you are selling, and the answer (or one of them) becomes clearer. It may even slap you around the face, shouting, “Where have you been all my life??”
So, the question is, why does someone pay you? What problem did you solve, and why are you any different from the next person?