Don’t Lead With the How

How You Work Does Not Resonate With Clients

One of the lessons for small business brands as they grow is to pull out of the messaging on how they work. Often we’ve come up with a proprietary system or a methodology that is unique. That’s great because it forms a differentiating component in the landscape or in the industry. But when you lead with you how you work, there’s no emotional resonance to that. When we work with small business brands, we shift the focus from how they deliver their services or how their product works, and shift it out of the how. Because the truth of the matter is, your target audience is not focused on how you work with them, they’re focused on buying the results. They’re buying an outcome, a desired outcome that they have. They’re trying to solve a problem that they wrestle with, that keeps them up at night. There’s an emotional stress and you want to lead your messaging and your marketing efforts; you want to address the solution that you’re providing to the problem that’s keeping them up at night. Don’t focus on the how because it gets lost on them. Unless they speak the language that you’re sharing, they don’t understand what you’re talking about and then the connection is lost.

Explaining How Repels

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you needed surgery in your back, you have back pain and you need the pain to be resolved so that you could get up and get on with your life. The problem that you have is that you can’t get up and get on with your life. You need a neurosurgeon, and you seek out a neurosurgeon that can solve your problem. Now if the surgeon begins explaining the procedure and they explain how they work and what kind of scalpel they use and whether or not the scalpel is stainless steel or titanium, you’re going to be totally disconnected very early on. You’re in pain, you have a problem that you need solved, and what you want to understand is, are you the person that can solve this for me. I don’t want to know about the scalpels. In fact it’s almost repelling.
What you need to focus on in your business is where are you talking about something where your audience is almost backing up or glossing over or tuning out. What you want to hear from that neurosurgeon is, “No problem. I have done this surgery over 300,000 times, I haven’t lost anybody yet, and I absolutely can solve your problem. You’ll be up and walking, you can go join the yoga class again in about 3 weeks.” Okay, that’s what you’re listening for. You’re listening for the solution, and when can you get back to living life as you want to. Again, the desired outcome, or the result that you’re seeking. The result you’re seeking is relief from the pain, but also to get back into your lifestyle.

Talk About the Results Instead

The same is true with your clients. Don’t lead with the how, don’t lead with the proprietary system and how you approach it. You can say, “We do it differently, but the results are remarkable.” Talk about those results. Often clients, if they ask you, “Well, how do you work?”, they’re not going to understand it anyway. You can frame it out a bit, about what their commitment is, what your commitment is, and shift the conversation into the results and the timeliness of getting that result, and what’s possible for them by getting that result and moving on.

Kerri Konik is a seasoned senior branding executive who has committed her focus and expertise to bringing big agency strategies to business owners and entrepreneurs to achieve next level growth. Kerri is the CEO of her 5th venture, Brandscape Atelier, a women-owned boutique agency specializing in strategic branding for small business. They develop brand strategy, identity, messaging and marketing that ignites emotional connection, increases sales, drives growth and profits, resulting in sustainability and achieving a greater impact in the world.