This post considers a very basic change. Do you want to change how your clients get what they want or do you want to change what they want? You need greater leverage to achieve the latter.
How or What?
Let’s take an artisan baker as an example. In terms of marketing, are they changing how you get bread or what you buy as a staple?
There are far fewer outlets that sell artisan bread than outlets that sell bread. Unless you live close by you have to go out of your way to buy the bread you want. If you really like artisan bread and perhaps the increased status it implies, you may be willing to go out of your way to buy it. But in general it is harder to persuade many people to change how they get their bread.
But maybe you can persuade people artisan bread is a different product that is desirable. It tastes better, it is healthier, better for the environment and so on.
For the coach or consultant, the question is: are seeking to change people so they use you for their services, eg as a website designer you do the work for your customers? Or are you seeking to change your customer in some way?
You can immediately see both approaches have pros and cons. The former offers little distance from your competitors. It may work well if you have some speciality. Otherwise people will use whoever is most convenient to them. The latter is harder than the former but if you can do it, people are likely to seek you out. The more difficult the task, the better the tools you need to do it.
What do You Change?
- So, which do you do? Change the way people get something or change what they want?
- What would persuade you to take up an offer that would change what you want?
- How do you market something that changes the way people think?
Leverage
One important thing to consider is, if you aim to make difficult changes to what your clients want, do you have the time and the resources you need to do this? What about experience? What do you need to be successful in what you aim to do?
Changing what your potential clients want is more difficult than changing how they get it and more rewarding. So, on reflection which of the following works for you? (Fill in the blanks!)
- For people who want this change (xxx), my business offers a different way to get there that is (xxx)(faster, cheaper, more reliable)
- For people who want this change (xxx), my business wants you to want (xxx) instead.
You can see immediately, the first is easier than the second. For the second, the challenge is what extra leverage can you use to change your prospects’ frame of reference? To use such leverage is to create a new space in the market for your business.
Your leverage is strongly related to the benefits of your offers. The better you are at explaining the benefits, the more leverage you are likely to have.
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