I was delivering a workshop this week with a new group of clients on reconnecting with their “Why”. It is a session I’ve run on a regular basis over the last few years and it is always one of my favourites. When we start there are normally some puzzled faces as clients don’t always understand why they do what they do. They understand even less the difference this can make to the type of clients they attract.
When someone understands their “why” and are then able to craft a consistent message on the difference this makes to their clients, they have put in place a powerful first step to building strong relationships with their key clients.
This session is always a difficult one as the clients are initially confused with understanding what their “why” means. They think it’s about always wanting to “be” the profession they do from a young age. This is not the case. Understanding your “why” is understanding why the way you operate in the world is important to you and not about always wanting to be in the profession you currently do, though they are sometimes connected.
An example is a client of mine who always felt invisible when they were younger due to the large size of the family and they being one of the middle group of siblings. They weren’t the “joker” type and they didn’t want to get in to trouble, so they stood out by helping anyone they could by fixing broken things as they had a good way of understanding how things worked. So they would fix toys, bikes, virtually anything that was broken, as they loved that feeling of being recognised and the “well done and thank you” comments they would get.
They run their own marketing company now and as they developed their work career they find this desire to stand out is a key driver for them to help their clients stand out in their field. When talking to potential clients this is a key message they get over in the initial engagement stage. This is so much more powerful than the talking about “years in business”, “qualifications”, “going the extra mile”, “being customer focused” etc etc etc. Those traits are all important, however they are spoken about by most people who are looking to gain business so the potential client becomes dulled to their importance as they hear them so often.
A client from this weeks session when talking to a business colleague about how our session had gone said ” It was brilliant. It really helped me re-engage with why I do what I do and the difference I make.”
Being able to understand what drives you and then crafting that into a message is a key way to separate you from your competition and to then connect with your target market clients more easily and readily.
To your success.
Dave Verburg
www.merseyside.asentiv.com