* During a Profiling Session with a New Client *
Me: “So please tell me, what value does your service provide to your clients?”
Client: “The company was founded 26 years ago, we have a very talented team of developers who have worked for years to…”
Me: “Wait, wait, bringing you back to the question, what value does the service provide?”
Client: “We have a really professional team, and our support and service are quick and efficient, we know how to interface with different systems and can also connect to platforms…”
Me: “Hold on, stay with me, that’s not what I asked 🙂 I’m asking what value your service provides to the client? What does the client gain from it? What pain does it solve? What change does it bring to the client?”
Client: “Look, we have a lot of experience and we work with companies like X, Y, Z…”
Me: 😩😨😱🤦♂️
I’ve had this conversation, more or less, with many companies over the past month, all of them large tech companies or innovative and interesting startups.
This problem recurs again and again, even with super talented marketing managers, and it becomes very apparent when you talk to many companies in a short period and hear how each one describes their product or service.
Many times I hear long, complicated, confused, and generic answers to such a simple question.
A simple question that so many organizations haven’t stopped to ask themselves.
I notice that more than anything, our work as a company that does LinkedIn marketing is to know how to tell a story in one sentence. To refine the value from a long interview with the client and tell it in one short, precise, and clear sentence. It turns out that this is actually our craft.
And it turns out that this is where the success or failure of LinkedIn marketing activity lies.
Another Problem:
So many companies describe their product or service with the obvious: great service, years of experience, a great team, professionalism, familiarity with the field, attractive prices – these are things everyone says about themselves, and they are so obvious that they go without saying.
Here’s an example:
An integration company working with OEM companies. In the profiling session, they mentioned so many benefits: great service, expert team, international logistics capabilities, quick execution times, collaborations with the world’s largest computing companies, advanced integration capabilities, working with innovative products, decades of experience, experience in large projects, working with giant companies, and more. The thing is, most of these won’t make someone open the door and be interested in a conversation or meeting. Simply because most of these don’t address the client’s pain. All these are necessary and important, but
Since our goal is to open the door to sales opportunities with companies, we framed the core sentence of the pitch as: “We help companies focus on developing their product, and we handle everything else for them, such as integration with computing, international logistics…”
In short, to succeed in refining your story into one sentence, start by asking yourself:
- What pain or need are you really solving?
- From what point to what point are you taking your client?
- What is your true uniqueness among all the competitors? (“Great service” is not a differentiation. It has to be something measurable and solid.)
- Why do your clients choose you?