Hey business owner, today’s topic is quite a remarkable one; it’s a call to stop selling your products and services and start solving problems instead. This sounds controversial right? I mean your product or service is solving a problem, but do your customers feel like you solve their problems or do they just feel like all you do is sell a product or service to them?
Human psychology drives the spending behavior of people, and research has proven that people willingly spend money when they feel like their problem is being solved than when they feel like you’re selling a product to them. How then do we help your customers see you as a problem solver and not just someone who takes their money.
Understanding how this works can really change how you run your business, so let’s talk about it.
Let’s imagine two web designers
Since we’re a web design company ourselves, let’s use a relatable example. Imagine two web designers: Designer A talks about how he builds beautiful websites for business owners, while Designer B talks about how he helps local businesses get more leads with websites that then turn visitors into paying customers.
Now, both of them build and design websites but customers will likely see the first designer as a seller, and see the other designer as a problem solver.
Most times, nobody wakes up just wanting a logo, a website, or a service plan for its own sake. They want the results that that product or service gets them. For example,
- They don’t just buy a logo, they want credibility.
- They don’t just want to get a website, they want a system that puts them out there and gets them clients.
- They don’t just want accounting services, they want a system that gives them peace of mind financially.
- They don’t just want coaching services, they want a boost of confidence and clarity.
Once you understand this and know how to apply it in your business, you learn to stop describing features of your products and focus on emphasizing the outcomes they produce.
Why This Matters for Small Businesses
Here’s why this matters for your business: when all you emphasize about your products and services are the features, customers compare you against every other business offering the same thing; and when features are similar, the only thing left for them to consider is the price. Of course, you know customers will definitely go for the cheaper price if that’s the only thing they have to compare against.
However, when you emphasize the features and benefits of your products/services and what the customers stand to gain (outcomes) from using the products/services, customers see you as the problem solver and have more things to consider when comparing you to your competitors.
This is exactly why two businesses offering nearly identical services can charge very different prices, and one stays fully booked. The one charging more usually isn’t better at the actual task; they’re just better at showing the customer what’s on the other side of the problem being solved.
Take a cleaning company as another example. One company says, “We offer residential and commercial cleaning services.” The other says, “We help busy professionals come home to a clean house without giving up their weekends.” The second company is directly addressing the problem, not just the task being performed, and will likely get more customers.
How Do You Learn to Talk About Outcomes Instead of Features?
How then do you learn to talk about the outcomes of your products/services? Here are three (3) questions to ask yourself to help you arrive at the right answers:
- What keeps my ideal customer awake at night?
- What happens if they never solve this problem?
- How does my service actually make their life or business better?
Answering these questions honestly and clearly will make your sales conversations easier and will lead to more closed deals.
It helps to write your answers down, in plain language, the way your customer would actually say it out loud, not the way you’d describe it internally as the business owner. Your customer isn’t thinking “I need SEO services”, they’re thinking “I need people to actually find me on Google before they find my competitor.” That’s the sentence your marketing should sound like.
Also, when you truly understand the problem your audience is trying to solve, pricing gets easier, marketing gets more targeted, and every sales conversation feels a lot more natural, because you’ve stopped pitching a product and started offering a solution.
Not sure how to translate this into your own website or marketing message? Let’s have a strategic conversation with you. Schedule your free consultation by sending an email to su*****@**********gn.com or call 727-457-5894, and let’s figure out what problem your business really solves, and make sure you’re communicating that.