Marketing Strategy - Shift the Focus

By Kevin P. Dervin
Posted Friday, January 21, 2005

Most of the service providers I’ve worked for or with don’t like marketing or selling. In fact, a lot of them will say they “hate it.” At the very least, they’ll tell me they don’t think they are very good at it.

If you ask them why it is they feel this way, you’re most likely to get some common responses such as:

“When do I have the time? I’m busy enough as it is.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ve tried networking, but I don’t ever get anything.”

“I just don’t have the gift of gab.”

“I’m a _________, not a marketing or sales person.”

When you ask those same professionals what it is that they like to do, you’re likely to get something such as they love to solve problems or help their clients do something that they can’t really do for themselves. They enjoy being able to provide valuable information to those who need it the most, their ideal clients.

What they don’t understand is that positioning themselves as problem solvers is also a better approach to marketing.

Shift your focus from ‘having to market and sell yourself and your services’ to ‘being a provider of information and a solver of problems for your ideal clients.’ You’ll not only enjoy the journey more, you’ll actually become a better and more successful “marketer/seller.” That’s right! Don’t focus on trying to convince, persuade, or sell. Take the pressure off yourself. Provide information to help solve problems and provide solutions and you’ll build more business.

People (including businesses) hire or buy services because they have a problem, pain, issue, or some other business or personal need that they don’t have the time, the skills, or the inclination to address for themselves.

People and businesses realize they can’t, and frankly don’t want to do it all. Of course, you knew that. But why aren’t they buying those services from you?

You see when you’re marketing and selling, you tend to focus on trying to persuade and sell. You talk a lot about and share materials that are focused on who you ARE, what you HAVE, what you can DO, or what you KNOW. We most often market the features and services we want them to buy from us. I’m sure you’ve been there – trying to convince we have the capabilities, persuade that we’re the best option, and sell the features and benefits of our service(s). What doesn’t get explained is what they GET from working with you.

Many business owners believe it’s a numbers game. We’re led to believe that if we tell enough people, eventually someone will recognize the value and say, “Hey, that’s just what I’ve been looking for.” But this leads to a lot of rejection. No wonder you don’t enjoy marketing yourself.

Shift your focus. Clearly articulate the problem or problems that you want to help your ideal clients solve when communicating with prospects and referral sources and they will begin to listen. Then, if you can demonstrate credibly that you can provide a solution to that problem, they’ll want to know more. You’re going to enjoy the process a whole lot more and you’ll be amazed at how much more successful you’ll be!

About the Author:
Kevin Dervin is the owner of KPD Marketing and creator of the ABCD Growth System. If you find this article useful, you’d probably enjoy Kevin’s FREE monthly eZine called ABCD Grow. To subscribe, just go to (http://www.ABCDgrowth.com) and follow one of the links to the FREE Stuff page!