A terrific engaging way to explain to people what your company does. When I ask business owners what their business do I often the same answer and that is, “we do everything, we do it all. We are accountants, we do all the accounting things you need A to Z”, “We are engineers, we can build anything”, and you know, engineers can because that´s how they’re trained. But, that’s like giving somebody a box and saying “here´s a beautiful box, figure out what’s inside” Rather than saying, “here’s a box, if you have bread and you put it inside the box and press the bottom, when it comes out it will be toast” Or “Here’s a box, and when you put your dirty laundry in the box and press the button, it comes out clean”. In this way you’re explaining to people what it is precisely that you do, and the truth is you don’t know what they’re thinking in their head, they could think this wonderful box makes toast or cleans laundry.
So, how do you solve the problem? Well, I ask the clients specifically what they do, and the next thing that happens is I get a really long list, it’s either spoken, conversation, or written. “Here’s the list” and it’s on the back of a spec sheet, and after the sixth or seventh item you just zone out, and that’s not good, you don’t want your prospective customers zoning out, you want them knowing what you do. So, how do you fix that problem? I’ve got this super-duper solution and I’ve been suing it for years, it’s called a matrix, and I love using matrixes. Let me explain; open up your spreadsheet, and in the header column you can list all of the services that you provide, you could even group them if you want, but the list of services and products. Okay, and across the top of the matrix, in the header row list the problems they solve. Now, don’t say “I want toast” and then tick off the toast of the toaster, and the bread, and whatever else you offer in the toast making process, don’t just say “I need toast” or “I want clean laundry” No, that’s assuming that the customer knows that they need toast or clean laundry.
Rather, pose the need in this way; “I’m bored with bread” or “I smell” because that’s the symptom, right? That’s the thing that the person is experiencing. “Gosh, I am somewhat malodorous today, how do I solve that problem? Oh look, I can get my laundry cleaned and there’s a bonus, they do softener and they’ll dry it for me, cool. I like this, I get it” or “I’m bored with bread, hmm… They offer toast. Oh, bonus, they got butter and jam. I’m not so crazy about Jam, I wonder if they offer peanut butter.” And they might email “Do you have peanut butter?” and you think “I never thought about offering peanut butter, but it’s certainly something we can offer” and you put in on your matrix.
Now, matrixes and this kind of approach to explaining and using a matrix with problems across the top, solutions down the side, and checks when they intersect, is a super interactive way of communicating what you do to a prospect. What’s really cool about matrices is that they can be used for lots of complicated communication, so you can use them internally. Say you have a process, or several processes, and you want to explain which tools to use to solve which issues, it’s perfect to use a matrix for that. Or you’re in HR and you want to talk about the benefits that you offer your employees, you can use a matrix for that too, so it’s a really great tool.
The one thing it does in marketing that I think it’s really important is that it really tells the customer that you care, that you really want them to understand what you do, and you do it in an engaging way. It’s a very sophisticated too, simple but sophisticated, and really super useful and just telegraphing that you care about your customers or your employee’s needs, and that you want to be sure that they understand what you’re selling or what you’re providing for them.
Okay, there are tons of tricks like this in my bag of tricks, and I’m going to do lots more videos on this sort of thing. So, if you liked this video please subscribe and please click on the bell so you’ll be notified of the next video posting, and then, in the meantime have a great business day. Thank a lot.
