Have you heard the advice to describe your services only in terms of the benefits you offer? You don’t say, “I offer aromatherapy.” You say, “I help you relax and get a good night’s sleep.”
But clients are more savvy than that. They want to know what’s involved. Will they be doing yoga headstands, popping pills, getting massages, or … aromatherapy? If they’re not interested in aromatherapy, they aren’t going to talk about it.
Sometimes a new offer fits like a glove. For instance, corporate executives are now hiring publicists and agents for themselves. rather than wait for companies to assign them. They want to take control of their own careers. They’re been waiting for personal publicists. They’re ready.
If your offer seems irrelevant, it won’t become a topic of conversation. I learned this lesson myself when I published my first website on the topic of relocation. My audience resisted.
Big discovery: People will hire planners for parties and weddings, but won’t hire a coach for a relocation that costs many thousands of dollars more. Logical? No: most of us can survive a bad party but if you move to a destination that’s wrong for you, you’re looking at years of misery.
The reality is, there aren’t that many relocation coaches. No competition? You won’t get conversations like, “Do you know a good relocation coach?”
So will your service be a conversation? It depends on the audience’s backstory.
What’s a backstory?
In his book Tell To Win, Peter Guber demonstrates the impact of a customer’s backstory.
A producer needed to get Alice Walker’s approval to produce her book, The Color Purple, as a stage play. Alice was the customer; the producer was, in a real sense, doing the selling.
Guber coached the producer to expect resistance. Alice had gotten a negative backlash from the black community after her book was produced as a movie. The producer needed to address Alice’s backstory — not directly, but with a new story.
Business owners rarely have access to individual backstories when developing copy for websites and sales letters. But often you can identify common backstories, even without an intensive, high-priced research effort.
For instance, Christina Hills runs programs targeting prospects with backstories related to building websites. Those backstories have a common theme: high expectations followed by disappointing results. They go something like this:
“I’ve spent thousands of dollars on web design and have nothing to show for it but a ton of credit card debt.”
“The website looks beautiful but if I need to change one word, it’s going to cost me $65. Minimum.”
“My web developer disappeared, taking my passwords with him.”
And for my relocation service, I positioned my offer to fall under the umbrella of career change — a topic I care about even more.
Now, that’s something people will talk about.
Why Finding The Customer’s Back Story Helps You Generate Buzz
Chances are you developed your business because of your own backstory. You solved a problem that a lot of people have. Or maybe you heard about a lot of people with a problem and you looked into their backstory.
FREE: Download 17 Ways To Grow Your Business By Telling Stories
What’s the story behind your new offer? If you’d like to explore this with me, one-on-one, check out the Story Consultation.