Posted on June 27, 2012 by Stephan Wiedner
In this post, I’m going to teach you how to de-suckify your value proposition so clients call or email you more often. On Noomii, this is the 250 character field that appears just under your name and credentials called your “ideal client description”. On your website, this is the main title of the home page that describes what you’re all about.
I’ve talked to hundreds of amazing coaches whose profiles do not do them justice. I read their profiles expecting a dud and when I get on the phone, I can’t help but get excited about who they are and what they do as a coach. But that’s not good enough. I want to get excited before I get on the phone and so do potential clients.
So I took it upon myself to find out what the kick-ass coaches do on their profiles. Here’s what I found out. At the top of their profiles, in the first sentence or two (i.e. in their value proposition), they:
- Connect with the pain of their ideal clients
- Hint at a desirable solution
- Offer a compelling, irresistible x-factor or hook
Let’s look at each of these elements more closely.
How to connect with the pain of your ideal clients
I resisted the notion of appealing to someone’s pain when I first got into coaching. It just didn’t feel right because coaching is about looking at the positives and making a good life great. But I quickly learned (okay, fine, maybe not so quickly) that people are more likely to whip out their credit card when the perception of what they are buying is a must-have. NOT a nice-to-have.
Think of Aspirin versus vitamins. Aspirin solves an immediate pain and needs to be consumed right away. Vitamins may mitigate pain sometime in the future but people can easily go a week or two without consuming them.
Another way to look at it is to think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The ultimate goal of coaching is to help people achieve self-actualization, the highest need on the pyramid.
But that is not why they hire a coach in the first place.
Usually they hire a coach to satisfy a need that is closer to the bottom of the pyramid. A very successful mentor coach once explained to me that people come to coaching for the surface level things such as a faster car, bigger office, thinner waist line, and what they get from coaching are the deeper level benefits such as self-confidence, emotional awareness, and meaning. So identify the surface level stuff then deliver the full depth of benefits.
How well do you know the pain your ideal clients experience? What keeps your ideal clients up at night?
Take a few seconds to imagine your ideal client.
Imagine that they have not yet hired a coach and don’t know what it’s like to experience coaching. They are deeply entrenched in the consciousness of their problem and after a restless night, you get to find out what kept them up.
What might they say?
If you don’t have an answer to this question, you need to find out. Don’t get trapped into thinking you know what keeps them up and what words they use to describe it. Ask them.
It’s critical that you connect to your ideal clients by using the language they would use. You might say they have challenges with “life balanceâ€Â. They might describe it as being “stressed outâ€Â.
So find out by asking your ideal clients what keeps them up at night.
How to hint at a desirable solution
It’s not enough to say “I specialize in helping people lose weight.†So do Richard Simmons and Jenny Craig, but they have vastly different approaches to achieve the same results.
You need to at least hint at how you help your clients overcome their primary challenge.
What’s in it for them? Maybe you have a program, ebook, proprietary system, proven method, or unique approach. Those kinds of ways of packaging your service helps.
It also helps to indicate what the benefits are or what the desired outcomes are. For example, you might say something like:
- I help you go from feeling overwhelmed to loving your working environment, or
- Imagine replacing wishful thinking with powerful action
Make sure your solution is desirable to your ideal clients and solves their pain. If you work with high level executives, you probably don’t want to offer cute and fluffy coaching. If you work with stay-at-home moms, you don’t want to bore them with MBA business benefits.
It’s all about giving people what they want, expect, and are willing to pay for. So ask your ideal clients:
- What do you need to solve your problem?
- If you could wave a magic wand, what would you manifest for yourself?
- What kind of solution would you be willing pay for?
How to offer a compelling, irresistible x-factor or hook
Once you are clear on the pain of your ideal clients and you know what solution they are looking for, you can start to consider how you stand out.
The profile of far too many coaches is too generic. They don’t describe a compelling value that grips people. You want to polarize people with your profile. After quickly scanning your profile, you want people to know that your service is for them or not at all for them. You want your ideal clients to come running to you and you want everyone else to think “this is not for me but my cousin Jane could benefitâ€Â.
While discovering the pain and solution that your ideal clients want requires outward focused investigation, coming up with your compelling x-factor can sometime benefit from some inward reflection and consideration.
Helping coaches differentiate, I always believe that there is a kernel of truth at the center of it all. At the core of every coach is a Wizard of Oz that is controlling everything, and we can sometimes be blind to it. Through a coach approach, we peel back the layers and understand why each coach does what they do. There, a little seed is found that can grow into a huge business opportunity in an underserved market.
In order to come up with your own compelling, irresistible x-factor, I recommend that you start by watching Simon Sinek’s TEDTalk about Starting with Why. Next, ask yourself:
- Why do I do what I do?
- Why do your ideal clients work with you?
- What do your friends and family say makes you special?
Putting it all together: The fill-in-the-blanks value proposition
Everything in this blog post can be distilled down to this simple fill-in-the-blanks exercise. As a starting point, you should be able to communicate your value proposition like this:
- I help people who are struggling with _________________
- by offering ___________________
- and my service is unlike any others because ___________________
Once you are clear on your answers, you can better write out a value proposition in the language that attracts your ideal clients.
How do they describe their challenges in life? What words do they use? What are they looking for at a conscious or maybe even a subconscious level?
Talk to them. Write to them. Speak directly to that person. That’s the tone and the voice that you want to use to describe your value proposition.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts and concerns in the comments below.
This info is incredibly helpful. I just hired a marketing guru because I realized that I wasn’t able to do what you discuss in the article. My website is about to be revamped. Thank you.
Hi Stephen,
I just wanted to add that often, in that first blank, one wants to fill it in in the positive. Such as “I help people struggling with migraine headaches and light/sound sensitivity …” vs “I help people forget they even have a head, take their vision and hearing for granted and be confident in their ability to function all day…”
Connecting with the pain is important, but in our field many times folks don’t want to admit they are identifying with that typical pain. Sometimes people see the pain described and it takes them off into their own sad story. Hitting them with the exact win they are really looking for is exciting and motivating.
@Kristina Smith – Thanks for the positive comments. I’m glad the article was useful.
@Stanlee Panelle – I completely agree with you. It’s very tempting as a coach to want to stay completely focused on the positive. When I put my client hat on and imagine being someone who’s never experienced coaching before, many coaches (based on the words on their profile) seem to be in a cloud somewhere disconnected from reality. Let’s face it, the headache and migraine is very real for the person who is experiencing it. But just answering part 1 of the fill in the blank is not enough. It’s not good enough to say “I help people who are struggling with migraine headaches and light/sound sensitivity.” Another example might be “I help people lose weight”. So what?! So does Richard Simmons and Jenny Craig. You need to add point #2 of the fill-in-the-blank: your method or unique solution. As you say, that’s what’s exciting and motivating for the client.
Great article, and very helpful, definitely makes you think.
Thank you for the tips!
Thank you!
Necessary and inspiring.
The time was right for me to hear it as well, I was open to the message.
Powerful information!! This is exactly what i wanted to review, refresh, reconstruct and reflect on! Put myself in their shoes to show them i want fo understand what challenges they are facing. Be with them totally on their journey to success!!
Thank you for tgis valuable information! Very positive suggestions that make me re think and focus on What is it the client wants!! The reason a client wants a coach is not the auick fix solution , all positive And ignoring the pain that does not disappear when they start working with a coach,
to show compassion, be present, caring, understanding, and yet still hold a firm ground, challenge the client to help them see the Need to make positive changes to achieve what they want. Apply The 6 stages of Change Solution. This is why i suggest to each client, for best results, hire a coach for at least 6 months to a year depending on the type of client, history, emotional state , goals etc.
helping a client to find out what they dont want in their life ( contrast) helps them to find clarity, leading them to what they want fo achieve. Without contrast there is no clarity!! Its a mirror effect!
Fantastic suggestions! So much to re-consider! Review and re-think, Thank you!!
A good refresher!
Your metaphor about selling aspirin over vitamins is troubling. That your willingness to connect with people’s pain only came once you realized that was the quickest way to get them to “whip out their credit card” is also troubling. That you are supposedly a professional at “life” with other professionals following your advice is the most troubling. If you think this “career” you’ve chosen for yourself is leading to your own “self-actualization” then you have learned very little about life beyond how to con people to make sure your bottom layer of Mazlow’s pyramid is covered and probably a whole other lower layer of material shit you don’t need at all…and zero of it will satisfy those higher levels of needs in any real way because you’re living as a fraud – can you really not see that? Surely you have better things you could do. Or surely you can find a new approach to your work in “coaching people” that is actually focused on your clients’ best interest rather than what you think is your best sales strategy. Because that’s the crazy part is you are actually devaluing what you do and encouraging your colleagues to do the same. Eventually people will realize you’ve all been selling them cheap pain reliever that’s bad for their stomach instead of guiding them on a healthier lifestyle to end their pain permanently. Then what? What is your track record worth if you are offering a low quality service just for financial gain? All you have to show is that a bunch of people were stupid enough to let you take their money for a time and you did indeed take it. Great life there asshole. Consider this a free bucket of ice water from a non-professional who actually cares about your self actualization…hopefully one day you will stop to consider the effect your actions have on the larger actualization of humanity. SMH.
@Anna Troupe
Thanks for your reply. Sorry it took me a year to reply. We don’t monitor this blog anymore.
Perhaps I didn’t communicate the intent properly. I’m not suggesting that you sell a bunch of pain meds without working on the deeper stuff. What I’m suggesting is that you connect with your ideal clients based on the pain they are feeling at the moment that they are looking for help. Appeal to their immediate needs and then, yes, and then sell them your vitamins. The aspirin is used to get your foot in the door.
It’s an unfortunate reality that most people don’t know what coaching is. Even if you explain it to them, they rarely appreciate it until they’ve experienced it. That’s why it’s so important to connect with them in some meaningful way.
BTW: I don’t appreciate being called an asshole. I have no problems discussing issues in a professional manner. Name calling is unnecessary and unappreciated on this blog. You owe me an apology.
Stephan