Your ‘What’s-In-It-For-Me?’-made-simple exercise

To communicate instantly, establish rapport and win support for your offering, speak directly to your propect’s pain, concerns and/or dreams.

The key here is to know who your client is and to speak to them and their deep and great needs and desires. That’s vs. talking about you and your experience and expertise and offerings.

You know who you are. And that’s why you find it easy to talk about yourself. But do you know who your client is and what matters to them?

If you do, you’ll instantly prove it, because that’s what you’ll talk about when you encounter them.

And because you’re really talking about them, they’ll pay attention.

How to do that?

Put yourself in their shoes.

Imagine your client identifying themselves and their situation to you and then asking you, about your offering, “What’s in it for me?”

Use my simple fill-in-the-blanks exercise, if you like:

Pretend your client is saying to you:

“I am a ____________________ (person in a particular position or scenario) with this ______________________ (problem or concern or burning desire). What’s in it for me?” Take all the time you need to come up with every situational scenario, and then, Part Two, every direct, positive response possible.

Doing both parts of this exercise is possibly the single most important thing you can do to assure your success.

Mastermind the exercise with a group, or just brainstorm it on your own. And revisit it often. Ask your clients what is the biggest problem, concern or burning desire you help them with.

Actually brainstorming and writing out every possible response to this exercise clarifies–not just for your clients, but for YOU–your true market and your true value to the various segments in that market.

It lets you improve your communications so that you are delivering the key and appropriate message to the appropriate audience.

To get started brainstorming with this exercise, first say the sentence out loud and/or write it down on paper while thinking (and listing) every person who might be positively impacted by your product or proposal or service. 

Then ask, for each, What is their greatest problem? Need? Fear? Concern? Secret Desire? Dream? And write down those answers.

Keep it personal 

It’s OK to think of groups impacted by your product or proposal or service. But you truly never win the support of “groups.” You win the support of individuals in the group. So after thinking of a group, break it down to the individual when you write out the sentence.

Speak to ONE person in any written or spoken communication.

Use first- and second- person language, rather than third-person. That is, say, “You will immediately see the difference” rather than “Those who implement this will immediately see the difference.”

Scientific advertising tests for nearly a century have repeatedly proven that response rates zoom when you speak to one person, as though talking to them personally.

 Think of how you respond when you feel you are being treated as an individual with unique needs and concerns, vs. how you feel when it seems you are being treated as a “number.”  

Keep it personal. Speak to person’s needs, problems, fears, concerns, pain and/or desires. When you do this, the people you WANT to reach immediately recognize that you DO understand them. You get their attention and their respect.

And, so long as you deliver real, satisfying solutions, you get their continuing support.