by Nancy Myrland on July 26, 2010
A while back, while reading David Meerman Scott’s blog post about all of the bad PR pitches he receives, one of his points struck me as very important, and one all of us who communicate, or teach others to communicate, need to remember.
I know this appears to be about PR professionals only, but stick with me as it applies to everyone.
David said that if you are going to pitch media on a story, be prepared to answer the question,
“What problems do you solve for your customer?”
That is what David wants to know when considering a pitch, and suggests we all prepare for this question.
I agree with him because if we can’t articulate what we do for our clients, how can we expect our clients, friends and referral sources to understand what problems we are prepared to solve? How can we give WOM, Word of Mouth, a voice if we don’t define that voice, or if that voice has no words to speak?
I originally wrote about this on my Facebook Page, and asked my friends and visitors what problems they think they solve for their clients. Thanks to Lindsay Griffiths, Bill Wolfe, Deb Dobson, Greg George, Gary Murphy and Rhoda Israelov for sharing their thoughts and the problems they solve with me.
Feel free to share your answers with us here. It doesn’t matter if you think of one, two or even ten. Feel free to share them as it is part of the process of figuring out the best way to present your information. In fact, you never know when someone else visiting this blog might have the problem you are solving, right?!
Go ahead and post your ideas even if you can’t quite adequately define your solutions. You will be helping others think through theirs, and perhaps others will even help you narrow down your language to identify your solutions for clients. If you think you need help, draft something below, then ask others to feel free to help you focus your language. I have some very smart people who visit on a regular basis who might just be interested in giving you their opinion! Consider this a non-threatening workshop for you with help from your peers and mentors!
This is an important exercise as you need to use this language, or some form of it, in your client communication, whether written or spoken, and especially when you are thinking about how to design your business to actually be of service to your clients.
So, my friends, what problems do you solve for your clients?
by Nancy Myrland on July 20, 2010
Someone from a well-known service provider left a voicemail message for me yesterday afternoon, telling me I had signed up for their 
webinar, and was not able to make it, so he was…
“…calling to follow up to see what your interest was as far as social media……”
To encourage discussion, I posted a comment about this on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, suggesting a simple website check would have helped him approach me in a different manner.
In my case, he wouldn’t have even needed to look very far to know that my “interest” in marketing, including Social Media, is very high. My tagline with my logo gives a hint: Strategic Social Media. You can see it up there at the top of this page.
I write about this not to make anyone look bad. I didn’t post the name of the individual, nor his company. That’s not important. Nor do I think I am more special than the next person, warranting anyone making a big deal about what I do, because that’s not the case. I have a feeling he’s a very nice person. I am writing this to bring attention to the very basics of sales, business development and relationship-building.
My suggestion: Cover the basics before you make calls, write emails or schedule in-person meetings.
I know it takes time. I started my career in sales, and am involved in it now by virtue of owning my own business. I respect what rainmakers, salespeople, professionals and business development experts do for a living.
Think of it this way: You just spent a lot more time and opportunity by coming across unprepared and uninterested enough in the process of learning about me than you would have by covering a basic step such as visiting my website. It would have taken less than a minute to establish my areas of expertise, which you could have then mentioned in your phone call. They are mentioned in a few different tabs on my website, in bullet form here and a much longer version here.
Think how impressed I would have been to hear this on my voicemail:
“Nancy, I’m sorry you weren’t able to make our webinar. I know how busy you are, but it was a great one, so I’ll email the replay link to you in case you’d like to watch it later. I see from your website that your business is marketing consulting, including social media, so I would love to talk to you about how our service might be something to offer your clients….”
Bottom Line:
Show your potential clients you are serious by being prepared enough to learn a fact or two about them or their business before approaching them. Just like in a job interview, it tells them you understand enough about them to match your service or skills with their, or their clients’, needs.
What do you think? Do you do this kind of research before talking to a potential client?
A while back, while reading David Meerman Scott’s blog post about all of the bad PR pitches he receives, one of his points struck me as very important, and one all of us who communicate, or teach others to communicate, need to remember.
