You’re in the business of help
I’m going to show you how you can increase your income and sell more marketing funnels, without selling marketing funnels.
It’s vital that all businesses understand, in this economy and business environment, that they’re not in the business of marketing services. They’re in the business of help.
“So think about it: What do you do better than anyone else?”
By Eric Holtzclaw, Inc.com
Starbucks isn’t in the coffee business. Samsung isn’t in the electronics business. Disney isn’t the the entertainment business.
All three of those businesses, and thousands more, understand that the thing they deliver isn’t the business they’re in.
Samsung is in the inspiration and enrichment business. They deliver that through gadgets and electronics.
Starbucks is in the wifi business. They just sell coffee to pay for it.
Disney is in the business of happy and smiles. They do that with toys, movies and Chinese venture capital holdings.
So, if you’re not in the marketing service and marketing funnel business, what are you in?
Well, what do you HELP people and businesses do? What business of “help” are you in?
Stuck selling marketing services
Lots of marketing funnel businesses get stuck in thinking they sell marketing. This is like believing you only have one leg when you’re actually a trained athlete.
If you think you’re in the marketing services business, you are competing with other marketing services business. You’re in the industry of marketing services and as much as I love saying marketing services (deep breath), no one gives a shit about marketing services industry.
What if all of a sudden, you weren’t competing with anyone else? You were the only business that helped people DO the thing they really want?
Is Uber in the transport business? No, because then they’d be competing with taxis. They’re in the safety and convenience business.
Is Coca-Cola in the drinks business? Nope. They’re in the business of Coke. You order a Coke and people have to CHECK if another brand is OK.
The idea didn’t come first. Changing what they’re in the business of came first. Convenience and safety before transport. Coke before drink.
What are you in the business of? We’re going to explore that now.
Don’t become a concierge service
It’s important to note that this does NOT mean becoming a concierge service. I’m absolutely not telling you to become a door mat who helps people do anything without focus.
If you help people generate leads or sell eBooks, via marketing funnels, then you’re not going to help them grow vegetables.
It doesn’t mean when they have ludicrous demands that you’re bending over to accommodate. It also doesn’t mean you’re doing anything for free.
What it means is that you can help people get, feel, do, solve, become, live and achieve something. Whatever those things are, that’s what you help them do.
If you help businesses reach number 1 on Google, you’re in the business of Google page 1. Even better if it’s for a particular product, industry and roadblock.
How to increase your income and wealth without selling marketing services
So if we want to remove ourselves from our industry. Stop competing with others and yet increase our income and wealth. We need to identify what it is that we do help people achieve and become. We need to see what they have after working with us and see how they feel after we’ve sold to them.
How is their day-to-day different? What status are we helping them reach? What roadblocks do we remove?
Ultimately how do we impact their lives and improve their lives?
Benefits of working with you
So what are the benefits to working with you? Benefits being the key word as “marketing funnel” is not a benefit.
Many people struggle with the term benefit because they’re not sure what it really means. A benefit is something which is better about your life, because you did a thing.
I remember being told at University that I should think about the benefits to everything. And to answer that I need to be able to answer “so what?” to any feature I talk about.
“So what?” is critical. It’s the underlying reason why people do or don’t want to buy.
Unfortunately the example given to me was electric windows in my car.
Electric. Windows.
“There are absolutely NO benefits to electric windows” I thought. Electric car windows are the least beneficial part of a car. I reckon the overall benefit of a car is safety and travel. Maybe convenience and speed. Sometimes you look cooler.
But electric windows? So what?
“Well” my lecturer asked me “So what? So what if the windows can be lowered and raised electronically? It’s your job to tell me so what.”
It turns out that electric windows offer a MASSIVE benefit to a very select group of people. At first, electric car windows were a symbol of status. A demonstration that you had enough money to buy something that doesn’t really improve your life.
It’s like an electric salt mill with an LED light underneath. Interesting. But not critical.
In fact, both those things offer HUGE benefits to the same group of people.
People who drive, with disabilities.
Electric car windows allow people with disabilities to lower their car windows to cool down, talk to people or reach out.
This is so convenient that they’re now pretty much standard on all cars. But to disabled people, they truly are a huge benefit. I know this because two members of my family wouldn’t be able to reach out and get a ticket for a carpark, if they had to wind a window down.
This taught me two important lessons. One, everything has a benefit. And two, not all benefits suit everyone. This is critical.
You have to look for benefits that will actually help your chosen audience.
A slightly faster microwave time? Students will not care about that. The elderly and new parents will.
So what benefits do you offer your customers after they’ve worked with you?
What do they have, or not have, after working with you?
After working with you, again, regardless of the product or delivery. What do they HAVE or NOT HAVE any more?
Do they have more traffic? Or do they have more money? Maybe they no longer have cramp during a run or spam comments on their blog posts.
Think about what they do have after working with you, or what they don’t have after working with you.
How do people feel after working with you?
How do people FEEL after working with you? What are their emotions and responses after you’ve delivered your service.
Ice cream makes people feel happy and excited. Padlocks make people feel safe.
Does your marketing business make people feel safe? Excited? Confident? What does someone feel after they work with you? How does your service or product impact their emotions?
How is their day-to-day different?
What are they doing tomorrow, after buying from you, that they weren’t doing today? What CAN they do tomorrow now that you’ve helped them? Think broad, think lifestyle.
Think about time with the family. Dreading waking up. Going to sleep late.
What does their “tomorrow” look like? Are they in a better place? They should be. Maybe now they don’t worry about their next customer call. Maybe now they have more time for family. Maybe now they can invest in new technologies.
What does their tomorrow and average day look like now that you’re in their lives? How has your business improved their day-to-day life and business?
What status are you helping them reach?
Here’s a big one. What is their status after they work with you?
How do they view themselves and how do others view them? After they’ve bought from you, what does that say about them? Almost all high ticket items are about aspirations. Phones, cars, holidays, marketing services, funnels, traffic.
What are their aspirations for how the world will see and remember them? What do they want written on their tombstone? What does their obituary say?
Status is very hard to define, but if you can offer it to people, they’ll buy. Do they want to appear smarter? Better at business? Richer?
If you can alter someone’s status (and you can), that’s what you should be focusing on. If you can change someone’s status, you’re almost impossible to compete against.
I joined WP Elevation because I wanted to run a better business. My status is now one of the smartest WordPress businesses in the world.
What aspirational place do your customers want to be?
What roadblocks do you eliminate?
Finally, what roadblocks do you eliminate? What’s stopping your customers from achieving their goals? What’s in their way?
What do you work on, to remove from their path? Do you help them create a habit or process? Do you secure them funding and budget? What is preventing them from getting to their “tomorrow” by themselves?
Why couldn’t they do this themselves and what do you make happen? What roadblock do you eliminate?
This all seems bigger than I am
“My business just isn’t that big a deal” I often hear marketing and funnel building businesses tell me.
I hear that and I understand where you’re coming from. But they also ask me how they can compete with the market, where to find more customers and how to sell more funnels.
If you’re serious about increasing your income through marketing funnel sales. Then know this.
You absolutely, 100% must remove yourself from the business of selling funnels and answer a higher calling. You have to make people’s LIVES better. You have to help them reach places and goals that they never thought they’d see. You have to be a part of their “better future”.
My favourite part is working out the aspirational status of my audience. Sell Your Service isn’t in the sales or marketing business. It’s not in the course or online learning business.
I’m in the business of Marketing Funnel Rockstars. I want to turn every funnel building business in the world, into a Marketing Funnel Rockstar.
I’m in the business of product development and growth. I’m in the business of helping funnel building business, build and sell marketing funnels.
So what are you in the business of?
You know what your customers have now. Or what they have after they work with you. What do you help them get? What do you help them have?
What are you in the business of helping them feel? By understanding the emotions and feelings of your customers, what do you help them feel?
How have you changed their day-to-day or their average day? Maybe you’re in the business of helping them sleep better? Or waking up excited? Because they know their income is secure and they’ll wake up to more sales?
What about their status? How do you help them reach their status? Are you in the business of building customer athletes or winners?
What have I missed out? Is there anything you want to try out? Maybe you want to run this exercise for your customers? What are you in the business of? Let me know in the comments.
