What's in it for me?

Business Brain, episode 553 for Wednesday, May 29th. National Paperclip Day 2024. Greetings, folks and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take an idea or three, we crunch it, we process it, we analyze it, we use it to further tune our business brains each and every time we get together. This episode is sponsored by fastmail.com businessbrain where you can go to try it free for 30 days and then you get 10% off your first year. This is my favorite email provider. It's the one I've been using for a while. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. For now, here in direction I'm New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in sunny northern California, I'm Shannon Jean. Happy to be here for episode 553. It's exciting.

It is exciting.

Yeah, yeah.

Very much so.

We're creeping up to 600. I can't wait.

We are. Yeah, that's it. We are moving forward towards 600. Not away from it, but once we hit 600, we will be moving away from it.

That's true.

We're moving away from.

Right about now. We're. Yes, yes. That's how we look at it. Yeah. Anyway, I have an interesting, I hope it's interesting framework to talk about today related to customers and how they view your business. But before we get into that, I wanted to share a tip which I really like and I've had some success with lately. And it's a tiny little thing, but it actually helps a lot. And what I'm talking about is a tip we heard from Ryan Sneddon, I think is how you pronounce his name. The local newsletter guy.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He came on the show a few months back and he shared a tip online, which I really liked. And I've been trying it out in a couple of different newsletters that I manage. One is a nonprofit, another one's just a interest type newsletter. And I'm going, I'm launching a new newsletter myself and I will include this little tip and that is in your subject line of every newsletter you send. You should start or at least have it somewhere at choose an emoji. The same one every single time. Very simple.

Ah, yeah. Okay.

Just quick and like the life of Scoop, which is for his account. What is it the name of his town. He has an ice cream cone.

Okay.

Because it's. He calls it Naptown Scoop. And so he's, you know, he's the newsletter the guy like to scoop, you know, your Story, whatever. So he has this little ice cream cone that he shows in every time I have another one that's kind of a patriotic thing. And I.

So you're essentially using the, the emoji as your branding. Your, your, your logo, if you will, even though to show. Yeah, yeah.

Like let's think of Gmail. And you're scrolling up and down.

Yeah.

And you're reading. Do I delete this? Do I delete this? Well, right in the middle you see someone, you see a, like in this patriotic group that I'm in, you see an American flag.

Sure, sure.

And it's like, oh, that's different. So it's just to kind of get your eye to stop as it rolls down your newsletter. And I thought that was great and I thought it was worth sharing. And it's definitely help rates of, of people that are like, well, maybe I should click this or something different. And I'm always looking for ways to stand out, to be different. And that's just a very easy little thing to do. So that's my tip of the day. And if you have little tiny tips, maybe we should call them that. Tiny tips.

Tiny tips. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Send us through feedbackusbrain show or share it at bizbrain show on X. We would love to interact and hear from you.

I. The tiny tips since we have a little extra time because that didn't take as much time as they usually because it was tiny. I'll share one that I haven't really formulated because it just started happening. You and I started talking and I suggested a name for a subject on Friday and I said balance and chaos. You misheard me. You went balance and chaos. And so my tiny tip for there would be. Instead of immediately correcting someone when they mishear you, think about what they have misheard because it might be better than what you said. Because it was. When you said balance and chaos, it was like, wait a minute, that's even better. And that is what we're going to talk about on Friday. Assuming things don't change between now and then. But yeah, think about that before you jump to correct.

It's good.

Think about what was misinterpreted because sometimes there's magic in there.

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. The older I get, the more I have to rehear things Anyway. Anyway, yeah, you might as well like, oh, wait, did you say that? That's. That's a good way to do it and not to be. You know, oftentimes when we're supposedly listening, we're actually Preparing our response. And I have that, you know, maybe. Hopefully we all do.

We do.

Yeah. And so stopping to hear it, that's certainly beneficial versus just thinking about what you're going to say next.

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Yeah. So I want to discuss this and get your feedback on this concept of what's in it for me. It's how your customers are always looking at your products or services. And with this framework in mind, as they look at your website, as they look at your, you know, whatever you're trying to sell to them, they're thinking, what's in it for me? Not often, you know, maybe it's not price related, maybe it's, you know, convenience. But they're trying to think, how does your product and service solve my problem?

Yeah.

And, you know, the best way, the best way forward. And, and what benefit am I going to get by going with you?

And so before you get into this, so what's in it for me? Why am I, Why am I. Why are we having this conversation? No, just kidding. Yeah.

Yeah, that's good. You're right. Excuse me. Because we, you know, obviously we want to fine tune our brain and fine tune our marketing so we can align and try to address this concept right away. This, what's in it for me and figure out how to get those things, you know, to where they're together. So when they think about this concept, you've got the answer that's staring them right in the face, right?

Yes.

They're not having to dig through your website to find out what's in it for me. They're not trying to call you and nobody answers the phone and you're going through a voicemail tree and all this crap and thinking this is, you know, definitely not in it for me. So the main thing, people, you know, what benefits are they getting from going with you guys? And probably, you know, the way I look at it is what's the experience going to be like? Am I going to be able to tell there's two different kinds of stories, right? This was a disaster. This guy never showed up. This product failed. That's one story. And people love to. I think people tend to love to share bad news more or, you know, problem stories more than they share the success stuff, Right?

Sure, sure, of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, the other stories, everything went great. These guys showed up and maybe you flipped the script and it's a contractor and you showed up on time. You prepare to bid quickly. You got to work on time versus what they're expecting. So, you know, you, you, you want to manipulate that story and, and think about which, how you're going to get them to tell the right one about your business.

Right?

Think about that. And along the way, people are constantly thinking of objections, right? What? I, I'm not going to buy because you're too expensive or I'm not going to buy. You're outside of my area. It's going to take you too long to get here. Maybe you don't have the right expertise. Maybe your product is a little different. So thinking about this, we did an episode on the ideal customer profile a few months back that I think is where this can tie into it, where you're develop a profile of like a Persona of who these people are. They're going to come. Who?

The avatar of your customer.

The avatar of your customer. Yes.

Yep.

And think about those objections and maybe you have to talk, you know, to your customers that you already have. Hey, why did you come to Us and maybe it's a post follow up survey for them after they've done your service. Maybe it's, tell us what the pain points were, tell us about the experience. And you got. I think you have to give them some incentive to give you that information. Most people just won't click a link maybe, or the reviews are so overdone, some kind of incentive to them. Maybe you can extend a warranty on a product, maybe you can offer a follow up on a service that you did. But you want to capture that information so you can prepare for the next group of people that are coming into your website or looking at your truck. You know, I see these service providers and contractors with these beautiful trucks with wraps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they look great, but a lot of them just say the same thing. There's a, you know, we're the best and here's our phone number or here's our website.

And there's, there's something to that because that's just branding, right? You know, and people see your name enough, it builds trust because they're like, oh yeah, I've heard of that company. I mean, it's why there's. Anytime somebody's running for any office, it doesn't matter. Class president all the way up to, you know, national president. Right. Like they put their name everywhere they can so that when you're in the polling booth you're like, I know that name. Great to go.

That's right.

So there is value to that. But yeah, this avatar based, answering this. And I have found, for me, this might not be true for everybody out there, but running a small business doing podcasts like this, everything I don't. I've learned that there is far more value in thinking about one actual customer that I am trying to talk to, then coming up with this avatar of a customer. Because no matter, I can look and like, okay, well, the metrics say that 72% of our customers fit this demographic criteria and are looking for this thing. And then you come up with a message that targets all those people. And from me, it never lands right. It always feels like milquetoast. It's like, got it.

This thing, it's like by, by committee, right?

It's like by committee. Yeah. You've created a committee and now you're trying to please a committee.

Yeah, yeah.

I, I look at one customer or when I'm doing a show, I think about one actual listener, someone who I know listens to the show and then I talk to them and I think about like, as I'm Parsing in my head, like, should we, you know, which direction should we go? How should I answer this? How should I articulate this? I think, is this going to be received by that very specific person that actually exists? And that person might change from time to time, and even depending on the subject matter of. Of a show, I might think about a different person. But. But it's an actual person and. Or it's an actual customer. When I'm coming up with sort of, you know, generic messaging, it's like, nope. You know, we send out a thing to our ad agency partners on a fairly regular basis at Backbeat. And I often, you know, I'll write it. You know, I'll write it up once and then send it to multiple people. And I might change it a little bit, but in general, you know, I write it once, but I write it to the first person that I'm sending it to. I'm not writing it to be generic. I'm writing it for them.

Makes it more personal.

Yeah. And then I look at it and it's like, okay, if I sent this to person B, another actual human, you know, if I sent. I wrote this thing for Hillary, if I'm also going to send the same thing to Fred, would I change any of it? And if the answer is yes, then I change it for Fred, you know?

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. I think that is better. And I, you know, because someone you're selling to already or that's using your service or your product, that's your ideal customer. Right?

Literally your ideal customer.

You've already. You've already got them. They, you know, you want. Find somebody that loves you for all the things that you do and build that around them. And I think that's great because you can put a face or a name to it, you know, And I think also those people can help you, you know, with your team of getting them on board of like, look, this is the type of customer we want. And maybe it's. They don't spine. They don't mind spending the money because you don't always want to be the lowest price. They complain the least. Right. Because they're just. That's very important because if you're chasing a certain customer base, it could be very expensive if you're trying to convince them over and over and over, over and over again. Yeah, exactly. Just sucks. And. And then they're. Maybe they're someone who referred people to you, so you're like, wow, man, they. We really have credibility with them. So how do we find more of that person? I think, you know, it is, is really good. And I think that I'm reading your private note right here.

Oh yeah, don't worry about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good.

Okay, great. I'll read it after. Yeah, so that I think a lot of this comes down to selling the experience of your product or service. Right. Not the product itself. And we've talked about this a ton of times. You know, we use Apple as an example. They don't really talk about specifications. They share the awesome things you can do with your phone or your iPad, with your family and kids and all that kind of stuff. Right. That's, that's the experience. How do you do that? You know, is it you're in the HVA business and you show H vac business. Are you showing people relaxed and cool in the summer and warm in the winter? Whatever, whatever experience that you know, you can push, that's it. The benefits, the story around that I think is a good way to address this what's in it for me mentality that people have. And I also think you have to really push the social proof. Those testimonials from the people that you're focused on.

Yes.

And if it's a homeowner in an area. I was talking to a, a guy this morning, a laundromat guy. We're talking to Tyler Purcell who we had on. Was it last week? A week before last week. Yeah, yeah. And his laundromat business. And he's like, oh yeah. We target areas that typically have 60% or more rent, you know, rental homes in that area. Right. So, okay, how do you, you know, what's the experience that person wants and they want to bring a high end laundry experience, typically where maybe there's been lower end or neglected laundromats and that's how you drive them in. And so he's, he's built this, you know, this. What's in it for me? I want a safe experience, well lit. I want my kids to be able to run around. I want food, I want buy snacks. I mean the, the revenue he generates from all these vending machines in the place is insane. So all kinds of different ways that you're pitching this experience that you're often it's the opposite. Are you going to go to some rundown laundromat that hasn't had new dryers in 40 years, so you have to pay twice as much because they're slow, all that kind of thing. And sharing those testimonials front and center man up right in the hero spot on your website. I think it's crucial and just getting out there and thinking about it, talking to your customers, you looking at the testimonials, what. What is the feedback you get that helps, you know, build this flywheel about solving that problem for what's in it for me and making sure that your marketing is aligned with those things. Are we pitching the right message out to these people? Whether you're in Google, my business, or Facebook ads and try to align that stuff. So I'd love to hear someone else feedback if you think about this concept, what's in it for me? Feedbackusinessbrain show and I think we're all selfish that way. We're all thinking about how do I get a great deal? How do I get the best service? How do I not pay too much? Right?

Yeah. Yeah. If you can give that answer to your customers or allow them to come to that answer, you will sell to them. It's how it works.

Yeah.

Yeah. Feedback BusinessBrain show folks, let us know what you're thinking. Let us know how you do this with your customers and keep living that charmed life. We'll see you on Friday.