This is the second of four “Communication Best Practices” that can help you convert the general needs of your clients into a specific “I-want-your-product” commitment. Followed carefully and consistently, these four communication fundamentals get to the heart of the decision-making matter in real-world applications. They can help you tailor the narrative around your product into a story the client wants to hear and act on.
The client is more focused on his problems than your powers. You must link your capabilities to your clients’ concerns in order to generate feelings of comfort and confidence. Your products’ features are only appealing if you connect them to a client benefit. In a good story, there is a hero and a guide. The hero has a problem and the guide helps him solving it. Here again, this is not the marketeer’s mantra. This is scientifically proven1. Want an example of a good story: think of Star Wars where Luke is the hero, and Yoda is the guide. Consumer product companies are experts at using this to hit the marketing target: instead of trumpeting the fact that their toothpaste now has more titanium oxide and hexachlorophene, they simply say “whiter teeth and fresher breath”. Because that’s what the customer really wants. Now, have a look at some financial institutions’ web sites. Many of them feature a prominent hero: the institution itself. And the client? Well, … try to find them! So how do you set about focusing on the benefits, rather than the features. Over and over, marketing literature explains how a product works, but not what it does for the client. Many investors’ concerns are very generic and well-known: matching liabilities, generating returns in a long-term low interest rate environment, having an impact to make our world more sustainable, … Even better, if you can gather some even more client specific information, you can make this connection even stronger, and be more able to trigger emotions (see first communication best practice published earlier).
We keep this principle in mind at all times as we advise our clients. We are passionate about these matters. If you would like to discuss these with us and how they are relevant for your success, please don’t hesitate to contact us and visit our web site https://www.h-ideas.ch/?lang=en . And watch out for next week Best Practice #3
Should you have missed our Communication Best Practice #1 please visit: https://www.h-ideas.ch/four-communication-best-practices-to-make-you-win-best-practice-1-its-all-about-emotion/?lang=en
1 ” Building a Story Brand ” – Donald Miller – HarperCollins Publishers – 2017
