February 14, 2024 • 13 mins
008: I want you to build a business that is customer centric. In this episode, we'll discuss how to craft a single sentence explaining how your business improves your customers' lives. Join me, your host, Lily Richmond, as I explain the importance of being customer centric in a hyper-competitive world. We explore why this is important, and I share a simple yet powerful question to guide your approach to marketing and business. I walk you through a step-by-step exercise to help you identify your customers' goals and problems and how your product or service solves them. Once you've crafted your one sentence, it can shape your messaging and marketing strategies in oh so many ways!
This is part three in a seven-part series to empower you to start your marketing on the right track when you're just starting out in business. Whether you're a startup or an existing business re-evaluating your approach, this series will help you get your marketing approach right first time.
Grab the downloadable workbook and get your pen ready. It's time to build a customer centric business. https://marketingondemand.co/startup3
Get the show notes, transcript and the other workbooks mentioned at https://marketingondemand.co/podcast
Got a topic you want me to cover? Share your ideas here: https://marketingondemand.co/contact
Got a topic you want me to cover? Share your ideas here: https://marketingondemand.co/contact
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Introduction (00:05):
Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Huddle.
Our show is all about takingaction.
We equip you with the marketingknowledge and confidence you
need to make real progress.
So let's huddle up and listenin to the latest episode with
your host, Lily Richmond.
Lily Richmond (00:30):
Hey, this is Lily .
Thanks for being here today.
If you're already subscribed tothe show, thank you so much.
I do really appreciate you andI am really delighted that you
are taking some proactive stepsto take control of your
marketing.
If this is your first time here, don't forget to hit the follow
or subscribe button in yourfavorite podcast player, because
(00:51):
today, like in every episode,I'm going to share a marketing
topic that I think you've reallygot to learn if you want to
master your marketing.
And make sure you listen inuntil the end, because we're
going to work together today tocome up with a single sentence
that states how you make yourcustomers life better.
And, like in all episodes,there's going to be a worksheet
(01:11):
available for you to download,to work along with me as well.
So let's get started.
Okay, so today is part three ofseven and my series on where to
start with your marketing whenyou are just starting up in
business.
Just a quick recap In part one,I gave you some practical steps
on how to make your product orservice totally irresistible to
(01:33):
your target market.
In part two, you got thelowdown on how to define your
target market and hone right inon who your ideal customer is,
and today we are going todistill part one and two down
into a single sentence thatexplains how you make your
customers life better.
And why are we doing this?
(01:54):
Well, the reason that I wantedto focus on it is because it
puts you in the mindset ofthinking about your product,
your service or your business inrelation to how and I mean
really how it makes yourcustomers life better, and this
is really important.
As a marketer, this is one ofthe key things that you always
(02:16):
have to think about when you'remarketing your business.
If you look at your businessfrom the perspective of how it
helps your customer live abetter life, then it becomes so
much easier to market yourbusiness and sell without well,
let's just say being too salesy.
Yep, we want sleaze freemarketing all the way.
(02:38):
So let's dive straight in Now.
In your business travels andresearch into marketing, you
might have heard terms likeunique selling point, single
minded message, unique valueproposition, and these are all
fine.
In fact, you know they arereally robust marketing concepts
and they have been around sincethe dinosaurs roamed the earth,
but I think they don't workthat well for a small business
(03:02):
owner.
So why is that?
Well, the focus tends to bemore on your business than on
the customer and again, theseare often really off-putting,
jargon filled ideas that cancause more confusion than
anything.
And if you haven't worked it outalready by listening to other
episodes in this podcast, I'm areally big advocate for you
putting the customer first.
(03:23):
You know they've got to be justthe center of everything that
you do.
Without the customer, yourbusiness is nothing.
And if you're just starting outin business, I want to really
encourage you to get into acustomer first mindset from the
get go, and that is why we'reasking such a powerful question
(03:44):
how do you make your customerslife better?
It really is a question of how,not what, you do.
You know it's not what thefeatures of your product are.
It's about trying to get tothat essential nugget of how you
help.
And you know you're probablylistening, thinking well, this
is really simple and it mightseem too simple, and I'm not
(04:06):
much of a gambling woman, but Iwould take aback that many of
your competitors out there,they're not thinking like this.
They're thinking aboutthemselves and they're thinking
about their product or serviceand how they can sell more, and
undoubtedly we all want to sellmore.
Of course we do.
That's why we're in business.
But this is really good for youthat your competitors are
(04:27):
probably not thinking abouttheir customer first, because if
you can unlock how you maketheir life better, then they're
going to sit up and they'regoing to listen to what you have
to say.
You know why would I engagewith a brand that is all about
you?
That's not helping me achievethe change that I want to
experience or the transformationthat I want to see, and it's
certainly not helping me solvemy problem.
(04:49):
So, before we move on and workthrough an exercise, it's going
to help you come up with thatsingle sentence of how you make
your customers life better.
You really need to havecompleted the work from part one
, which is episode six, and parttwo, which is episode seven.
First, Because we're gonna usethis work that you did there to
(05:10):
distill down what your onesentence is and basically to
answer this question really well.
You've got to understand whatit is you are offering to the
world and you've got tounderstand who your customer is
and what they're trying toachieve.
When we do this exercise, youmight take some time to come up
with that one sentence orsomething that you feel is
(05:30):
compelling enough, and that istotally fine.
I do exercises like this allthe time and I leave them for a
day or two and I come back to it.
You know, the subconscious mindis a really powerful powerful
thing.
It is gonna be working away Inthe background and you don't
even know you're thinking aboutit.
And so I find that by leavingsomething for a couple of days,
(05:52):
I come back and I either buildon it and make it better, I
change it, or I go hey, it wasperfect first time.
But often you get someadditional insights if you sort
of let it sit for a little while.
So are you ready to craft yourone sentence on how to make your
customers life better?
Listen in after the break and Iwill take you through the
exercise that you need todistill your thoughts down to a
(06:15):
statement that's gonna make yourbusiness really compelling.
Okay, here we go.
First things first.
I want you to book a time slotin your diary to do this, and I
want it to be at a time of daythat you are most energetic and
productive and when you're lesslikely to be interrupted.
(06:37):
If you do get interrupted a lotin your work day, give yourself
some permission to take thattime out.
Go to a quiet cafe, whereveryou need to go, to get that
headspace that you need.
It might even be going andsitting in your local part.
Next, I want you to downloadthe latest workbook.
I'll drop a link in the shownotes along with the links to
the workbooks from episode sixand seven of the podcast and,
(07:00):
I've got to reiterate again, ifyou haven't done this work yet,
from episode six and seven, andthey're accompanying workbooks.
I strongly recommend that youlisten to those episodes first,
do their work related to those,finish off and come back.
So we're going to tackle thisexercise in three parts.
First, I want you to reflect onthose deeper reasons why your
(07:23):
ideal customer would use yourproduct or service, and you
would have covered this inworkbook too.
So take another look at thatfirst.
See what you came up with andrevisit it.
Just reflect on it.
What was their main motivation?
Jot that one down.
Then I'm going to get you tobrainstorm what your ideal
customer's goal is.
What are they trying to achieve?
(07:44):
So they've got an underlyingmotivation there and they're
going to want to achievesomething.
What is that?
And here I want you to settleon what you think their primary
or main goal is.
Okay, that's step one.
Completed Step two.
I now want you to think aboutthe problem that stands between
your ideal customer and thatgoal that you came up with in
(08:07):
the last exercise.
Nine times out of 10, consumerspurchase because they want to
achieve something, but thereusually is a problem that's
sitting in their way, andwhatever it is they're buying is
helping them to alleviate that.
So it's really important to tryand start thinking about your
products or services in that way.
They are a way to help aconsumer to remove roadblocks
(08:30):
and get things done, achievehigher goals, tap into deeper
motivations and purposes.
So in this part of the exercise, I want you to jot down your
ideas on what that problem couldbe.
There could be more than one,and I would recommend in that
case, that you select the onethat is most pressing, the
primary problem.
Now this is where your businesscomes in.
(08:52):
How does your product orservice or your business, help
the consumer to solve thatproblem that they've identified?
Look back at the workbook,workbook one.
It is where you came up withthose buying priorities and the
product benefits for yourindividual business.
These should really give youthe clues you need to help you
(09:13):
identify how you solve thatproblem for the customer.
And now we're onto the homestraight, part three.
It is time for us to put it alltogether.
Are you ready?
I'm gonna run through somestatements and I want you to
fill in the blanks.
And this is where the workbookdoes come in handy, because you
can fill it out as you go.
Okay, so, to kick off, my idealcustomer wants to blank, and in
(09:35):
there I want you to state theirgoal.
Okay, so my ideal customerwants to achieve a particular
goal in order to blank, and inhere I want you to summarize
their deeper motivation.
Okay, so my ideal customerwants to achieve this particular
goal in order to tap into adeeper motivation.
(09:56):
Why are they doing it?
That's the deeper motivationpiece.
What's the underlying reasonfor why they want to achieve
this goal?
The next part of the statementis the main problem they are
trying to solve is blank, and Iwant you to put the problem in
there.
And my product or service helpssolve it by blank.
(10:18):
I want you to put in the mainway that you help them solve
that problem.
Now that you've completed thatwhole phrase, I want you to look
at it and I want you to thinkabout a one sentence statement
that starts with I make mycustomers life better by and
remember, this is the how.
How are you doing it?
And that earlier piece of workthat you've just done about
(10:40):
filling in those blanks that'sgoing to give you some really,
really good insight into howyou're going to make your
consumers life better.
Okay, that's it, you've nailedit.
Now you might be thinking thisis all great.
How am I going to use all ofthis?
Well, there are plenty of waysthat this can influence how you
market your business.
Getting your messaging right iskey for you to be able to
(11:02):
connect with your customer, soyou could use this in a variety
of ways to help you develop moreimpactful messaging.
So what are some examples?
You could use it to createreally engaging and impactful
headlines for brushes or websitepages, for example.
Or maybe you could show theconsumer how you help them solve
(11:24):
their problem with a series ofshort form videos for social
media.
Or it could be as simple ascreating a really compelling
call to action statement acrossyour marketing, instead of the
boring old get in touch, contactus.
You could opt for ready toblank, where you insert the
customer goal into your call toaction.
(11:44):
One of the calls to action thatI use is really to take control
of your marketing question mark.
It's actually empowering theconsumer.
So that's how you can use amuch more active, engaging and
empowering call to action ratherthan the boring old contact us
for details, get a quote, forexample.
So these are just a few of theways that you can use your
(12:09):
single sentence of how you makeyour customers life better to do
better marketing.
But above all, I want you tokeep this statement in the back
of your mind at all times whenyou think about your marketing,
and then you will be off to sucha great start in business.
Thank you so much for being partof the huddle today.
I hope you enjoyed yet anotherepisode.
(12:31):
Don't forget to hit subscribebecause next time, in part four
of the series on where to startwith your marketing when you're
just starting out in business,we are going to work out how to
set pricing to win business andmake profits, and I've got a
special guest joining me to talkall things pricing, what to
watch out for, what are some ofthe common questions and
(12:53):
concerns for business ownerswhen they first start out.
So I'm really excited aboutthis episode.
Pricing is so critical to yourbusiness.
This is key for when you'restarting up in business.
And as a quick reminder, visitthe episode description to get
access to today's show notes andit'll have links there to all
of the workbooks and you canaccess it there.
Or, if you prefer to gettoday's workbook, you can head
(13:15):
to my website and download itdirectly and that's at
https://marketingondemand.
co/startup3 and that's numberthree.
Thank you so much for listeningin today and I will catch you
at the next episode of the SmallBusiness Marketing Huddle.
Now for the legal jargon.
(13:40):
This podcast is for informationand education purposes only.
We make no business performanceclaims or guarantees in the
information shared.
The podcast content is generalin nature and does not
constitute advice for yourunique business situation.
Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Huddle.
Our show is all about takingaction.
We equip you with the marketingknowledge and confidence you
need to make real progress.
So let's huddle up and listenin to the latest episode with
your host, Lily Richmond.
Lily Richmond (00:30):
Hey, this is Lily .
Thanks for being here today.
If you're already subscribed tothe show, thank you so much.
I do really appreciate you andI am really delighted that you
are taking some proactive stepsto take control of your
marketing.
If this is your first time here, don't forget to hit the follow
or subscribe button in yourfavorite podcast player, because
(00:51):
today, like in every episode,I'm going to share a marketing
topic that I think you've reallygot to learn if you want to
master your marketing.
And make sure you listen inuntil the end, because we're
going to work together today tocome up with a single sentence
that states how you make yourcustomers life better.
And, like in all episodes,there's going to be a worksheet
(01:11):
available for you to download,to work along with me as well.
So let's get started.
Okay, so today is part three ofseven and my series on where to
start with your marketing whenyou are just starting up in
business.
Just a quick recap In part one,I gave you some practical steps
on how to make your product orservice totally irresistible to
(01:33):
your target market.
In part two, you got thelowdown on how to define your
target market and hone right inon who your ideal customer is,
and today we are going todistill part one and two down
into a single sentence thatexplains how you make your
customers life better.
And why are we doing this?
(01:54):
Well, the reason that I wantedto focus on it is because it
puts you in the mindset ofthinking about your product,
your service or your business inrelation to how and I mean
really how it makes yourcustomers life better, and this
is really important.
As a marketer, this is one ofthe key things that you always
(02:16):
have to think about when you'remarketing your business.
If you look at your businessfrom the perspective of how it
helps your customer live abetter life, then it becomes so
much easier to market yourbusiness and sell without well,
let's just say being too salesy.
Yep, we want sleaze freemarketing all the way.
(02:38):
So let's dive straight in Now.
In your business travels andresearch into marketing, you
might have heard terms likeunique selling point, single
minded message, unique valueproposition, and these are all
fine.
In fact, you know they arereally robust marketing concepts
and they have been around sincethe dinosaurs roamed the earth,
but I think they don't workthat well for a small business
(03:02):
owner.
So why is that?
Well, the focus tends to bemore on your business than on
the customer and again, theseare often really off-putting,
jargon filled ideas that cancause more confusion than
anything.
And if you haven't worked it outalready by listening to other
episodes in this podcast, I'm areally big advocate for you
putting the customer first.
(03:23):
You know they've got to be justthe center of everything that
you do.
Without the customer, yourbusiness is nothing.
And if you're just starting outin business, I want to really
encourage you to get into acustomer first mindset from the
get go, and that is why we'reasking such a powerful question
(03:44):
how do you make your customerslife better?
It really is a question of how,not what, you do.
You know it's not what thefeatures of your product are.
It's about trying to get tothat essential nugget of how you
help.
And you know you're probablylistening, thinking well, this
is really simple and it mightseem too simple, and I'm not
(04:06):
much of a gambling woman, but Iwould take aback that many of
your competitors out there,they're not thinking like this.
They're thinking aboutthemselves and they're thinking
about their product or serviceand how they can sell more, and
undoubtedly we all want to sellmore.
Of course we do.
That's why we're in business.
But this is really good for youthat your competitors are
(04:27):
probably not thinking abouttheir customer first, because if
you can unlock how you maketheir life better, then they're
going to sit up and they'regoing to listen to what you have
to say.
You know why would I engagewith a brand that is all about
you?
That's not helping me achievethe change that I want to
experience or the transformationthat I want to see, and it's
certainly not helping me solvemy problem.
(04:49):
So, before we move on and workthrough an exercise, it's going
to help you come up with thatsingle sentence of how you make
your customers life better.
You really need to havecompleted the work from part one
, which is episode six, and parttwo, which is episode seven.
First, Because we're gonna usethis work that you did there to
(05:10):
distill down what your onesentence is and basically to
answer this question really well.
You've got to understand whatit is you are offering to the
world and you've got tounderstand who your customer is
and what they're trying toachieve.
When we do this exercise, youmight take some time to come up
with that one sentence orsomething that you feel is
(05:30):
compelling enough, and that istotally fine.
I do exercises like this allthe time and I leave them for a
day or two and I come back to it.
You know, the subconscious mindis a really powerful powerful
thing.
It is gonna be working away Inthe background and you don't
even know you're thinking aboutit.
And so I find that by leavingsomething for a couple of days,
(05:52):
I come back and I either buildon it and make it better, I
change it, or I go hey, it wasperfect first time.
But often you get someadditional insights if you sort
of let it sit for a little while.
So are you ready to craft yourone sentence on how to make your
customers life better?
Listen in after the break and Iwill take you through the
exercise that you need todistill your thoughts down to a
(06:15):
statement that's gonna make yourbusiness really compelling.
Okay, here we go.
First things first.
I want you to book a time slotin your diary to do this, and I
want it to be at a time of daythat you are most energetic and
productive and when you're lesslikely to be interrupted.
(06:37):
If you do get interrupted a lotin your work day, give yourself
some permission to take thattime out.
Go to a quiet cafe, whereveryou need to go, to get that
headspace that you need.
It might even be going andsitting in your local part.
Next, I want you to downloadthe latest workbook.
I'll drop a link in the shownotes along with the links to
the workbooks from episode sixand seven of the podcast and,
(07:00):
I've got to reiterate again, ifyou haven't done this work yet,
from episode six and seven, andthey're accompanying workbooks.
I strongly recommend that youlisten to those episodes first,
do their work related to those,finish off and come back.
So we're going to tackle thisexercise in three parts.
First, I want you to reflect onthose deeper reasons why your
(07:23):
ideal customer would use yourproduct or service, and you
would have covered this inworkbook too.
So take another look at thatfirst.
See what you came up with andrevisit it.
Just reflect on it.
What was their main motivation?
Jot that one down.
Then I'm going to get you tobrainstorm what your ideal
customer's goal is.
What are they trying to achieve?
(07:44):
So they've got an underlyingmotivation there and they're
going to want to achievesomething.
What is that?
And here I want you to settleon what you think their primary
or main goal is.
Okay, that's step one.
Completed Step two.
I now want you to think aboutthe problem that stands between
your ideal customer and thatgoal that you came up with in
(08:07):
the last exercise.
Nine times out of 10, consumerspurchase because they want to
achieve something, but thereusually is a problem that's
sitting in their way, andwhatever it is they're buying is
helping them to alleviate that.
So it's really important to tryand start thinking about your
products or services in that way.
They are a way to help aconsumer to remove roadblocks
(08:30):
and get things done, achievehigher goals, tap into deeper
motivations and purposes.
So in this part of the exercise, I want you to jot down your
ideas on what that problem couldbe.
There could be more than one,and I would recommend in that
case, that you select the onethat is most pressing, the
primary problem.
Now this is where your businesscomes in.
(08:52):
How does your product orservice or your business, help
the consumer to solve thatproblem that they've identified?
Look back at the workbook,workbook one.
It is where you came up withthose buying priorities and the
product benefits for yourindividual business.
These should really give youthe clues you need to help you
(09:13):
identify how you solve thatproblem for the customer.
And now we're onto the homestraight, part three.
It is time for us to put it alltogether.
Are you ready?
I'm gonna run through somestatements and I want you to
fill in the blanks.
And this is where the workbookdoes come in handy, because you
can fill it out as you go.
Okay, so, to kick off, my idealcustomer wants to blank, and in
(09:35):
there I want you to state theirgoal.
Okay, so my ideal customerwants to achieve a particular
goal in order to blank, and inhere I want you to summarize
their deeper motivation.
Okay, so my ideal customerwants to achieve this particular
goal in order to tap into adeeper motivation.
(09:56):
Why are they doing it?
That's the deeper motivationpiece.
What's the underlying reasonfor why they want to achieve
this goal?
The next part of the statementis the main problem they are
trying to solve is blank, and Iwant you to put the problem in
there.
And my product or service helpssolve it by blank.
(10:18):
I want you to put in the mainway that you help them solve
that problem.
Now that you've completed thatwhole phrase, I want you to look
at it and I want you to thinkabout a one sentence statement
that starts with I make mycustomers life better by and
remember, this is the how.
How are you doing it?
And that earlier piece of workthat you've just done about
(10:40):
filling in those blanks that'sgoing to give you some really,
really good insight into howyou're going to make your
consumers life better.
Okay, that's it, you've nailedit.
Now you might be thinking thisis all great.
How am I going to use all ofthis?
Well, there are plenty of waysthat this can influence how you
market your business.
Getting your messaging right iskey for you to be able to
(11:02):
connect with your customer, soyou could use this in a variety
of ways to help you develop moreimpactful messaging.
So what are some examples?
You could use it to createreally engaging and impactful
headlines for brushes or websitepages, for example.
Or maybe you could show theconsumer how you help them solve
(11:24):
their problem with a series ofshort form videos for social
media.
Or it could be as simple ascreating a really compelling
call to action statement acrossyour marketing, instead of the
boring old get in touch, contactus.
You could opt for ready toblank, where you insert the
customer goal into your call toaction.
(11:44):
One of the calls to action thatI use is really to take control
of your marketing question mark.
It's actually empowering theconsumer.
So that's how you can use amuch more active, engaging and
empowering call to action ratherthan the boring old contact us
for details, get a quote, forexample.
So these are just a few of theways that you can use your
(12:09):
single sentence of how you makeyour customers life better to do
better marketing.
But above all, I want you tokeep this statement in the back
of your mind at all times whenyou think about your marketing,
and then you will be off to sucha great start in business.
Thank you so much for being partof the huddle today.
I hope you enjoyed yet anotherepisode.
(12:31):
Don't forget to hit subscribebecause next time, in part four
of the series on where to startwith your marketing when you're
just starting out in business,we are going to work out how to
set pricing to win business andmake profits, and I've got a
special guest joining me to talkall things pricing, what to
watch out for, what are some ofthe common questions and
(12:53):
concerns for business ownerswhen they first start out.
So I'm really excited aboutthis episode.
Pricing is so critical to yourbusiness.
This is key for when you'restarting up in business.
And as a quick reminder, visitthe episode description to get
access to today's show notes andit'll have links there to all
of the workbooks and you canaccess it there.
Or, if you prefer to gettoday's workbook, you can head
(13:15):
to my website and download itdirectly and that's at
https://marketingondemand.
co/startup3 and that's numberthree.
Thank you so much for listeningin today and I will catch you
at the next episode of the SmallBusiness Marketing Huddle.
Now for the legal jargon.
(13:40):
This podcast is for informationand education purposes only.
We make no business performanceclaims or guarantees in the
information shared.
The podcast content is generalin nature and does not
constitute advice for yourunique business situation.
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