Being an entrepreneur can be very difficult to say the least. You are assuming that you can solve a plan for a certain niche of the population and you believe they will regular need that problem solved and are also willing to pay you to solve that problem. It could be anything from being a retail store, restaurant, lawn care company, mover, pet groomer and the list goes on and on. The key is to understand your potential customers pain, your claim and their gain. Let’s briefly take a look at each.
Pain – in today’s high inflation economy, everyone is paying more but feel like they are getting less. Financial pain can be acute because you lose your purchasing power and you have to pay more to often get the same as what you received maybe a year ago. The issue with pain, beyond the financial aspect, is that what pain are you solving for your problem. My personal experience is being an entrepreneur, I don’t have time to do my own lawn care anymore so I have to find someone that can do it for me at a reasonable price. My fear is that my lawn will look horrible if it is not taken care of properly and I set aside a budget to make sure that happens. I traded my financial currency for the time currency I gain from being able to focus on my tech company. Although I have always enjoyed taking care of my lawn, there are only so many hours in the day and I have to delegate that task to others that are more efficient. The time I get back from no long doing that activity that priceless. Business owners want consumers to seek them out because they specialize in particular products or services and consumers are often willing to pay, within their budget. Business owners want to show you that they can meet you where you are and make you feel confident that they can provide what is sought. A reminder that people don’t buy when they understand, they buy when they feel understood. Show consumers that you understand their pain and they a high customer lifetime value for your business.
Claim- what is claim to fame for your business? Do you make great Seafood, have great handyman services, can you solve a problem that few others can? Advertising can help your promote your claims and that is often how people find your business. Referral marketing is the most powerful form of advertising because people can confirm your claims and we certainly want the approval of others that we trust before we decide to engage with a business and that is key. Your claim is often a biased opinion but if others confirm your claim it is much more likely that others will want to experience what you have to offer. What are your superpowers? What are you best at? What can only you do? Why should they trust your claim and do you have some sort of plan to ensure that the customer experience is top notch? At the end of the day we want advice and assurances from those we trust because we like to have things vetting before we spend our hard earned cash with a business that is new to us.
Gain – What does your customer stand to win if they engage with your company. My promised gain is more customers patronizing their business because my technology allows consumers to refer my member businesses and receive a referral reward discount for the valuable referrals. Consumers that use my company’s product will be able to save money through referral reward discounts and small business owners can see lower customer acquisition costs and longer customer lifetime values because they are receiving more referrals more often by way of my tech solution. As mentioned before, consumers want to know who has gone before them before they decide to buy from you. Established businesses have the advantage of having a past where new companies often have to spend more to create brand awareness and gain brand exposure opportunities. Also, many consumers have a FOMO, especially if they hear about great customers experiences and are in need of what a particular business has to offer. When the economy is slow and consumers pull back, discretionary spending is often the first thing to be affected because other expenses have to be paid first. The perception of value is even more important when discretionary income has been affected. So it’s important to make sure that your potential customers understand your claims and gains and you understand their pains.
As mentioned, referral marketing is the key to gaining more customers faster because referrals feel like your business has been vetted and they feel more comfortable doing business with you without having a past purchasing relationship. My value proposition for my customers is lower customer acquisition costs, viral results and consumers will appreciate the opportunity to save money with my subscribers small businesses thus increasing the CLTV and improving their overall business profitability.
Dealsby is cloud and app-based Referral Marketing and Customer Engagement Technology that integrates referral code sharing technology, SMS, Email & popular social media platforms. Dealsby helps create brand awareness, brand exposure & new customer acquisition opportunities for our small business subscribers.
Dealsby Blog 