What’s holding you back from marketing success?

Would you do more marketing if it felt more like a conversation and less like ‘selling’? Do you find the idea of promoting your business daunting? Are you put off by the thought of having to ‘sell’ what you do? If so you’re not alone, a lot of small business owners I speak to feel the same way. It can feel like there is so much pressure to be selling all the time, but what if this isn’t something that comes naturally?

If the thought of selling makes your skin crawl then this article will help you look at your marketing in a new way.

I just feel like …

When I speak to small business owners about marketing there are 3 things that they often say hold them back:

1) I feel uncomfortable selling

No one likes bad salespeople. When people think of sales most will think of a used car salesman trying to push them with a hard sell. No wonder sales have a bad rep when so many people do it wrong. There is another way to sell and it doesn’t have to be pushy, arrogant or sleazy!

2) I don’t have the authority to talk about this

There is always someone else out there who knows more or does it better. There will always be someone with more followers, books and TED talks. But they are not you, they don’t know what you know and they don’t have the experiences you’ve had.

3) I don’t have anything interesting to say

A common mistake is to think “everyone knows that”. What seems obvious to you, your customer hasn’t even thought about. The way you do it, your methods and your process are all things that the customer wants to learn more about. If someone is deciding if they want to become a customer then you need to tell them how it works and show you can do it.

There is another way

We have created the Empathy Led Marketing model that shows you how to look at marketing and ‘selling’ in a new way. It combines together empathy, authority and story to enable an authentic sales conversation. it empowers you to speak to your customers as no one else has done before.

Empathy

If you feel that sales lack credibility then it’s because you’re trying to ‘sell’ to the customer. Turn that around and open the conversation by showing empathy with your customer. This shows you see where they are, hear their frustrations and understand the problems they face. It signals to the right people that you’re the person they want to find out more about.

Authority

Empathy alone doesn’t make a compelling message, you need to add some authority to build trust. If you feel like you don’t have enough authority then consider this. The best secret I learned about other business owners is “we’re all winging it”. No one knows what they’re doing, we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You know a lot more than you think you do, and you than your customer does. There is no one more qualified to talk about your business.

Story

When you spend all day in your business it’s easy to take for granted what you’re achieving. Within every small business, there is a compelling story waiting to be told. The reason you do what you do, the reason you get out of bed every day, and your WHY is one part of your story. Your customers want to hear about the people you’ve worked with, the lives you’ve made better.

Once you start looking for your story, you’ll quickly find you’ve got too much to choose from!

Making it work for you

Use Empathy Led Marketing to have authentic conversations and tell your story. Build trust by telling your customers more about your business, methods and process. Use authority to position yourself as the guide people want to go with to reach success.

Feeling hesitant about putting yourself out there? Then ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen? You won’t know what will happen until you try. So be brave, take a chance and see what happens. From our experience we see that people are supportive, encouraging and will want to know more.

You can do it!

Summon your courage and commit to telling your story. Create clarity by planning out your story and some social posts. Find certainty in knowing that you are the most qualified person to talk about your business.

If you want to know more about Empathy Led Marketing then check out the full guide on our website. Have you found this article inspiring? Then sign up for our weekly marketing inspiration emails.