It has been proved that the most effective way to engage sales prospects is to demonstrate that you understand their problems and have solutions to those problems that are timely, affordable and of the right quality.

All too often businesses focus on their own achievements, who they have worked with, awards they have won etc, but fail to demonstrate they appreciate the problems of their future customers.

Your job as a business owner or manager is to understand the needs of your customers and work tirelessly to meet those needs. So where do you start? Get a piece of paper or open a new document on your computer.

Think about the problems that your customers have. Let’s take an example of a kitchen designer business.

Kitchen Designer

Problems solved for customers:

Getting everything the customer wants into the space available

Making the space attractive and functional

Servicing the needs of family eating

Managing pets

Making cooking of meals easier

Dispelling cooking smells

There will no doubt be others but you get the point. Apply this to your own business and get a clear understanding of the problem solving you deliver. Print it off and stick it on the wall. You need to keep reminding yourself (and anyone who works with you) of the problems you solve.

Now you have the foundation of your promotional materials. Your ability to solve these problems should be at the forefront of your marketing; your website, your social media, paid advertising, email marketing.

Everything you do should reinforce your problems solving efforts. In this way you will build a clear content strategy that keeps reminding people of who you are and what you do. This is the way that you build brand identity in consumer’s minds.

In part 2 we will look at how to present your problem solving on your business website.