The big problem with business

Planted 02020-05-28

Why don't people choose you?

Business is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.

What do people come to you for? What problems do they have? Why do people choose you?

You do the hard work of providing opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward.

Your biggest problem is people don’t care about you or what you have to offer them. People don’t want your solution. They want any solution that works for them.

People will happily take the first solution with a story that matches the narrative they tell themselves.

So for all the people that go to the business down the street, why are they right?

For all the other businesses that rank higher than you in search results, why are they right?

Why don’t people choose you?

Are the people who currently chose you a viable market moving forward—viable for you to have a sustainable business and for them to move forward?

A brand is shorthand for the customers’ expectations. What promise do they think you’re making? What do they expect when they come across you or meet with you?

If you want to build a marketing asset, you need to invest in connection and other nontransferable properties. When people care, you’ve got a brand.

People care about status. Flags of status are everywhere we look. What’s your flag? Why would someone fly it?

How will your service impact how others feel?

Instead of asking, “How can I get to the top of Google, how can I get more followers, how can I convert more leads to sales…?”

You can ask, “What change do I seek to make?”

Instead of trying to persuade more people to listen to you, listen to them.

Hear what they have to say and make a product or service for them.

When you know what you stand for, the rest gets a lot easier.