When outreaching to your #idealclient, it is of paramount importance to speak in terms of their #challenges and #desires.
Connecting with our ideal clients' current #pains makes them feel heard and understood.
The combination of these in our #sales and #outreachcopy, creates an emotional connection.
This holds their attention long enough for us to present a #solution [our product or service] as a means of bridging the gap between where they are now [pain] and where they wish to be [desire].
Done well, this process leads the right person [ideal client] to willingly and even enthusiastically, part with their money and #invest in our solution.
What is critical here though are the THREE desires of our clients and how we can speak to each of them effectively.
The best illustration I can give to this is the framework of a story.
In every story we essentially have three ingredients:
A character with a desire
An obstacle they face attaining that desire
Their struggle to overcome this obstacle and achieve the desire.
Every story teller from Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Tolkien and Disney uses these basic ingredients.
Some stories are much longer and more complex, with more characters and more twists and turns but the basics remain the same.
This is why storytelling, much more than charts, tables, numbers, dot points, is so powerful when selling, because we take our ideal client on their own journey of transformation.
We can create a picture of them overcoming their own challenge or pain to achieve the desire.
And in doing so, we position ourselves as the guide to help them navigate that journey.
The reality is that characters in stories are never driven by one simple desire. We humans always have complex layers of desire that motivate us.
The more we can resonate with the multiple layers of desire that our ideal client experiences, the more powerful our sales messaging will be.
Think of any character in any story you love:
Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice
Luke Skywalker in Star Wars
Harry Potter in well, the Harry Potter books
…insert your favorite character here
They always have three desires: an external desire, an internal desire and a philosophical desire.
Let’s take the story of Star Wars as an example.
The story follows the basic external desire or goal of Luke Skywalker to find the princess and bring the secret plans of the Death Star to her, thus saving the galaxy.
However, Luke is also driven by the internal desire to impress the beautiful princess and to build friendships and alliances along the way to help him become the hero.
Moreover, Luke is also deeply driven by a philosophical desire to find out more about the origins of his birth, and to understand his calling as someone greater than merely a farm boy.
The three desires, external, internal and philosophical, not only make Luke an interesting and relatable character but also, they raise the tension he faces with each obstacle that thwarts his desires.
Finally, the joy he experiences when he achieves these three desires, make the victory all the more sweeter.
Multiple desires, multiple obstacles and a journey that holds them all together is what makes this story truly great.
This is also what makes good sales messaging truly great.
Nike doesn’t only appeal to your desire to get fit and play sport [external desire] but also your desire to be admired and attractive to romantic partners [internal desire] and most significantly your desire to find deep courage to overcome any odds and become the true warrior and hero you know yourself to be [philosophical desire].
Apple doesn’t only appeal to your desire to get work done and communicate [external desire] but also your desire to create truly beautiful things that transcend mere functional use and create delight [internal desire] and more importantly your desire to tap into your true genius despite being a misfit, to think differently and to truly shape the world by your creativity [philosophical desire].
If you can effectively map not only the external desires of your ideal client, but also their internal and philosophical desires, and if you can show how your solution helps them to overcome the obstacles and challenges that thwart these desires....
...then you have awesome sales messaging.
