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Paul: Well hey there. Are you familiar with the show the shark tank. It was a real family favourite in my household. If you're not familiar with the program we give you a quick rundown on how it worked. Basically business owners would go onto a show to pitch their business ideas. They would have the opportunity to stand in front of five highly successful entrepreneurs people who had built significant businesses and had substantial personal wealth. And these five entrepreneurs were known as the Sharks and the business owner would come on and have roughly about five minutes to pitch their business to these sharks in the hope that at least one of them would want to invest in their business and they want them to invest both some capital some money to help them scale and grow their business but also some of their wisdom some of their business experience to help them learn how to grow the business more efficiently whether here or overseas. And my kids would love watching this program and watching the way that people would come on some very skilled and well-prepared others completely underprepared for the experience. Babbling through the questions that were asked by the Sharks and my kids were always curious about the sorts of questions that were being asked how people were answering them and why those things were important. And when I looked at the show it occurred to me that there are five really critical questions that are asked of entrepreneurs on that show that are highly relevant to every business owner and not because we have to have the need to ever want to stand in front of a group of would be investors pitching our business but because the same questions are the questions that go on in the minds of our prospective customers. These are five critical questions that we must be able to answer and answer succinctly and quickly if we want to have the chance of winning more business in the marketplace. So this episode we're going to be diving in to your own five minute pitch breaking down the five critical questions that you need to know and be able to answer if you want to start winning more business. So I'm going to break down all those five questions for you in just a moment and help you to work through each one of them so that you will be better prepared to answer each of these critical questions. But first let's cue the intro

00:02:38:17 - 00:02:53:21

Warick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast the show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success, and now here's your host Paul McCarthy

00:02:56:17 - 00:04:00:02

Paul: So welcome to Episode 11 of the marketers club podcast. I am your host Paul McCarthy and I'm here to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. Great to have your company again and of course if you're finding the program for the first time. Welcome aboard. Thank you to everyone who's been subscribing to the program and of course if you haven't yet subscribe please do make sure that you're the first to receive the updates when the next episode is coming up. And it's always great to receive your feedback and your thoughts on the program so I really appreciate everyone who's already dived on and jumped on board. It's great to have you here. In fact I was recently at a an event where somebody came up to me and mentioned that they'd been listening to the podcast and got some great tips and ideas from some of our guests which is just brilliant. It's really what the program is all about so I'm thrilled to hear that people are enjoying it. Tuning in and getting lots of value. So it's great to have you back for another episode.

00:04:00:07 - 00:06:13:17

Paul: Now in this episode where we're talking really about this idea of a five minute pitch these key questions that we need to know the answer to. These are the questions that are going off in the mind of our prospective buyers and if we're not able to answer them then we are going to miss out on the opportunity to win the business. Now you know the shark tank program really is a place where you can highlight some of these key questions in a television sort of version of of the world. Of course there they had these five minutes to pitch these entrepreneurs in a controlled environment but in the real world we have a lot less time while we might get five minutes of attention from a prospective buyer. We're not gonna get it in one big chunk we're gonna get it firstly just a little components of time you know the reality is when somebody lands on your website you have somewhere in the vicinity of five to seven seconds to communicate your key message to them. If you want to be able to hold their attention and for them to invest more of their time and energy into what it is that you do. So we have to understand that these questions are key to our ability to really capture the imagination of our prospective buyer. But just like the television show. Before we dive into these questions we need to do one critical thing and that is prepare to answer them. There's no question if you've ever watched that program that there are some of the business entrepreneurs that go on to pitch their ideas who are clearly underprepared. They haven't thought through clearly the key questions that they're going to be asked and need to be able to provide satisfactory answers to. So let's start there. You know is Sun Sue in the book The Art of War. Who said the victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war where the defeated warrior goes to war first and then seeks to win. And that's really the reality for so many people in that program as it is in real life out in the world where people are trying to market businesses that many are stepping onto the battlefield of business and they are completely underprepared ill equipped to be able to answer the critical questions that are on the mind of their buyers. So

00:06:13:17 - 00:06:14:02

Paul: So let's start there. You know is Sun Sue in the book The Art of War. Who said the victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war where the defeated warrior goes to war first and then seeks to win. And that's really the reality for so many people in that program as it is in real life out in the world where people are trying to market businesses that many are stepping onto the battlefield of business and they are completely underprepared ill equipped to be able to answer the critical questions that are on the mind of their buyers. So

00:06:14:02 - 00:07:24:15

So let's get prepared to be able to answer that and really the starting point is understanding what is the must know information that you need to be getting out to your prospective customers. You know one of my early mentors taught me a lot about the marketing structure. He explained to me that one of the keys to marketing success is the ability to communicate the must know information upfront. You said you know the issue here is that most people bury the must know information. What What he taught me was that information can be broken down into four components. He talked about must know information should not information could no information and nice to know information. And as he explained when you look at most people's marketing material they take a piece of must know information and they wrap it in nice to nice. So basically as a copywriter we talk about that as burying the lead. We're making it too hard for our prospective buyer to actually figure out what it is we're saying to them we're making them work harder.

00:08:36:03 - 00:09:17:04

Paul: If we can't do that really quickly we're going to lose our opportunities to win the customers that have already demonstrated some interest when they've come to your website. They have demonstrated that they have started the search to look for someone who can help them with their problems. And that's what we need to do is figure out what are the key questions we need to be answering. To be able to satisfy our potential customer once we understand that we've got to get our key information and then we've got to prepare this and get this ready so that we can answer these questions. Now we can dive into these five critical questions that we're going to need to be able to answer.

00:09:17:18 - 00:11:29:24

Paul: So here's Key Question number one. What problem do you solve and notice that I'm talking about a problem. One of the first mistakes that many business owners are making is that they are trying to tell a consumer that they can solve all of their problems on the shark tank. They understand that if somebody is coming on saying they can help everybody to do anything that they're really saying they can't help anyone because it's too broad a message they want to know what is the single focused problem that you solve. And it's key that we start to narrow this focus down. So we have to start to say what is the thing that you want to be known for in a Markets Club. We talk about is what do you want to be famous for. What is the key problem that you want to know. Be  known for being able to solve. Now of course it doesn't mean you can't solve other problems. And that opportunity to deepen the relationship can come later with that prospective client. But if we want to win the attention of a client on the way through we have to clearly articulate the primary problem that we solve. The key reason that we want to start here is because that's the question on the mind of the prospect. But what we tend to do is we wrap a key problem around a whole conversation about ourselves. We talk about who we are and what we do and that is of absolutely no interest to the prospective buyer. They have come to your website they've picked up your brochure they are talking to you because they are asking one question Can you help me solve my problem? But when we try and talk about all the problems that we solve we practice what I call the throw enough mud hope it sticks formula of marketing where basically say I want to throw everything at you because surely that will give me the best chance of getting you as a customer. But what we have to understand is let's imagine that you are able to help me solve 10 different problems but I come to you looking to solve one problem.

00:11:30:09 - 00:12:27:11

Paul: Now every time you talk about the other nine problems you solve all you do is dilute the power of your message instead of being focused on my problem. You're actually spending 90 percent of the time talking about things that I'm not interested in. And this is why we've got to get clear about what is the primary problem that we solve. What do we want to be famous for solving. So the clearer we can get on that the easier it will be for us to start to attract people in. When you offer too many solutions upfront what you do is you cause confusion in the mind of the prospect. And what we know is confused minds never buy if you confuse you lose. That's how it works in the world of marketing. So a more single focused conversation will create much more penetration for you with your prospective buyer. So that's question number one.

00:12:27:14 - 00:13:26:23

Paul: Question number two is who wants this solution. In other words who is the target market. Again if we don't zero in on who we want to work with then we're going to become broad and general in our conversations. Now many entrepreneurs when I meet them talk to me about the fact that Well Paul you know everybody is a potential buyer of what I do. And that may be true but there is always a Best Buy inside any framework. So we have to start to zero in on who we really want to target who is the best buyer for what it is that we're doing. And the reason I want to start to zero in is because now we can start to build a marketing conversation that's very targeted that's very personal. That shows the empathy and understanding of that person's particular situation and circumstances and that's going to enhance the quality of the marketing copy that we're producing.

00:13:27:10 - 00:15:05:12

Paul: When you try to create a catchall when you try and be General you've become so vanilla that nobody really feels like you're talking to them. And that really hurts you in terms of your ability to convert the clients into customers. People want to know that you understand them it's one of the greatest needs of all human beings is to feel understood. So the more single focus we become at who we're talking to and we become more focused on their key problem the more they will be attracted to working with us. So this is a critical step for you is to get really clear on who you ideally want to work with. Now when I'm writing copy as a copywriter at one of the key tricks that you learn is to start to focus in on one person that you write and communicate to one person you create an avatar of a person you understand who they are what gender they are what to age group day fit in, what their disposable income is what their circumstances are where they hang out what they aspire to. You create a picture a framework and then when you communicate you write as if you're running to just that one person you know and typically copywriters will create a name a character that they write to when they're writing good copy that's going to be on message for that person because you understand that when you've zeroed in and targeted somebody in that way then you're targeting anyone who fits into that demographic and that's the key to starting to get much more punch in your marketing messages.

00:15:05:15 - 00:16:52:29

The third critical question that we need to ask is about what is your framework your system or the process that you use to achieve the outcomes that people want. In other words what is the unique way that you go about doing it. This is all about your unique positioning. If you don't have a unique way of doing it you know if we look at the shark tank one of the questions they're asking is tell us what is this proprietary process or system. Now they're gonna be interested in things like Is it protected is a trademark. But what they're truly asking is have you changed or done something different than everybody else in the marketplace. Because they're not interested in investing in a strategy that looks the same as somebody else because chances are there will be other companies that are better positioned who already have a stronger foothold in a marketplace than I developing business would. And if they just gonna be another me too solution then I wouldn't get anyone interested in investing in them. Likewise if we don't create a meaningful point of difference in our marketplace if we can't show how we do it differently then we are going to commodities ourselves. This is the first place that you go if you want to look at why I'm not getting a higher price value for what you do it's likely because in the eyes of the consumer you look like most of the other options available. And as soon as that happens we now get into a pricing issue. People are going to start to push you on your pricing because you're just another me too solution. I don't see a meaningful point of difference. So one of the questions we have to ask is entrepreneurs is one of two things. Are you saying yes and or yes but.

00:16:53:11 - 00:17:43:16

Paul: So if you're saying yes and so I do this and I do it this way I do more I add to it. So you have built on a framework that existed beforehand or you are contrarian to it. You are challenging the way it's been done. Yes it's been done but this now is a new way a different pathway. So you've reinvented the way it's being done but you cannot step into the marketplace and hope to win clients by saying pick me. I'm just like everybody else in this market. That's not a winning strategy. And it certainly doesn't fly on a show like the shark tank. So they want to see that there is some meaningful point of difference in the way that this business is approaching when it's doing because that's where the growth of the marketplace will come from.

00:17:43:21 - 00:18:31:12

Paul: The fourth key question that we have to be able to answer is do you have any evidence. Do you have proof of your ability to create out comes for clients. So one of the biggest mistakes that you will see if you've ever watched the show The Shark Tank is people who walk on who have an idea they have a concept. But when they are asked what the sales results have been. Who's buying this. Ah well you know I actually I haven't sold any of them yet and they've made perhaps one of the most common and fatal mistakes that I see entrepreneurs make. And that is where they've spent all their time and energy and money building an idea but they haven't proven whether anybody wants it yet.

00:18:31:27 - 00:20:22:11

Paul: So one of the keys to success is where ever it is possible that you sell it first and you build it second and these highly successful entrepreneurs are often you know really distressed on behalf of these business owners who have invested sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars into an idea that just isn't gonna fly. It's not going to work. And they are in love with the idea but they haven't tested it. So we need to make sure that we're making it available for people to test an idea first we need a beta test that we need to see if somebody is willing to put some skin in the game willing to invest in this concept first before we start to invest all our money in the development of it. We've got to get the raw concept out and see if people are interested. And by then we can develop it. Once you've done that now we need the social proof to help create leverage in the marketplace. Basically understand that no customer wants to go first. Customers always want to go second what they want to know is that they're not the guinea pig for an idea. They want it to be tried and tested and evidence of other people doing it is really important for them to be able to make that decision. But the key is in terms of capturing testimonial evidence from your customers. There's a couple of case that doing it really well first and foremost we need to link the testimonials we get to the very first question we asked which is what problem do we solve. Because a great testimonial reflects the solving of a common problem. And that's what we want to see and the more data that's included in that testimonial the better. So if you are able to help people generate more money how much money did you help them generate.

00:20:22:12 - 00:21:01:03

Paul: How much growth did they experience we want to put numbers around it. Data around it where ever that is possible. It's called hardening up the testimonial. We don't really want testimonials that simply say ah you are a really nice person you are very polite you are very professional. Those things are nice but they don't really have any punch the next part in terms of our testimonial is is that we don't make the customer go away and do the work. There's two issues we assign to a customer. Can you write me a testimonial Number One is it's highly unlikely to get done because they are busy people and they find it they're not sure what they should say and they say put it on the back burner.

00:21:01:17 - 00:22:45:26

Paul: And the second is because they're not skilled writers they're typically going to produce something that's not that helpful to you. So the best way to get the testimony you want is that when testimonials are given to you the most common way they come is in verbal form. Clients feeding back to you how satisfied they are with the work and the outcomes you've helped them create. It's in that moment that we said Oh that's very kind of you know I'm putting some together some new marketing material would you mind if I just put that down in writing I send it to and if you're happy with it that we could use that in our marketing material?Now I've been doing that for years I've been teaching entrepreneurs to do that for years. I've yet to have anyone say to me that they aren't willing to do that. So if they've given the verbal you say I'll package it up I'll send it to you. Now you get to control and write and communicate their testimonial evidence in a way that's going to be useful to you. They will be happier. Because it doesn't become a job they have to do and you get it back. So this is a key way to get the information you need. The next part with your testimonial evidence the proof is that the way that we integrate it into what we do and that's a key. testimonials must be integrated not isolated. And what I mean is having a web page that's filled with testimonials is a waste of time. It's a waste of a page. What you need to do is take the key testimonials that fit around certain content and you integrate that in. So for example on the home page of a website I'd suggest you need about three good testimonials that reflect your ability to solve the common pain or problem that your audience has. And the more clarity there is in terms of the outcomes you've been able to produce the more data that's in those the more powerful they will be.

00:22:46:09 - 00:23:38:29

Paul: I'd also suggest to you that we want to bring those testimonials to law. So if they're in written form ask if you can get a photo of the person he's given it to bring it to life to make it more real. Of course if you can catch a video based testimonial. Fantastic. Do that get the person on camera saying it as well but have it in both formats. So this is some of the whys that we need to be producing social proof. We need evidence of the results that we can produce. So if you haven't got that yet then we've got to get busy. Get out there start collecting that testimonial evidence and we've got to continue to build on it. Keep getting it. Don't just get a couple and then let it go style and you're only using old testimonial evidence you want to keep it current as well. So that's four questions that we've asked. So let's tackle the final question that we need to be I would answer in the mind of our buyer.

00:23:39:12 - 00:25:39:00

Paul: And the fifth and final question is What do you want me to do now. So this is about the call to action you know on the show of the shark tank they are saying to the business owner. OK so what is it that you want from us. So the business owner has to tell them how much money they want and what equity share they are going to be given in the business. So if I say well I want you know a 100 thousand dollars and I'm gonna give you 10 percent what I'm saying to the shark is well my business is worth a million dollars. So they will be asking numbers questions to see. Or where did you come up with this evaluation? How have you arrived at that now? Often again it's a pie in the sky number that people have pulled out but smart entrepreneurs have valued their business accordingly. And therefore it becomes an attractive option to the shark. But in the world of the consumer they also need to be called to action. You need to tell them exactly what it is that you want them to do. So this is how we start to pull them into your sales system now. So what is the core step that you want them to take?I mean do you want them to download a resource. Do you. Are you directing them to a launch point a guide some sort of data capture strategy that you have on your Web site. Do you want them to call and book an appointment? Is the idea for them to send out an email to answer a question or to press the Buy Now button whatever it is we need to be super clear on what the call to action is. So that we're consistently funnelling people in a core direction so that we know that inside our business that we now have a structure that this is where we're going to take people through. This is how we're going to nurture them and move them to become the buyer that we want them to be.

00:25:39:16 - 00:27:12:22

Paul: So these are key questions that we must be able to answer if we want to be able to attract more people into our businesses. So let's do a quick recap of the five critical questions that you need to be able to answer in your business. Question number one what problem do you solve? Take the time to narrow down your focus and identify what is the key problem that you solve. This is the stepping stone to becoming a category of one expert becoming that person who knows how to do this thing really well. Now what you don't have to be afraid of is that if I've narrowed it down to just one question it means I'm going to miss out on all these other people. And the reality is that marketing is a little counterintuitive. It might feel like if I tell people about more things that I can do for them that I will attract more people into my world. But the reality is it's the very opposite that happens because we are diluting the power of our message. People are looking for the thing that they want. So if we get clear about the core problem the most common problem that crosses across your audience then we will be able to move that person into your business. And then we can start to teach them about the other things we can do for them and they become a full service client full value client to you. So it's not that you're going to miss that you're actually going to start to attract more people by getting really single focused.

00:27:13:06 - 00:28:23:00

Paul: Question two is who is this for? So who is your ideal target audience. You know one of the game changing moments in my life was when I stopped saying yes to everybody you know I started my business with a real scarcity mentality. Growing up in West Heidelberg growing up around scarcity I thought my job was to say yes to everybody. And what happened was I created a bucket of clients that were high in need and low in value. They wanted everything from me but they accept they didn't really want to pay very much for it. So I was working incredibly hard trying to service all of these very low value plants and the only person that was winning was the client and I was burning myself out and it was one of my mentors that said well you know you're going to get the sort of client that you expect and that you accept. So if you keep saying yes to these people that's what you're gonna get more of. And so I made the decision to go out very respectfully and sack my first client to say this is not working for me. And from that moment it was a springboard to a whole different conversation to a better quality of client.

00:28:23:10 - 00:29:25:16

Paul: So we got to clear on who you want to work with. Who is your best an ideal client and start to target energy at them. And that way we can start to communicate what it is we do to them in a way that they will really relate to because we'll be talking in their language. Three is what is the framework process or system that you use to deliver success. What is your point of difference. We must find and be able to articulate our point of difference. And it's always possible to find a point of difference. But your point of difference must be meaningful it must aid the audience that you serve it must help them to create better outcomes to be able to accelerate what they do to be able to get something that they can't get with any body else. So we've got to find what that process is. But typically it's about building a framework or a process a way of doing what it is that you do. That really changes the game for people.

00:29:25:22 - 00:30:41:03

Paul: So remember you either saying yes and and adding to the conversation or yes but and being contrarian to the way it's been done in the past to create a meaningful point of difference between you and the competitors in the marketplace. It's the key to making sure that you are not commodities and having to battle for price but more about the value that you're able to deliver. Question 4 is about. Do you have evidence you've got to get busy collecting the social proof proof of the results that you're able to produce for clients and making sure that they are addressing the solving of a key problem and reflecting in as much detail as you can. The sorts of outcomes that you've been able to produce if you do this then you are going to be able to start to accelerate the number of people you pulled towards you because customers love to know that somebody else is getting the result and it becomes very attractive to work with somebody who's got a proven track record of creating the sorts of results they are looking to achieve. And the final question is have you got a clear call to action. Are you letting people know what they need to do next?

00:30:41:13 - 00:31:57:20

Paul: Is it clear what the pathway is for them to take and if it's not that you produce a really clean and clear pathway. If the question is do by now then make sure that on your website straight away in the top corner there is a buy now button that there's another one in the just on the fall. There's another one halfway down the page make it really clear if that's the goal then tell them to do that. Whatever your call to action is make sure that that's clear and not confusing people with what you want them to do. Remember confused minds never buy. So there you have it five critical questions that you need to be able to answer very quickly upfront in the mind of your prospective buyer. If you want to start winning more clients. So I hope that that's giving you some great ideas some value what I'd love is for you to go away and start implementing some of these ideas and then share with me the outcomes that you're producing. You know I've been working with and training and teaching entrepreneurs for over 15 years and these are some of the key strategies that have really helped them to skyrocket their ability to attract and convert more clients.

00:31:57:23 - 00:32:52:17

Paul: So I would love to hear back from you in terms of the results that you're getting by applying these strategies into your business. So I thank you very much for joining me again for another episode of the Marketers Club Podcast. It's my pleasure to put these programs together for you and I hope that they continue to deliver great value to you. I really appreciate you listening to program. I'm here to serve you and help you to grow the best business that you can. We'll be back next week with a really great episode for you. So make sure that you tune into next week and know that you're gonna get a lot of value out of the guests that I have lined up it's a fascinating conversation that's coming your way. But until then I just want to wish you all the very very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives. Until then take care.