What Do You REALLY sell? (It’s not what you think)

When a 50 year old man decides to buy a Ferrari, what is he really buying? It’s not the power of the engine or the design. It’s the looks he gets from his friends and from younger women because that makes him feel like he’s not really that old after all. Ferrari sells cars, but what they really sell is confidence.

Here’s another example: When an insurance salesman is discussing policies with you for your 16 year old son’s new car, is he really selling insurance? Nobody buys insurance, they buy peace of mind via insurance.

Wedding planning is one of those services that people buy to get something else. This is a huge question so take a minute to think about it:

What is your customer trying to achieve by hiring a wedding planner?

The answer to this question will depend on your business and who your ideal client is but it likely relates to peace of mind, time and avoiding stress. Humans spend a lot of energy trying to avoid pain and being stressed out is definitely one that most people try to avoid at all costs.

Once you know what the pain is, how do you fix it for them? Don’t speak in terms of features, instead focus on benefits.  You can get input from your previous clients, just email them and ask why they decided to hire a wedding planner and why they chose you. What problems were they facing when they came to you?

Once you know what those problems are, use them in your website and marketing copy to demonstrate that you understand your customers. You could write something like this that details the pain and then puts your business out there as the solution:

“You’re engaged and you are thrilled about it and you’re spending time thinking about all of the exciting possibilities there are for your wedding. You begin to realize that planning this wedding is going to be a lot of work and you have to fit it in somewhere between working 40 hours per week and spending time with your family. The idea of it is stressing you out a bit but you refuse to let this joyous occasion become a burden. Good news – we can help make planning your wedding an enjoyable and less stressful experience for you.”

Every business is different so think about why people hire you. If you don’t know, ask people who have hired you! The more you understand your customer’s motivation, the more you can speak to them about it in your marketing material.

Today’s post is a guest post from Heidi Thompson. Heidi is the founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business and a marketing maven for wedding pros who want to kick ass in business and get out of the dreaded feast or famine cycle of doom. She teaches these awesome entrepreneurial ladies and gents how to do amazing marketing on a tiny budget and create a consistent flow of leads because in business, it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do if no one knows about it. Heidi has put together some additional resources to help you here.