Blessed are They That…

If you want to learn how to talk to customers, read the Sermon on the Mount.

Why?

Because it demonstrates the importance of communicating a vision and stressing benefits over features.

And is the complete opposite of how most business owners communicate what they do or offer.

The Sermon has several statements or beautitudes in the format of…

Blessed are they <Current Situation> for they will be <Benefit that will transform them>.

Example: Blessed are the meek (current situation) for they will inherit the Earth (Benefit and transformation).

Simple, Powerful, and easy to understand.

Most businesses however would communicate it as such:

“Blessed are the strength challenged for they shall obtain the following:

Earth a third planet from the Sun and the only place known in the universe where life has originated and found habitability. Very Easy for BBQs – Bring your Mother In Law.

And if you act now.. you also get to feel…

1.The Earth’s sustaining liquid surface water. Unlimited Swimming.

2.Access to several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. – Much better than your current AI Art solution.

3. Priority Queue to the Earth’s liquid outer core and see how it generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of Earth and deflect destructive solar winds.” – No need to bring an umbrella.

I’ll take inheriting the earth any day over magnetic selfies…

If you understand what your customers want, then you just need to talk to them in a way that they’ll listen.

Boring them to death with features will not do that.

And features are boring when not communicated in the proper time and place.

Think of the different things we buy. What are we truly buying?

Fire Alarm. Are we buying because of the battery, the plastic coating, the circuitry, and the high pitch alarm when it goes off?

No of course not.

We’re buying peace of mind knowing that if a fire starts, we’ll be warned quickly and have the time to get our family out before the roof collapses.

But we don’t want an alarm that goes off all the time and gives us false alarms.

Then it becomes disconnected because the loud alarm feature has become a curse.

And so the product is disabled…

But many fire alarm sellers end up focusing on price discounts and random features, while neglecting the full solution to the core desire of providing security and avoiding false alarms.

And so customers disable them.

To give another example.

One of my favourite client engagements was with an event planner. This company ran events of all sizes and one of their businesses offerings was providing musical entertainment to restaurants.

When I asked what made them superior – they answered their musical talent.

So we went through our differentiation exercise to identify the core desire their customers wanted and what their solution provided.

Core Desire: To fill the tables with patrons so the restaurant does not sit empty, go bankrupt, and the owner end up feeling like a failure to his family and community.

Client Solution and Benefit: Provide the owner peace of mind by helping him fill his seats with the perfect ambience so patrons eat and come back.

It’s a much different message.

And it’s not about the music. It’s about meeting the customers where they really are (even if they don’t admit it) and creating the solution that addresses that deeper need.

In short, Real benefits over features.

For clients who feel heard, understood, and became even more confident to work with you.