Something that holds back many business owners is that they are concentrating so much on what they do, that they don’t focus on how to sell what they do.

Let’s say you’re the best brain surgeon in the world.  Is this a valuable skill? Did you answer yes?

If you did, let me ask you if the skill is truly valuable or the application of the skill is valuable.

To get a better focus on this, let’s ask this question.

If you’re the best brain surgeon in the world, but you don’t know how to get the word out about your skills, and you don’t have any patients…is being the best really helping anyone?  Being the best, doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t apply your skills to help others solve a problem, fill a need or accomplish a goal!

There’s a famous story about John Lennon where he said “Whenever we want one, I sit down and write a swimming pool.”  That means he could sit down and write a hit song any time he wanted and could buy a new car, house, plane or swimming pool.

Exactly the same applies in your business.  If you can get good at something and then develop the skill of communicating effectively to others what you do, you can also write yourself a swimming pool.

In order to do that, you must be able to speak to people in terms of what it means for them.

Bringing Your Difference to Life

Here’s a little exercise that brings that to life.

You take a stack of 3 x 5 cards and you begin to put one item, one feature, one fact about your business, product, or service; one idea, one theme or one item on each card.

Then you want to think in terms of all the features, all the benefits. Try to write a one sentence description of each one of those things as if you were going to write a headline for an advertisement about each one of those things; all the different ways that you could describe them. The more cards the merrier.

For example, to differentiate features from benefits, a feature of a dry cleaner would be same-day service. So on a 3 x 5 card, if you were building a case for a dry cleaner, you would write down "same day service.”

Now you also want to be able to translate that into benefits.

One benefit that might go on the next 3 x 5 card would be that you can drop your clothes off on the way to work in the morning and pick them up on the way home from work that same afternoon.

One of the features that a lawyer might have would be a free consultation, a no-cost consultation with a client.

Now the benefit statement that he might choose to make about that is that you can come in and have your questions answered, and determine whether or not you have a viable case or a good solution to your legal problem, without committing any funds and spending any money.

Often, chiropractors will offer a free consultation or a free exam.

The benefit statement about that is that we can determine whether or not your health problem can be helped with chiropractic before you commit to a treatment program.

When you do that, you give each feature meaning and you personalize it to the individual's need.

Now you’ve got the basis of a great message AND you’ve got something the market will respond to.

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This is an excerpt from my book, “9 Rules For Business Prosperity in the New Economy”.  The book may be purchased in both printed and Kindle editions at: http://arizonamarketingassociation.org/9-rules-business-prosperity/