The physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton is believed to have said: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity and not in the multiplicity and confusion of thing.” While you probably won’t find ‘multiplicity’ in the plain English playbook, aiming for simplicity within your business and the services you offer could provide you with the jump on your competition.
Moreover, the easiest way to test the simplicity of your offer, is to consider whether you could explain your services to a five year old? As a writer, it’s relatively easy for me to show my children an article or a blog I’ve written for Professional Planner or Money, and say, “See what daddy did?” There’s often a picture of dad (me) attached to the article and a byline. There’s usually a momentary flicker of interest, before the disenchantment takes hold that I’m not the next Andy Griffith, and there’s zilch in my yarn about multi-level treehouses.
As any parent will tell you, five year olds expect a clear, straightforward, one sentence answer to any question they pose. Therefore, could you sum up your services in one sentence if Jack, Harry, Abbey or Lucy asks? Sounds simple right? But think about it this way: you’re a financial planner but, financial planning is not what you’ll deliver to your clients. The end game could be a comfortable retirement, a seamless exchange of assets after a relationship breakdown or some extra cash to see the children through private school tuition.
Jack of all trades, master of none
No matter whether it’s mortgage broking, manufacturing, retailing or financial planning, it’s often hard to distinguish between competing businesses. Without service clarity, you run the risk of being unable to set yourself apart from your competitors. For example, you might be an excellent financial planner, well credentialed, educated, and experienced. However, if your offering isn’t well defined, you’ll end up drowning in a sea of similar offerings.
Lack of clarity has a knock-on effect to your marketing. You become generic in your messaging, struggle to identify who your ideal clients are, and generally sub-par results will follow.
Without clarity, you can then fall into the trap of trying to do too much. Take a look at your website. Is your dropdown menu cluttered with long lists of different services? How many of those services do you actually sell, or would you actually be able to deliver if a client asked? Hey, don’t feel bad, I’ve fallen into this trap myself in the past. In some cases, being a “jack of all trades, master of none” can be a real problem, especially for small businesses, unless you have demonstrable experience and capability in all of those areas.
What can I do to review my offering?
There are a few key points that can help deliver some commercial clarity. These include asking yourself the following questions:
1. What services do my clients want? Making your offering compelling to prospective clients is important, and is Product Marketing 101. Think about why a client would be interested, and if you can’t, then bin it! Or, if it is the right offering, is it presented in such a way that it doesn’t make sense to a client? If it isn’t simple, then it’s time for a change
2. Can you deliver? Avoid listing services that you cannot deliver – it will only confuse your overall offering, and potentially alienate potential (and existing) clients
3. Can you back it up? In other words, can you give prospective clients a reason to believe in your business and its services? If you can demonstrate through past experiences that you can meet the client’s financial brief, then it’s a strong offering and worth promoting enthusiastically
4. Can you make it simple? If your offering is too complex and difficult to communicate, chances are your clients will see it this way too and look elsewhere.
Reviewing the clarity of your service offerings on a regular basis is a must for business owners. And if you make the effort to strip out the confusing elements from your offering, you’ll be well-placed to create some valuable marketing messages, which will resonate with clients, and keep the till ticking over.
