What are you really selling?

One of the great challenges in marketing is to work out what you're really selling. For example, I'm a professional lead generator. Technically, I could answer with any of the following...

• My years of experience in lead generation
  
• An approach that turns a site's visitors into leads
• A system that gets you serious business enquiries
  
• People ready to say 'yes'

They all amount to the same thing, yet that last one is far more compelling to most business people. The problem with the word 'lead' is that it's abstract in nature. What is a lead, exactly? Isn't that something detectives look for?

The phrase 'serious business enquiries' is certainly better, but too remote to have emotional impact. What my clients want to do is speak to people ready to say 'yes'. So that's what I offer in my business.

The same principle applies to any business. Clients never buy the product or service being sold. They buy the beneficial outcome of using that product. As soon as you have a handle of what your clients are buying, rather than what you're selling, you have the crucial ingredient necessary for successful lead generation.