Do You Know What Your Clients Want?

I (Suzanne) was recently engaged in a thread in a training group on Facebook.  My contribution was to suggest that the person who started the thread avoid using a shock collar on her dog.  I referred her to several other trainers in her area.  After reading one person’s website, she replied to me that she thought this trainer had described her dog perfectly and couldn’t wait to talk to her about scheduling an appointment.

Wow.  What a powerful reaction.  This dog owner changed her mind because she believed the information on the website spoke directly to her.  This trainer apparently knows her audience very, very well.  She knows what they want and she has found a way to put that into words that speak to her potential clients.

That’s an important take home message and a good exercise to undertake.  If you get stumped writing promotional materials for your business, or encouraging people to use your services rather than someone else’s, here’s one way you can get “unstuck”.

  1. Write down the concerns you hear from clients repeatedly.  “I can’t have him ruining my rugs!”
  2. Write down their fears, and what they are worried about. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to keep him!”
  3. Write down what their expectations are. “I just want him to listen to me!”
  4. Write down how they describe their dogs.  “He’s a great dog 90% (or 99%, or 95%) of the time”.

Then write how you are going to address those fears, those concerns, and how you’ll meet their expectations.  Use those dog descriptions to talk about the types of dogs you work with and have helped successfully.

People are less likely to respond positively to you if they feel they are being lectured.  Because we are passionate about what we do, we want to get OUR messages across.  But attracting clients and successfully helping them isn’t about US, it’s about THEM.  They want to feel you understand THEIR dog and THEIR problem and how THEY feel.

Another way to say this is you must enter the conversation in your potential client’s mind.  Instead, we often try to convince them to enter the conversation in OUR minds.  Think about a service business you used recently that impressed you.  Why did you like them?  Why would you do business again with them (or why not).  Then take those same traits or behaviors that attracted you to that business and apply them to your own.

Was this a helpful idea?  If you think it was, you’ll be interested in the course “Professional Business Tactics for Behavior or Training Business” available at Pet Pro Webinars that has more strategies and tips to help you increase your referral business.

Even better – the Business Tactics course is available as a member benefit to members of Behavior Education Network who regularly receive discounts on all our courses.  So think about joining us.

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