Get customers to buy quickly

Read time: 4 min, 29 sec

Hey there 👋 - it's Brian.

In the past few months, 25+ founders and small business owners asked me to help them get more customers.

They all came to me with one problem: they put time and money into marketing their business online, but customers aren't buying.

And they weren't sure why
• Landing pages aren't converting?
• Direct sales not closing deals?
• Emails aren't getting replies?

All they know is they look at their bank statement and the cash they expect, isn't there.

So today, I'll walk you through the most common problem causing customers to not buy online and give you tactical steps to increase your sales.

The most common reason customers don't buy from you online

These 25 founders/business owners had a wide range of businesses (from a $100M SaaS company to a $500k consulting firm), but they all had the same core problem:

Potential customers weren't sure how their solution was the best way to solve their problem.

Customers weren't sure the solution was for them! It stopped potential sales dead in it's tracks. The worst part?

The business owner had no idea.

But they could tell there was something wrong. They spent more on marketing and the traffic wasn't converting to cash:
• Landing pages didn't get more customers
• Paid ads weren't driving traffic
• Direct sales weren't closing

So here's a harsh truth:
If potential customers aren't immediately clear why you have the best solution to their problem - your marketing is useless.

Instead, you need to understand ONE customer's pain and let them know how your solution is the best at solving that pain.

So let's clarify your messaging:

How to make customers clear your solution solves their problem (so they buy quickly):

The overall goal is to clearly explain how you have the...
• best solution...
• for ONE specific problem...
• that ONE specific customer type has.

Here are the 3 steps: 👇

1) Find 1 customer need to focus on
Goal: Focus on the one customer pain the hurts the most - to adjust your messaging to make customers feel you're solving THEIR pain.

This means we want to find a problem that frustrates your customers so much that they've tried other methods to solve the problem - but still aren't satisfied.

Your customers probably have a few reasons to use your solution. So talk to customers to learn the different reasons and focus on the one you can solve better than anyone.

BUT - if you don't carefully word your interview questions your customers may give you misleading answers (leading to you creating messaging that doesn't convince them to buy).

Use these customer interview questions to get responses you can use to find out which needs to focus on.

2) List the customer's alternative solutions
Goal: Know what else the customer could do to solve their pain, so you can clearly explain how your solution is their best option.

List out the customer's other options to solve their problem. Including:
• Direct competitors (previous article on different competitor types)
• Solutions they've tried in the past
• The solution they use today

You'll hear about these options in your customer interviews from the previous step (from questions #4 and #5 in the customer interview guide). You can also find them by researching blogs, review services (like G2), or asking ChatGPT.

Find the strengths of weaknesses of each alternative solution:Now you have a list of alternatives. Your goal is to make sure the customer quickly understands how your solution is their best option. So that means we need to know the strengths/weaknesses of the alternatives.

Here's a few resources to help you find out:
• Competitor's websites
• Customer interviews
• Review websites
• ChatGPT
• Articles

Then, be honest about your own strengths / weaknesses:
• What do your customers love about how your solution solves their problem?
• What do your customers complain about?

Steal this simple template to help you plot your strengths/weaknesses against the customer's other options.

3) Communicate how you're the best solution to customer problems
Goal: Be clear on how your solution is the customer's best option to solving their problem.

Questions you need to answer:
• What customer are you targeting? What are their needs?
• What pain does that customer have?
• What alternative solutions does your customer have?
• How is your solution better for your target customer than any other option?

The answers to these questions will be mentioned in different ways in your marketing channels. Get these answers and we'll use them in next week's issue to show you how to put them in your marketing.

In the meantime, here's an example to help you start today and make customers clear how you have the best solution for their pain: 👇

 🔎 Case Study: Wake Up Water

Let's use the company Wake Up Water as an example. They provide flavored, electrolyte caffeine powder.

The founder is a friend of mine, but I haven't spoken to him about his strategy so I'm making assumptions.

1) What customer needs are they targeting? People who...
• need energy while at the gym
• need to focus at their desk job
• need to focus on their school-work
• need to mix multiple supplement powders

The list goes on. Let's assume their customers tell them the most common need we're solving for is "need energy at the gym."

2) What alternatives do gym go-ers have for energy at the gym?
• Energy pills (including caffeine)
• Pre-workout
• Coffee

3) How is Wake Up Water better for gym-goers at helping them get more energy?
• Energy pills: Less control over the dosage. Wake Up Water's powder gives you control over how much you take
• Pre-workout: Mix of ingredients gives you less control. Wake Up Water has fewer ingredients
• Coffee: Hard to transport. Wake Up Water can fit in a water bottle

4) Choices
In each section above, you choose which angle you focus on.

There's no single right answer - each one has a different approach to getting customers. Choose the angle that resonates the most with your customers and that you have a unique advantage to win. (For more on unique advantages see how Steve Jobs and Netflix found their advantage)

One answer for Wake Up Water could be:
Wake Up Water helps people who need energy at the gym. These gym-goers prefer caffeine, but they want a solution that hydrates them while they workout.

Now imagine if you had this level of clarity for your business.

It's much easier to find where these people are to create traffic (promote at gyms, work with health influencers, create health content on hydration).

And much easier to speak to their pains, frustrations, and desires to convert them to customers.

And that’s a wrap

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian

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