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7thWave AI Assistant

I used to be a community development worker and one of the lessons I took a long time learning is the uselessness of most solutions.  I would read about some project and think their approach would be ideal for the community I was working in.  As reality dawned I coined my first rule of community development, “Most things don’t work!” 

As this truth dawned I became alert to declarations of intent such as “Chris we need a website!”  It’s always worth asking, “What for?”  This is one example of people approaching you with a solution.  What is the problem this website is going to solve?

Over the last ten years, I’ve heard hundreds of 60-second pitches and it’s common to be offered a solution.  You may be a highly qualified hypnotherapist but to this day I’m not entirely sure what problems hypnotherapists solve and whether I have any of those problems.  I had a problem that I eventually found out could be solved by an Independent Financial Advisor.  If only I’d known that 3 years earlier.  How can I put this?  The market doesn’t need to know your qualifications, at least not at the start of your relationship with them.  If someone asks it means they are interested and possibly close to buying. 

Solutions are like building on sand, they’re not a foundation for anything.

Think of solutions as the scaffolding and tools of the construction workers who make a start once the foundations are in place.

So, what are the foundations?  They are the problem you solve.  Note this is a single problem.  You may be more than capable of solving multiple problems but you can’t market multiple problems. 

Let’s return to the hypnotherapist.  Choose what you plan to market.  Do you specialise in insomnia or smoking cessation?  Or something else?  Choose one and market that.  You market solely to your primary market, let’s say people with insomnia.  Every other problem is your secondary market.  You never mention them but should someone ask you can either agree to help them or refer them to another hypnotherapist who specialises in their problem.  Referrals are better for two reasons.  First, if you specialise in insomnia you will know less about other problems.  If you market your speciality you will likely meet other hypnotherapists who specialise in other problems.  And so, second, by referring them to other hypnotherapists you promote your chosen solution, refer them to a specialist in their problem and encourage a climate of co-operation between hypnotherapists.  I’m sure this already happens.

By specialising in insomnia, you will gain experience beyond your qualifications and deepen your understanding of what it is and its implications for the sufferers and those around them.    In time you’ll build a reputation not as the best hypnotherapist but as the expert in treating and supporting insomnia sufferers. 

The problem is the foundation for your business and you build on it initially through qualifications and increasingly through experience.  The nature of expertise is understanding the problem.  Your stories should be problem-focused, whether about personal experience or case studies based on past clients.

This is the thirteenth in a sequence of posts about business storytelling.  The first post was Marketing: Art or Science?  The last post was Realisation in Stories and the fourteenth post will be Building on Business Foundations.

To try out one of your business-related stories and receive feedback from me plus a few other business owners, please comment below to arrange an informal conversation.  I run these sessions free of charge on the second and fourth Thursdays.  Visit my website to find out about the Telling Stories Autumn meetings.

 Minerva designed and built this elaborate owl house on the beach.  I'm not sure what happened to it.  Minerva assures me it is exactly how she planned it.  The owls seem to like it.