How do you help people?

In your positioning statement, you need to explain how you help your target market.

This is where your specialisation really comes into its own. Because you’re a specialist, you get to know this market really well. You know what bothers them. You know the problems they have. You know what keeps them awake at night.

So when you say “I help X by doing Y” - and they’ve just spent the last two weeks fretting about Y - suddenly they’re going to come running to you.

I help really small businesses run like clockwork - especially when it comes to getting more sales in. This is because I’ve been there. In all my time consulting around software and IT, I hated the idea of doing sales. It was a chore, a weight around my shoulders. And I now know it doesn’t have to be that way, so I’d like to help others gain from what I have learnt.

For freelancers, it may be that they are always worried about where their next job is coming from - about “feast or famine”. So if you “help freelancers gain a steady income stream” then you’re going to be addressing one of their biggest fears.

For trades, it may be that they are fed up with working late every night managing quotes and paperwork. If you “help plumbers and builders get through their administration in half the time”, then you immediately push one of their buttons.

Of course, to get the right benefit means you need to know that market. But that’s why you specialise.

Take action: How do you help people? Not just what you do, but what fear, what pain do you address?