July 1, 2019

Success story from reader Daniel James

Sent by Jonathan Stark on July 2nd, 2019

In response to a message in which I asked “What do you do?”, reader Daniel James wrote in with this fabulous before/after transformation (shared with permission):

Hi Jonathan, I help music artists and record labels turn followers and casual listeners into regularly paying customers. I only started describing it this way since I started consuming your content however, before, I would have said “I design websites and setup sales funnels and email marketing for music artists and record labels.” Since I started using my new value prop I’ve got much better responses from potential clients. thanks! —DJ

What Daniel is doing in his new “What do you do?” answer is articulating the desired business outcome his clients can expect to receive INSTEAD OF talking about the activities that he engages in on their behalf.

This is a giant difference.

Daniel is connecting the dots for his ideal buyer. Instead of telling his potential client about the skills that he possesses (i.e., Daniel’s “features”), Daniel is telling his potential client how their business will be different after engaging with him (i.e., the “benefits” of hiring Daniel).

ASIDE: Am I making sense here? I can’t tell if this is blindingly obvious to most readers or if I have the curse of knowledge on this one.

Yours,

—J