Never start out your relationship with your customer teaching them what they need.  Your customers are only interested in seeing if you will be beneficial in helping them solve a problem or fill a desire they are already aware of.  

If you're trying to convince your potential customers you can help them solve a problem they don't know they have, they'll be out the door long before you've had a chance to prove you can be helpful.

Here are a few ad headline examples.  For these examples, I'll assume your target market is people already in the network marketing industry:

GOOD: Learn how to grow your downline.
BAD:  Help teach your potential clients how to sell.

GOOD: Learn how to sponsor more reps.
BAD:  Sell your customers the tools and coaching they need.

GOOD: Learn how to quit your day job.
BAD:  Learn how you can help other people so you can build a business around it.

GOOD:  Learn how to get more leads.
BAD:  Learn how to show your potential clients what you have to offer.

Make a list of the problems and desires your target market already knows they have.  When you're finished, you'll have a list of headlines for future marketing campaigns.

Only after you have demonstrated that you can help fix your client's initial problem, have you earned the right to teach your client what they may really need.  If you want to build long lasting solid relationships with your customers, it's essential that your services extend past your client's initial problems to fix your customer's real underlying problems. 

In your chosen field, you want to know your customers better than they know themselves.  You should be ready to continue solving their problems as they evolve with your products and services.  After all, you're an expert in your business, and you should be a couple steps in front of your client.  Here's an example for people in the multilevel marketing business:

The real problem most multilevel marketers face is not knowing what they value most in life, or how to make money spending their time doing what they love. If you're in the multilevel marketing business, this is the problem you'll want to eventualy help your clients solve. People end up building MLM businesses because they hate their day jobs. The only reason they hate their day jobs is they ended up in a field that doesn't match up with what they value. As you help your clients build their MLM business, this won't solve the underlying problem.

The real problem your client has is knowing what they value most so they can focus their time and efforts on having a meaningful life. If you started out your relationship with your client telling them to see a councilor to help identify what they value, they'd quit listening to you before you finished your first two sentences. So instead, you can help your client most by helping solve the problems they are aware of.

Initially your customer wants to know how to sponsor more reps, so you give them the tools and the coaching they need to start building their downline.  As your client evolves, you start to show them how to coach their downline members.  Eventualy your client will start to free up their time from their added MLM income and may be more interested in exploring alternative business ideas.  Now you'd want to help match up your client with a councilor who specializes in helping people identify their values. 

Try to continue adding meaningful value to your clients as they grow, and you'll reap the rewards.  It will also help you see a deeper meaning behind helping your clients solve their current problems.

What do your clients think they want, and what do they really need?  Please share in the comments below.

"If you don't like your job, why don't you just quit?",  I ask. 

You rebuttal with "Yeah, like it's really that easy.  I need to pay my mortgage, feed my family, and make the car payment.  If I quit my job, I'll loose everything I have... and my family will be homeless."

"Why not replace your income when you quit your job?  Wouldn't it make more sense if you work on replacing your income first, and then quit your job?", I probe.

"Of course." you respond, "If I knew how to replace my income I would have already done that."

"You don't know any other ways of making money?  You must not be looking very hard...  or at least you havn't found anything that seems like it would be better than the crappy job you already have.  Does that sound accurate?"

"Of course I know of other ways to make money, but like you said, they are even worse than my current job, or they require skills I don't have." You exclaim.

"Now we're getting some where." I think to myself and reply, "Why don't you start working on getting the skills to do something you would enjoy more?"

And here is where the light bulb starts to turn on and you start to realize your REAL dilemma, reponding with: "I don't know for sure what I would rather do to make money.  There are so many options, and most of them require a lot of time, money, and energy to get started with.  What if I pick something new, go through all of the work to gain my new skills and then hate that job too!?!" 

and I reply with "So it sounds like you have started to realize your problem isn't your current job.  It's actualy your lack of knowing what it is that you really want to do with your life." 

and you relpy with a resounding "YES!  That's it.  My real problem is not knowing what would really make me happy.  If I only knew FOR SURE what direction I should go, I could start making some real improvements to my current work situation."  and as you continue to think you say to yourself:

"This may be a deeper issue than I thought.  Maybe my root problem is more about figuring out the purpose and meaning in my life than it is about my crappy job.  Maybe my crappy job is just a symptom of the real problem."

Would this conversation have gone differently if you and I were speaking to each other?  What part would have been different?  Please comment below.

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