What do you wish your audience knew that would unlock tremendous value for them?
Peter Thiel delves into secrets and contrarianism is his book Zero to One. Thoughts on Peter Thiel and his influence aside, I think he’s onto something with the notion that we should consider “what important truth do very few people agree with you on”?
This is better question than “what makes you different?”, because too many people answer that question with drivel like “I really believe in customer service.”
Hopefully, you do believe in customer service, but the problem is that everyone says that, so saying it doesn’t tell you anything. If you do think customer service is your differentiator, how could you demonstrate that by sharing a “secret”?
You might say something like, “75% of companies that invest in [our type of offering] never see any benefit because [drawback everyone knows about, but no one wants to admit]. I avoid that with [concrete service differentiation], so you get return on your investment.”
When you’re a solo consultant, coach, fractional, etc, you will have lots of people offering very similar services. Defining your niche by your “secret” is a way to force differentiation and polarization.
Your marketing is a magnet, and the strength of the magnet is equal, but opposite, at each pole. You cannot have a magnet that powerfully attracts your ideal prospects and doesn’t repel everyone else. That doesn’t work in physics and it doesn’t work in marketing. (The beauty of a strong magnet is not just the attraction for your ideal clients, but also the time saved from not dealing with folks who belong elsewhere.)
So what’s your “secret”?
Want some help crafting and sharing your secret? Join my webinar on November 19 at 11AM. Register here or click the image below.