It’s a pickle for good people the world over – the more skilled you become in your business, the worse your marketing tends to be. The deeper your expertise, the harder it becomes for you to explain it simply and compellingly.

Now, lest you misunderstand me, this is not an article that justifies sporadic or substandard marketing. Nor am I saying that all struggling small businesses must have a genius at their helm. You may be terrible at what you do and your marketing is equally shoddy. How would I know?

What I do know, after 15 years of working closely with business owners on their marketing, is that the more qualified, experienced and competent owners become, the more chance that their marketing will be ineffective. Bland. Beige. Copycat. Invisible.

No-one wants to get stuck with the geek at a party

Imagine you’re at a party, doing that awkward shuffle of meeting new people. The group sits down to dinner and you quickly realise that you’re stuck with a geek.

Not the hipster, on-trend, tech-savvy geek. I’m talking the one-subject-matter-geek. The dude that believes everyone else is as equally fascinated as they are by nano technology/homesteading/Apple products/the Ukraine/sloths.

The more expert you become in your field, the more likely you will become this geek.

Before you get defensive, consider this:

  • Could you get your grandmother excited by your work?
  • Can you transform a 13 year old from indifferent to interested in your work?
  • Could you speak to someone about what you do with someone who has a poor grasp of English?

Nobody cares about the recipe – they just want cake

Chefs often publish recipe books, giving away their award-winning recipes – the same recipes that cost a bomb, and require a wait time of several months to secure a booking – for a song. People buy the books. And then they book into the restaurant anyway.

Nobody cares as much about your business process as you do. You’re in the trenches every day, tweaking, adjusting course, seeking feedback, making incremental, continuous improvements to the process of your work.

And when you go to market your business, naturally you focus on exactly what you do, and how, that gets amazing results. But people don’t care about your process.

They want the results – the cake. They’re seeking a transformation: to where they currently are to where they want to be.

Your outcomes are not self-evident

As business owners who’ve put in the hard yards to become experts in our field, we see a broader picture of our clients’ and prospects’ situations that they can’t see.

The longer we’ve been doing what we’re doing, the more we believe that the benefits or outcomes of our offerings are self-evident. They’re not.

Better marketing builds the bridge towards transformation

Our prospects and clients are very familiar with their current situation. And they may well be very articulate about where they’d rather be. The missing piece is the bridge to get them there. That’s where we come in.

We have the bridge that will give people the transformation they seek. Our offerings are the bridge. Our prospects aren’t nearly as interested in how we construct this bridge as they are in what awaits on the other side.

It’s our clients decision ultimately to buy – to decide that they’re ready to make the transformation and that you’re the guide who’ll get them there.

But they won’t be able to buy if you can’t explain simply, paint pictures in people’s minds about what’s on the other side and help them appreciate that indecision is a decision too.

Do you want more from your business? Time for transformation – time for the Hustle & Heart program.