Start With A Problem Worth Solving

Every successful business solves a key problem in their customer’s lives. If you think about all the problems you face each day on a micro-level, you start to realise that without our inherent thirst to eliminate the obstacles in our lives, the human race may not be the evolutionary success it has been. 

Think about how difficult our lives would be if we had to put the key in our car doors rather than opening the door remotely!  Or if we had to wash lettuce in our hands rather than in a salad washer!

Problems are the obstacles to our dreams, of a perfect life and this is why we crave unique and innovative solutions to them. But universally, people will connect first with the problems they have, rather than the solutions you offer.

Businesses that connect with their clients understand this. They understand that acting like a shining light that steers their customers from problems to a better life will help them win.

Apple is one of the best examples of this because the transformation of their company is so well documented. When Apple first launched they went toe to toe with Microsoft as the high-tech computing solution. They spoke about all the things their computer could do, how powerful it was and how much better it was than Microsoft computers. Sure they had some success, but it was limited, as Microsoft already was doing an incredible job at solving this problem.

It took the well-documented return of Steve Jobs to identified a problem worth solving; people didn’t want a computer science degree to use this technology, they didn’t want to be geeks, they wanted devices that looked cool and saved them time. Thus was born one of the most iconic ad campaigns of all time, the geeky Microsoft guy vs the cool Apple guy.

Businesses that struggle generally speak too much about the solutions they provide and not enough about their customer’s deep problems. Actually, let me rephrase that… 

Businesses that struggle generally speak too much about themselves and not enough about their customers.

If you’re a business owner ask yourself these three questions:

1. How well do I know my customer’s problems?

2. Does my solution or service solve this problem?

3. How could I solve their problems more specifically and efficiently?

This should help you get to a problem worth solving. An invaluable resource that will help your buyers connect to your business. 

If you want to make your communications and marketing easy in your business, spend 6 months exclusively talking about your customer’s problem/s. Every email you send, piece of content you create, every sales message you deliver and especially anytime you talk face-to-face with a customer, use the problem you have identified as your inspiration.

If you don’t, it will cost you more money than anything else in your business.