Last week I said that for a “life-friendly business” you need to focus on selling something that people already know they want and that you don't have to convince them they need.

Life's just too short basically.

But if people don't immediately “get it” right now – does that mean you have to start again from scratch?

Usually not.

Sometimes it's just a matter of changing how you describe what you do so that they get it much quicker.

As experts, it's too easy to think that the big benefits of what you do are obvious. But to “normal” people, they rarely are. Time spent spelling out how what you do gives people what they really want is always time well spent.

Sometimes you can get to a “high want” product by narrowing down and focusing on one part of your offer or one specific problem you solve.

It takes a rare and enlightened business owner to wake up in the morning thinking “I wish I was a better leader”. But very many wake up wishing they didn't have such high staff turnover, or that their team would pull their weight more, or that meetings weren't so painful or…

Talk about the specific problems you solve, not about the generic skill you teach. Then when you've helped them and established trust, you can talk to them about bigger goals and opportunities.

Sometimes you can get to high want by re-using your skills to solve a different problem that's more front-of-mind. Or by using skills you have, but haven't offered to clients before.

I mentioned last week that early on in my own business I took the skills I'd built up in marketing and selling consulting services for the firms I'd worked for and started advising and teaching clients how to do the same.

And finally, you might find that a service that isn't high want for one type of client is high want for another.

When my wife Kathy first started her business offering training to nursery schools we assumed that the biggest demand would come from lower performing schools wanting to improve. So that's where we focused her marketing.

But it turned out that most low performing schools didn't really want to improve – I guess that's why they were low performing.

The schools who wanted to improve the most were the ones already rated as good or outstanding. They wanted to get even better – and we had much more success switching her marketing to focus on them.

Almost any business can be made more high want by asking yourself those 4 questions:

• Can I talk about my service differently to emphasise how it helps with something my clients already want?
• Can I narrow down and focus (initially) on the parts of my service they know they want, rather than the parts I think they need?
• Can I reuse my skills to offer a different service that clients are more aware they want?
• Can I focus on different clients who already know they want what I have?

Rather than getting frustrated with clients for not realising they need your help, ask those 4 questions to help you refocus on an easier path.