…to build deep understanding of your clients.

The better you understand their hopes, fears, dreams, problems, issues, goals and aspirations; the better able you are to “speak to them” directly and meaningfully in their own language.

I wrote about this in a blog post a while back, using the lyrics of Lori Lieberman's song “Killing Me Softly” to illustrate the power of really speaking to your clients and prospects in ways that show deep empathy and understanding.

In many ways it's more important to showcase your understanding than anything to do with your expertise, credentials or other types of brilliance.

As leadership guru John C Maxwell said: “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

Sometimes it's expressed in the simple things. For example, I always talk about clients rather than customers. Since my clients are primarily consultants, coaches or people in the professions and that's the language they use – it makes me feel like an insider.

Sometimes building a deeper level of understanding can effect the whole way you do your marketing.

I certainly found that when I took the time to talk to clients personally, and survey them about their major frustrations a number of years ago. It turned out that many people wanted to know more about the way I market myself online and how they could do something similar.

I hadn't really put much thought into it back then. But it led to me to focus more in Momentum Club on online marketing and that's proved to be a winning formula that's helped members get great results themselves.

So how do you build up that deep understanding yourself?

The secret is to immerse yourself in your client's world. Talk to clients, ex-clients and prospects frequently about what they do and what gets in their way (in your field).

If you can, carve out the time spend a “day in the life” of your clients. Shadow them. Watch the challenges they face. You'll discover many things you can really help with that they didn't think of themselves.

You can also go a long way just by thinking in the right way. The trick is to get into specifics.

Build a “pen picture” of your ideal client. Who are they? What do they do? What motivates them? What frustrates them? What are their big problems and issues? What are their greatest hopes and ambitions?

My method for doing this in a systematic way is here:

Customer Insight Mapping

The more of these questions you're able to answer, the better you'll understand your clients, and the more effective your marketing will become.