Before anyone will call you about your services, they have to know you’re there.

My friend, Connor, tells a story about a tree limb that fell on his lawn. His wife, Judy, concerned that the neighborhood children could get hurt playing on it asked him to call someone to cut it up and haul it away.

Even though Connor makes his living on the phone, he never could seem to find the time to make that call. Week in and week out, Judy would ask him to do something about the dead tree limb in their front yard and week in and week out, Connor didn’t get to it.

One Saturday morning, two months later, Connor was standing in his front yard looking at the dead tree limb when he spied a truck across the street with a sign that read “Tree Surgeon.”

Connor crossed the street and spoke to the man in the truck, who agreed to cut up the tree limb and haul it away for $200.

“That night,” Connor tells the story, “this tree guy is in the bar telling everybody what a great salesman he is, because he’s going to make money on the wood and would have done the removal job for $100.”

“What he doesn’t know,” Connor continues with a smile, “is that I would have paid him $300 at that point just to have Judy stop complaining about it.”

Connor’s need to remove the tree had been building, but the tree surgeon in his story was hired because Connor saw his sign on the truck across the street—not because he was the best tree surgeon, not because he had the best price, but because Connor saw him and knew he offered a service Connor needed.

You can put on a suit, get into your luxury car, and head off to the office with your briefcase, and people you see every day will still have no clue what you do or who you help.

It might not be appropriate to wear a name tag that identifies you as a chiropractor or a sign on your car that says you’re an attorney, but if you don’t have a way to let people know what you do…well, let me put it this way…Connor won’t walk over to you to find out if you can help him.

What you need is an "audio billboard," a way to tell people what you do that conveys two messages:

~Who you work with; and
~What core problems or needs they have that you have solutions for

I work with professionals, sales professionals and entrepreneurs who are great at what they do but are struggling to find enough of the right kinds of clients. Who do you work with and what do they need that you can supply?

Author's Bio: 

Sandy Schussel, the “More Clients” coach, is a speaker, sales trainer, and coach, and the author of Become a Client Magnet: 27 Strategies to Boost Your Client-Attraction Factor. Read more about him at www.brassringcoaching.com or contact him to schedule a conversation about how he can help you or your organization grow your business(sandy@brassringcoaching.com).