May25
What’s the Crack in Your Client's Windshield?
Last spring I took a trip to one of my favorite Oregon cities, Ashland. Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and all kinds of delightful—and sometimes odd—cultural activities. I caught a couple of plays with my kids, enjoyed colorful street performers, and ate (too much) at the array of wonderful restaurants the city has to offer.
On the way home, however, a huge semi-truck sped past me, spraying gravel on my windshield. A star-shaped chip appeared in my line of sight, and, by the time I got home, a crack stretched across the entire windshield.
This is what marketers call a trigger event: a series of activities that initiate a buying decision. In my case, a rock hit my windshield, and I arrived home in need of auto glass repair. Fortunately, I have a friend who owns a glass repair shop, Smith Glass, and Bryan’s staff took care of exactly what I needed.
Every business must ask itself, however, this critical question: What’s the crack in your client’s windshield? In other words, what are the series of events that lead them to see their need for the products and services you provide?
For most businesses, trigger events aren’t as obvious as a crack in a windshield, but they exist nevertheless. Identifying them and talking about them on a regular basis is a key to marketing success.
The challenge is: many of our prospective clients may not even see the crack in their windshield. They’ve lived with the crack for so long that they’ve become numb to the obstruction. It’s our job to help them honestly, gently, and firmly see the obstruction and alert them to the dangers of continuing to drive with it.
One of the best ways I’ve seen this done is offering a free up-front assessment to potential customers. Here are some examples:
- For a web designer, a free website evaluation
- For a heating and cooling company, a free energy audit
- For a business travel agency, a free travel expense review
- For a painting contractor, a free exterior home inspection
- For a marketing firm, a free ad impact audit
- For a coach, a free personality profile
- For an insurance agent, a free coverage review
On and on I could go. All of these tools educate a prospective client about the crack in their windshield and initiate a buying decision. Even better, it focuses the sales process on helping a person solve a problem that could ultimately hurt them, rather than persuading a total stranger to spend a ton of money.
What could you offer for free that would help prospective clients see clearly their need to use your products and services?
