Why your messaging isn't working (and how to fix it)

Welcome back. It is good to see you. Last week I was reviewing some copy for a couple of clients. The copy that's on their websites and their videos and their emails and the things that they say when they meet people in person. These clients were having a hard time getting people to take the next step, to book those calls or whatever the next step was.

They were getting clicks, they were getting views, people were listening to them, but that next step was missing. After a couple of minutes of reviewing things, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. The copy was good, but they were doing something that almost every expert entrepreneur I work with does. And it absolutely kills sales. So on today's episode, I'm going to share with you the single biggest killer that impacts your messaging and what you can do to start fixing it today.

Most of us are in this business of selling what we know. We're excellent at what we do, we've built up years of experience, and we get results for our clients. But we know our topic so well that usually we see things from our perspective, not our clients. And that, my friend, that right there is what is killing your engagement and slowing down your sales. A potential client meets you, whether it be online or in person, they are thinking one thing and one thing only.

How can this person help me? Yes, your qualifications, your experience, they matter. But what matters more to that person in the moment is what you can do for them. This idea is nothing new. Dale Carnegie wrote about it in the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, way back in 1936.

If you haven't read the book or listened to it, it's it's worth a listen. There's some really good stuff in there. And almost 90 years later, the principles still hold true even with the advances of technology. Most of us, you see, we're walking around in our own heads. We see the world through our own lens, our own experiences shape everything.

I'm not saying we're self-absorbed, but we have a little self-importance, and that's what makes us human. So when a lot of the expert entrepreneurs out there write copy, make videos, run ads, even talk in person, they're coming at things from their own lens because it's what we know the best. The message comes out as everything they've done, their programs, their tactics, their features. And those are the easy things to talk about because, well, it's what we do every day and it's deeply personal to us. But the person on the other end doesn't really care about all that.

What they want is does this person understand me? And can they solve my problem? Those are the two questions that people who are coming to you, checking out your stuff, are looking for the answers to. Do they understand me? Can they solve my problem?

That opens the gate to further permission to engage. When somebody visits your website, they watch your video, they meet you, or they talk to you in person, your accomplishments, when they hear that coming out, it doesn't build connection when it's the first thing out of your mouth. Because they just want to know if you can help them. Your accomplishments and your certifications and your credentials, they're all important. They are, but it's used a little bit further down the line.

You should lead with a clear understanding of the person you're speaking to. What is their problem? The conversation that's going on in their head, what they're looking for, what they deeply care about. If you can get to that level and change your messaging to meet that, it's going to change how you show up in your business. It's going to change your whole entire world.

And to take it a step further, sometimes the people who you're talking to, they don't even know how to clearly articulate what they're looking for. They just know they have a problem. And if you can get to know their problem better than them, your messaging can actually give them clarity on what they want and what they need to move forward. And when you can do that, you've nailed your messaging and you're going to win a whole lot of customers and friends for life. In the sales world, there's this concept.

It's been around forever. It's an acronym. It's with them. W-I-I-F-M. It stands for what's in it for me.

If it's your first time hearing it, remember it because it's going to come up over and over. And if you heard it before, it's time to dust it off because the relevance is still here today. And the what's in it for me, the me, doesn't stand for you, the expert. The me stands for the person you're talking to. Remember this acronym because it keeps the lens on them.

So you that you show them that they understand them and their problem and how you can solve it. The difference seems subtle and a little cheesy at times when you say the whiff them, but it's a huge differentiator. Say I'm meeting somebody in person and they ask what I do. I could say, you know what, I run a 12-week sales training program. That's not a lie, it's the truth.

But the person on the other end is thinking, great, sales training, so what? Meanwhile, what's actually on their minds might be I keep getting people to just ghost me after that first conversation. They're not responding, they're not coming back to me, even though they said they would. So how do I stop people from standing me up and ghosting me on that endless follow-up? So instead of telling them that I run a 12-week program, I might say something like, I help coaches, consultants, and advisors turn interested people into paying clients and stop them from ignoring you.

That's a whole lot more engaging. The person goes, huh, they know, they know me and they know the problem I'm having. I just spoke to the exact person that they have. But to do that, you have to understand the audience. And the audience is where the foundation starts.

When you master speaking in your customer's language, you'll see a big difference right away. More people start leaning in, more conversations happen, and more people are interested in working with you. And they will tell your friends, they'll start telling people, like, hey, I met with this person. You need to have a conversation because there's something different. The really interesting thing is that a lot of the times they can't tell what was different, but they know something was different about you.

I've had it happen time and time again. The thing with messaging is that it is an art, it's not a science. There are steps and formulas to great messaging, but it's not something that you can learn once and you're done. Your messaging is always evolving. So if you're thinking right now, you know what, my messaging's all on my site, it's all done.

No, you can evolve it. And if you pick one thing up today and make a small improvement, it could have a huge impact on your business moving forward. But out of the entire marketing and sales mix, I believe that messaging is the most important and it's a foundational piece. And I've seen it time and time again. So, what are some things that you can start doing today to improve your messaging and make it more client focused?

Number one, this is an essential part to nailing your messaging. Number one is getting clear on who you're speaking to. When someone hears or sees your message the first time, they should immediately think, this is for me. Now, in our heads, we usually sell say, well, I want to work with everybody. I don't want to exclude anybody.

Yeah, it's great to want to work with everybody and not exclude people. But when you get specific, you attract the people who you can solve the problem for, not a bunch of tire kickers or people who are half interested. It helps you in the long run to know who you're speaking to. This podcast, I have all kinds of different people listening to it. However, the number one person that I'm speaking to is my coach, my advisor, and my consultant.

You are my expert entrepreneurs. And when I speak directly to you, people engage with me. And the people who are not those specific people, yes, some engage, but they're not the best people who, you know, benefit the most from the services that I offer. So step number one, get super clear on who you're speaking to. Rory Vaden of Brand Builders Group actually said it really well in a program that I took.

He said that when you're speaking to a camera or you're speaking to a group of people, you should be speaking to one specific person. If you know who that person is, speak to them. So when I'm developing content for my business, for my website or whatever it may be, I will think to a very specific client who I worked with. And I kind of put it through their filter. I think, would this talk to the problem?

Would this talk to the way that they speak in words so that everything is targeted to that one person? And when I get clear on speaking to that one person, it resonates with everybody else who's having that similar problem. Step number two, this is also a biggie. Once you're clear on your audience, it is making sure that you use simple language. Especially as experts, man, we get over the top complicated with some of our terminology, and it can confuse the heck out of people.

Even for me, I have talked to clients. I've actually had clients that I worked with, and I was talking terms like prospects and pipeline for a couple of sessions before somebody said, you know what, I really don't know what a prospect is. And I'm like, oh goodness, I am needing to go backwards to make sure that I keep this in simple terms because all of the jargon can get confusing. There is an exception to this. It's if your audience is already super technical.

If you work with engineers and they know the engineering jargon, go ahead and use it. But if you're working with an audience that's learning a new skill like sales or some kind of technology, AI, you know, financial literacy, whatever it may be, try to stay away from the industry terms and the jargon that doesn't make sense to anybody else because A, it can confuse them. And B, sometimes it kind of makes them feel like they're dumb or that this is not meant for them. And a lot of people won't put up their hands and say, hey, I don't understand. The best way to find simple language is to listen how your customers describe their problems and then use their words.

So if you're already out there working with people, listen to some of the things that they say, listen to some of the words they use, some of the phrases they use, and then start incorporating that into your messaging. You're gonna find a big difference. The third thing that you can start doing this week is lead with them and then back it up with your credentials. So you always want to start with speaking directly to them at the identity level and then the problem level. And after you have talked about them using the with them, the what's in it for me, then you can start justifying things and adding more of the why you.

You see, people decide whether or not they're going to work with you very early on. They need to be able to see themselves and what you know and what you offer, and then start justifying it. And the what you know is do you actually know what they're experiencing? This is why you'll never convince somebody to work with you. I have heard people say it.

I have heard sales leaders at companies say, you just need to convince them. But you will never convince somebody to work with you and have it be a good decision. Convincing somebody is a high pressure tactic. Yes, they might cave in under pressure, but in the long term, it's typically not good. What you want to do is have the person see a solution in you.

Then you can start talking about your credentials and experience and client examples and testimonials and all of that stuff. That helps justify it a little bit later in that messaging conversation. It's when you go to a website, you'll actually see this, right? The top of a really good website will talk about who it's for and the problem that it solves. And then it kind of talks about a little bit more about the problem that's going on inside of the person's head.

And then maybe it says, hey, here's how we're different. So it starts getting into a little bit more about how you do things, and then it will lead them through to a testimonial, which is a social proof. It's bringing them on a journey, but it starts with them and the problem and keeps the language super simple. Once you have shown that you understand the problem, you understand them and their challenges, and that you can actually help them, then you can start talking about the things that come easy to you, those user, those years of experience, your client testimonials, all of the nerdy technical stuff. That's what backs you up, but don't lead with them.

So the next time that somebody comes up to you at an event and they say, Well, tell me what you do, instead of saying, Hey, I offer an XYZ program and here's all the features and all the things, think about how does this connect with them and see if you can make it more about them so that they go, Oh my goodness, I feel heard. This person gets me. I want to learn more. I do want to make a quick note on AI because I know some of you right now have heard these three things and you've thought, great, I'm gonna chat, I'm gonna jump onto Chat GPT or Claude, and I'm gonna put in these three questions and I'm gonna have it just write my messaging. Full disclosure, I use AI on a daily basis and it helps me do things faster.

I can think through ideas, I can stay organized, all of that good stuff. Tools like Claude and ChatGPT, they are an awesome co-creator. But you should never expect them to create the final version because it will lack your twist, your personality, the depth and emotion that people need to engage with you. If you expect AI to do all the heavy lifting in your messaging, it will fall apart every time. I have seen it time and time again where I've read something and I go, huh, that was written by AI.

I've seen clients come to me with amazing emails, perfect word for word, but they have no emotion. And I know the client enough to be like, you know what? This is a great email, but it doesn't have your flair built into it. So when it comes to AI, you can use it, you can use it as a co-thinker in this kind of, you know, how do you get to your audience to what matters for them, all of those kinds of things, the words that they use, but don't rely on it to write your copy. When you do that, you're gonna start blending in with everybody else.

And at the end of the day, you are still the competitive advantage as the expert entrepreneur, and it's gonna keep you in business for the long term. So, to recap, the messaging is important. The messaging needs to be about your client first, then you can sprinkle in things about them. The takeaways for this week: number one is to get clear on who you're speaking to. If you're trying to speak to everybody, your message is going to just fall onto a bunch of people, a little bit of pieces here and there, but it's not going to attract the right people into your business.

Number two, use super simple language. You would want a 12-year-old to read the website or listen to it and go, you know what, I understand what they're doing. Don't use a whole bunch of jargon unless these people are already familiar with it. Number three, always lead with them and then back it up with what you know, your credentials, client stories, and all of that good stuff. From the experience that I have with the clients, we have already received feedback.

We've tested the messaging, we tested some website copy with some of their existing clients and prospects. The overall feedback was this is really clear. I can actually see how I could work with you. One person said, This actually sounds like you, and it's a whole lot more organized. Things like that, when you have your client saying, This sounds like you, this makes sense, I can see how I would work with you, you know, this stands out, this is different.

Maybe they can't quite figure out what's different, but it's different. That's the kind of stuff that's gonna bring clients into your world. That's the kind of stuff that's gonna create engagement, and it's gonna help you stand out in an increasingly noisy market where AI is writing things, and it's just not the quality of what your brand could represent. That is all I have for you this week. If you want to go deeper, I'd love to have a no pressure conversation.

Head on over to the website ashleyfrank.com. You can check everything out there. And until next week, get out there and keep on building your business.