How often have you found yourself working with a client who isn’t totally perfect for your business? Do you know the type? They sound great at the start, but then it just doesn’t work out for the best. It’s really no one’s fault – they just weren’t ideal clients in the first place.

But how can you tell, from an initial conversation, if they are right for you? Or if you are right for them? It’s all about the language that they use. In this blog, we’ll look at how to listen to their language.

Last December I held an online party for the launch of my new book, StandOut Strategies. (Yes, I was sitting at the pool bar in a hotel in Costa Rica!)

In the Q&A session, one of the questions I was asked, was “How can I use the best StandOut Strategy for my business to identify my ideal clients?”

The answer I gave was “Listen to the language they use, when you speak to them.”

In the competitive world of business and marketing, the ability to understand what a potential client is really looking for in a supplier is essential. The StandOut Strategies are a method I’ve devised to help businesses truly differentiate themselves. The spoken language of potential clients serves as a vital tool in this assessment. Whether you’re speaking to someone at a networking event, or you’re on a sales call with a prospect, the words they use can reveal important insights into whether or not they’re a good fit for your business. This personalised understanding simplifies the process of finding and keeping your ideal clients – completely aligning what you deliver with what your clients want. No more taking on the wrong clients!

Central to the StandOut Strategies is the focus on emotional triggers – emotional words and phrases that clients use. By actively listening to the language spoken by your potential clients, you can identify which of the five StandOut strategies resonate most with them: Certainty, Connection, Contribution, Growth or Significance. Your business will have one of these five strategies, which will be the best one for you to use to promote it. When a prospect uses the language of the strategy that you use to promote your business – you have the perfect match!

For instance, a prospect frequently talking about their need for security and reliability in a supplier will align with the Certainty strategy, looking for a dependable service rather than one that offers sudden innovations or risks. If the StandOut Strategy of Certainty is the one you use to promote your business – you have the perfect match!

Are You Really Listening?

When talking to a prospect, it’s really important that you pay attention to specific words and phrases they use, that will tell you how they want to feel, when working with suppliers of your service. During a sales call, listen for words that signify a demand for empowerment, excitement and innovation, if the strategy you use in your business is Growth. Or feelings such as impact, respect and recognition, if Significance is the strategy you use.

At a networking event, a conversation about recent experiences can give you clues. Someone expressing a need to feel connected may repeatedly mention their desire to belong to a community, pointing toward the Connection strategy as their underlying priority.

Listening out for and recognising these verbal cues will help you to align your marketing efforts with how potential client want to feel; it is also about pre-qualifying prospects. By understanding what they are looking for, you can determine their suitability as a client for your business. A mismatch between your service and their spoken interests may suggest that they are not an ideal client for your business. Politely step away and focus your efforts on more promising leads.

The practice of listening extends beyond marketing and sales. It helps you to foster deeper connections with your clients, allowing you to consistently deliver the service that they expect. The spoken language of your potential clients is a really valuable indicator of their underlying needs. Identify the best StandOut Strategy for your business (Take the Test for free here) and you can listen out for the right language to pre-qualify prospects. No more wasted time and money chasing clients who are wrong for your business. Take the Test and I’ll send you a list of the emotional words you can use in your marketing and in your conversations with potential clients.

Are You Listening to Me?

We were in one of our local pubs and my partner was chatting another customer, recounting a tale of a visit to a different establishment, with one of his clients.

“We walked into the bar and were greeted by a young man who just said, “What do you want?”

My partner and his client were both shocked. The client replied, “To leave and go somewhere else.” So that’s what they did.
When it was my partner’s turn to be served at the bar, the landlord, who had obviously been listening to this conversation, looked at him and said, “What do you want?” with a big grin.

We all fell about laughing! This from a landlord who knows exactly what’s going on in his pub. He knows who is next in line at the bar. He knows who is a local and who isn’t. He has an ear to multiple conversations. And he makes everyone feel welcome.

Listening is a skill that all business owners need to develop. When you become good at listening, you’ll find it so much easier to have great conversations with ideal prospects, which will help you turn them into ideal clients.