Results, not effort — Kelford Labs Daily

“The most frequent reason for unsuccessful advertising is advertisers who are so full of their own accomplishments (the world’s best seed!) that they forget to tell us why we should buy (the world’s best lawn!)”

— John Caples, Tested Advertising Methods, 1932

As the old Ted Levitt saying goes, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

Customers don’t care about our inputs—the amount of effort or energy we put into our product or service.

At least, not directly.

What they care about are the outcomes we’re uniquely able to create because of those inputs.

So instead of just telling people what it is we do, better to demonstrate to them the outcomes they can expect from working with us. That’s not some vague aspiration, though. It’s the direct, clear, and demonstrable result they’ll get from working with us.

It’s the thing they’re ultimately buying.

My clients, for instance, aren’t buying the time, energy, or creativity we put into crafting their marketing positions. What they’re buying—what they tell us they bought—are the right words to say, at the right time, to attract their prospects.

And your clients probably aren’t buying your hours, your efforts, or your inputs. More likely, they’re buying the result.

Which means we need to be able to articulate and demonstrate what that result is. And that starts by asking our clients what they got from working with us, in their own words. 

Then, we can use those same words to attract more prospects.

Not just as case studies, but as a way of expressing the value of our process—our position—to the people who’ll benefit from it most.

Kelford Inc. helps hands-on entrepreneurs and founders with complex marketing challenges define and articulate their unique value to their very best customers.

We’ll show you the way to always knowing what to say.