We’re cursed!

Do you find yourself dealing with clients who have unrealistic expectations? How about clients who ask questions that just don’t make sense? Or worse, prospects who ghost you?

Those are all signs and symptoms of one of the worst plagues you can have as a business owner or marketer; The Curse of Knowledge.

Seems like having knowledge would never be a curse — because knowledge is power — but it’s nothing to brag about.

See, you think about your business on an expert level, because you are an expert. That makes it really easy (and natural) to talk about your business on an expert level too.

But chances are, your customers aren’t experts, or they wouldn’t be hiring you.

Talking over your clients head can lead to a lot of problems…

• They have unrealistic expectations
• They feel ashamed or embarrassed to ask what’s really on their mind
• They focus only on price, because it’s easiest to understand & compare

When it comes to marketing, it’s important to remember this: if you confuse, you lose.

Unless you’re a unicorn, chances are your prospects have a lot of options besides going with you.

Sure, they’d like to compare things like price, timeline, deliverables, guarantees, etc., but in the end, they’re going to go with the option that they feel most comfortable and confident in because they don’t want to be fooled or waste money.

That’s never be the one that’s the most complex and confusing.

So now that we know what we’re fighting (our own expertise), how do we combat it?

Here are a few tips:

• Emphasize Simplicity: Don’t get too deep in the details too early. There will be plenty of time later to talk specifics, but early on in your sales process you just need to cover the basics. Think “point a to point b” or “easy as 1-2-3”.
• Use Plain-Language: Avoid confusing industry terms, acronyms, or anything that wouldn’t be obvious to someone with no prior knowledge of your industry. A good rule of thumb is to imagine speaking to a 9th grader.
• Get Outside Feedback: Consider getting feedback from outside of your bubble (your most brutally honest friends and family work well). Ask them to explain what you do in their words — I think you’ll be surprised. Their words are going to be much more in line with how your clients think than yours will be!
• Use Analogies and Metaphors: Take inventory of the most difficult things you have to explain repeatedly and come up with a great analogy. This will help your clients understand more complex ideas by connecting them with something they already know.

Most importantly; listen.

Customers and prospects will tell you what they don’t understand by the assumptions they make and questions they ask. These things are golden opportunities to clarify your messaging.

🤔 Did you know? Not only does clarifying your messaging make it easier for prospects to do business with you, it can also improve your website’s accessibility and ranking in search engines. Try putting some of your key website copy through this readability checker to see how well you’re doing.