Last month I spoke with one of my clients, Nicolet Araujo of Care Patrol, to get input for her next three newsletter articles. Nicolet is a Senior Care Advisor who helps families find the right housing and care options for their aging loved ones.

We had been talking about a different topic when Nicolet started sharing stories about some of the many ways that she acts as an advocate for her clients after their housing and care is in place.

My response: “Whoa! Wait a minute! Is this a service that you offer??”

It turns out the answer is yes, and that most of her competitors do not offer advocacy services.

“Why haven’t you mentioned this before?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen it as a marketing tool,” she replied. “It’s just something that I do because I care so deeply about my clients and their welfare.”

In other words, Nicolet was not mentioning this significant point of differentiation in her marketing materials or conversations with potential clients.

The value of an outside view

For me this discussion was just another reminder of how valuable it is to work with—frankly—someone like me, who can take a fresh view of your business and identify important things that you had not thought to highlight.

I get it. Trying to articulate what you are selling, why anybody would want to buy it, and why they should buy it from you versus from anybody else is not easy. We all get so close to our businesses that we can become blind to what is obvious to someone else.

What important things about your business are you forgetting to mention?

Try asking yourself the following questions, writing down your answers, and seeing if any previously overlooked items come up…

• What are you selling?
• What benefits do you provide to your customers? Think about the benefits of your products and services themselves, as well as benefits of working with you specifically, such as the special way you deliver your services.
• What problems do you solve for your customers?
• What positive feedback do you frequently hear from your customers?
• What do you do better than your competitors?

In my experience, the things that are most frequently overlooked are benefits, not services. People get too close to realize that some aspect of their offering is a big benefit to their customers. These questions can help bring these benefits into view.