What Your Clients Tell Their Friends

Imagine one of your clients is having lunch with a friend. Your name comes up. What do they say next?

I doubt it’s the first sentence on your website.

If someone recommended me, I’d love for them to say, “Talk to Sandra. I’d been explaining what I do for years, and she helped me say it in a way that sounded like me.”

I think about this when someone tells me they want help with storytelling. Once we get talking, they’ll often tell me about a conversation where a customer finally understood why a product was right for them. They remember the question the customer asked. Sometimes they remember exactly what they said back.

Then we look at the website, and that part of the story is nowhere to be found.

When you’ve spent years doing something, the parts that come easily to you are often the ones you forget to mention.

A coach might think, “I helped her organise her thoughts.” Her client might tell a friend, “I’d been going in circles for months. After one conversation, I knew what to do on Monday.”

A stylist might remember pulling three jackets. Her client might remember putting one on and thinking, “Oh, there I am.” She’d spent weeks trying on clothes for a new job, and everything had made her feel like she was dressed as someone else.

If you’re wondering why a detail mattered, listen to what the client says next. What could they finally do? What did they stop worrying about? Sometimes the answer is as simple as “I stopped changing my outfit three times before leaving the house.”

Try this with a client you know well:

“I’m trying to get better at explaining what I do. If a friend came to you with the same problem you had, how would you tell them I helped? A quick voice note is perfect. Say it the way you’d say it to them.”

Then put their answer next to the first line on your website. Pick one detail they remembered that you left out. See what happens when you write that first line with their story in mind.