The number one rule in marketing is not to “sell” your product or service, but to fulfill others’ needs. Apparently, people do not care what you do, but what the benefits are for them, how you can help them. Time and time again, I’ve read that selling your business is not about constantly sharing how great you are, but about telling people how you are going to solve their problems.

Okay. So how do we do this?

As someone who voices commercials and is not really saving the world in any way, I have wondered about this for a long time… How can I help my clients and serve them better, solve their problems and even help them avoid problems?

Besides offering a quality voiceover, at an extremely competitive rate, with great turnaround time, what else is there?

A beloved client recently said , “You have made my job a lot easier” . I wanted to know MORE… HOW EXACTLY??!!

I ASKED(!) and I am delighted to provide you with his answer:

“You’re smart, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to intonation and how it should be read, you go the extra mile to help and make sure the client is happy, and when I listen to your reads, it really does sound like you enjoy what you’re doing. Always a pleasure.”

Well, hello! That’s completely awesome!!! Thank you, F.L.! You know who you are!! Heart heart heart.

So now I want to Tweet and share the heck out of that testimonial, but… wait. Aren’t I just saying how great I am?

Hmmm…helpful indeed, and yet, still telling you how great I am. So either I’ve nailed the part about solving problems while also sharing how great I am, or I’ve missed the point entirely. No doubt this will be the topic for further blogs – distilling the message to an “elevator pitch”, possibly a “twitter pitch” – delivering a message of helpfulness, offering benefits.

Lots to think about for entrepreneurs and worth the effort, we must ask ourselves, “How may I serve?” A good question, in business…and in life…