You desperately want to get noticed. Right?

You’re blogging, and advertising, and writing, and doing stuff, and networking, and running yourself RAGGED chasing people.

It’s a constant struggle – you’re chasing clients, or you’re desperately trying to do the work for clients, and then you’re chasing new prospects again.

It’s a total treadmill – isn’t it? One I’m guessing you’re thinking is IMPOSSIBLE to get off.

Wouldn’t it be great if people came to YOU?

Well, they will (and you can make that happen), but only if you understand why chasing clients all day long won’t work, and how being someone “in demand” happens.

Let me explain how you can finally flip the tables and go from being the chaser…

… to the chased.

So, we’re at a party and…

I do a very simple exercise with my clients. I ask them to pretend we’re at a party, and I ask them this simple question:

What do you do for a living?

Now the answers I get are all over the board.

I often get the “I’m a _______” answer. They tell me about their job function at a company. They tell me they’re in “sales,” or “business development,” or “in IT,” or “marketing,” or whatever. It doesn’t matter. They tell me primarily about how they see their job function – what they do.

I also get the “I’m the _______” answer. They tell me their title – as if it means something innately. I’m the “blah blah blah assistant vice vice president of vice,” whatever. And again, that’s great and all, but what they’re focused on is what’s on their business card.

Now, super smart people usually want to tell me how smart they are – they attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford. They have MD’s, PhD, JD’s, accounting degrees, whatever. It doesn’t really matter – they believe they’re smart and you should know that.

Sometimes they tell me where they work – like literally. I work at “blah blah blah” company.

And if you’re a professional, or a consultant, or whatever (if you’re reading this blog), what you likely say is… I’m a consultant. I’m an entrepreneur. I have my own business. I am self-employed.

We all know these answers. We’ve all probably GIVEN these answers.

Here’s the thing – while it seems like a silly exercise. What I’m really asking you, when I ask this question, is the following question:

DO YOU KNOW WHY PEOPLE BUY WHAT YOU DO?

The simple answer is – nope, haven’t a freaking clue.

That’s ok. I didn’t either most of my adult life. But, understand that this lack of clarity is why you’re busy chasing people all day long, and Apple has people flocking days beforehand to line up to get the newest iWhatever.

Why Customers Flock to Some Companies

It may seem like luck, or karma, or advertising, or money, or whatever, that some companies just have groupies and people lining up for their products and services.

I tell you simply it’s not. There’s really one factor that determines whether you’re chasing people, or having people chase you.

Branding.

Now I realize that this term is used, abused, misused, misunderstood, misconstrued, and more. Very few people, even in marketing and advertising, understand what “branding,” really means – let alone how to do it.

Put very simply – branding is this: the equation in a customer’s head about what it means to engage in commerce with you in terms of the outcome the consumer gets from you.

That’s it.

In other words, clients buy OUTCOMES. They don’t buy how smart you are, or what you do, or where you do it. They really don’t care about your business card, your title, your education, or anything else. People are self-centered in many respects, and at least in consumerism, they care about one simple thing – what’s in it for me?

Clients buy OUTCOMES.

Those outcomes are tied to one of two possible situations for a customer: something they want, or something they desperately need.

Believe it or not those two situations are not the same. Things that people want is aspirational. They want a new car. They want more money. They want a boat.

In my case, it’s I want to have my own turboprop airplane and fly cross country.

Now, things people NEED are tied to problems. I need to fix my relationship with my wife or I’m going to wind up divorced. I need an attorney because I’ve been arrested. I need to see a cardiothoracic surgeon because my heart is messed up. I need an accountant because if I continue to manage my finances myself, I’m going to wind up going to jail because the IRS will put me there.

Those are needs. They’re tied to PROBLEMS (hopefully not as intense of a problem as the ones I’ve listed – but needs are generally things that keep us up at night).

The best needs are tied to really serious problems. I know that sounds bad – but it’s true. The things that keep people up at night. THOSE are the transformational issues that people are prepared to pay the highest premiums to solve. They’re also the problems that people seek out actively.

That’s where you need to position yourself if you want people to seek you out. The biggest, most wanted, most needed, outcome in your market.

How to Position Yourself Based on Outcome (And then What?)

So, let’s take my own situation here at bryandelmonte.com as an example.

There are lots of business marketing coaches out there. I mean I could answer the question “what do you do?” by saying, “Well, I’m a business marketing coach and entrepreneur.”

Now, for a long time, that’s actually how I DID answer the question – or even more convoluted than that – fumbling around talking about optimizing marketing blah blah blah.

It was freaking awful.

When you look at the vast majority of “business marketing coaches” out there… and how they sell, what they sell is “I’m a business marketing coach,” and then they’re hustling the crap out of their testimonials, and case studies, and other “proof.”

But ask yourself this question – what’s the point of all that proof anyways?

That they can produce a SPECIFIC OUTCOME.

So, why not just say – look – this is the outcome I focus on. For me that statement is pretty simple:

I help people who do AMAZING work (transformative results) find clients consistently and build scalable revenue for their business.

That positioning is right at the front of my website.

Perhaps I can give a longer answer, if I have more time (in print – you’ve only got about 8 seconds if that to capture attention):

I help professionals, consultants, freelancers, and people who have skills that can transform the lives of others, build a consistent and reliable stream of income, usually five-figures or more a month, working about 10-15 hours a week generating new business, and deliver amazing results to all the clients they serve in a scalable business model.

Are you at all unclear as to the outcome I create?

I suspect not.

Now, here’s the thing – people who are looking for that outcome, they’re always listening, looking, searching, yearning for it. It’s like a radio frequency on a radio that is tuned in for each person. If you broadcast on that frequency – they hear it.

What is the logical question to ask me, if after I say what I do, and you’re someone interested (tuned in on that radio frequency)?

How do you do that?

If that’s the answer you get from people who are your ideal clients – then you know you’ve properly (and finally) positioned yourself above the noise.

So once you’ve finally figured out what is the highest value outcome you create, the question I get most frequently is, “So what do I do with it?”

It’s simple. That positioning becomes the heart of EVERYTHING you do in your marketing.

Your website.

Your social media.

Your blog content organization.

All of it needs to be organized against the simple metric of “does this help demonstrate the highest value outcome that I can create for a client?”

If the answer is no – then don’t do it.

But this clarity will help organize ALL of your marketing. More so than some clever pithy logo, or catchphrase, or whatever. Nobody buys that stuff anyways.

The reason why Coca-Cola spends billions on its branding is – there isn’t an easy way for Coca-Cola to position itself in the mind of customers based on the outcome it creates. So instead, it manufactures an outcome out of the ether – Coke is the real thing. Coke is good times. Coke is what Mom used to give you on a hot day. Coke is family.

They need to spend BILLIONS reinforcing those ideas all over the globe. They’re very successful at it – with the brand of Coca-Cola worth about 80 billion dollars.

You don’t need to do all that – all you need to do to jump above the fray, above those who are spending tons of money, above those who may be better known than you, is to be really clear about the outcomes you create, and then broadcast on that frequency religiously.

People will seek you out.

Why Will People Seek me out?

Clients often don’t believe me when I tell them this is the secret to standing out and having customers come to you. They don’t believe the mechanism will work. I understand that skepticism, but let me explain to you WHY this works so effectively. It’s not magic – it’s human behavior.

When we have problems – we look to solve them (if we want them solved badly enough).

If you have been arrested – you’re going to be looking for a lawyer (or awaiting your court provided one).

When your toilet explodes – you’re going to be looking for a plumber (and fast)!

For whatever is the transformational change that you do, there are prospective clients who need that outcome, right now.

They are tuned to the frequency of needing that solution. If something is suddenly broadcasted on that frequency, they’ll naturally pay attention.

Let’s say you’re having problems in your marriage. Let’s also say you run into someone at my “party” and when you ask them what they do, they say, “I help married couples rediscovery intimacy, reconnect with one another, and find happiness at a deeper level than they thought possible.”

What are you going to do? Are you going to say “Yeah, screw that.”

Probably not.

Now, if you’re not on that frequency, because your marriage is awesome, then your response will obviously be “hey, that’s nice.”

If you focus your marketing efforts, constantly broadcasting on the right “frequency” of your most important outcome. Here’s what happens.

People searching online, will inevitably find you.

People trying to solve this problem, will inevitably discover you (by referrals, by reading something you wrote, by asking around).

It is not a process that happens overnight, but it doesn’t take decades either. Realistically, six months of focus “broadcasting” of your most important outcome will begin to develop both inbound leads and referral business. That process gets stronger over time as more and more people come into contact with your “signal.”

That’s how you build a following, cut through the noise, and get to the top of people’s minds.

When people want to solve a problem – they’re often looking for the best, especially if the problem is difficult to solve, especially if the stakes of solving that problem are very high. So people WANT to know who the best criminal attorney is, before they get arrested (presuming they’re criminals and they think that’s possible). People WANT to know who the best marriage counsellors are when their marriage is on the rocks. People want to know who’s the best accountant before they get audited.

And let me tell you that what’s “best” is not objective in the least. It’s subjective. And the degree to which people judge it is entirely on the basis of the outcome. If you can reliably promise a fantastic outcome, you’re going to be “the best” at that outcome.

And people will seek you out if what you do, is something that is a desperate need (not a want).

Where will you go from here?

If you want to have clients seeking you out, I’ve given you the formula.

You need to figure out exactly what is the most valuable outcome that you can provide customers, and then organize your communications like a laser around that outcome.

Customers don’t buy what you do, or how smart you are, or your title, or who your company. They buy the OUTCOME you can produce. They are tuned in to that “outcome frequency” like a radio. If you start broadcasting on that frequency, they will seek YOU out.

If you are clear in the outcomes you provide people, they will naturally be curious about how you deliver that outcome. They will find YOU.

That is how you get clients to come to you.