RR#143 - How to Make Them Buy

Wow, last week’s newsletter about struck a nerve.

I received more engagement and questions than ever before.

(If you missed last week's issue about selling “chocolate broccoli,” check it out here. In it, I share why people buy what they want, not what they need, and how that impacts how you position your service to prospects.)

A recurring theme in the feedback I heard throughout the week was, “This hits home. I know I need to get better at this. But how do I do that?”

In other words, how do you figure out what your ideal customers really want when buying your services? And how do you figure out how they describe it so you can frame your value proposition accordingly?

This week, I’m going one layer deeper to share specific, actionable steps to help you do just that.

Why Is This So Difficult?

If you’re running a business, chances are you have significant expertise in your field.

That expertise allows you to create services that deliver real results. But it also creates a blind spot—what Chip and Dan Heath call the “curse of knowledge” in one of my favorite books, Made to Stick.

The curse of knowledge means you know so much about your field that you’ve forgotten what it’s like not to know it. This prevents you from communicating the way your prospects think and speak.

As a result, you end up talking about root causes and how things work, while your prospects just want the symptoms to go away.

Imagine going to a doctor for a headache and being told all about the biochemical causes of migraines. While fascinating, it doesn’t answer your immediate question: “Can you just make this headache go away?”

That’s why we need to take deliberate steps to align how we position our services with the mindset of our ideal clients.

Here are six strategies to help you do just that:

1. Mine Your Sales Calls

Your sales calls—especially discovery calls—are a treasure trove of insight into your prospects’ mindset.

If you’re not recording every sales call, stop here and enable recording now. (Seriously, go do it. Here’s how to set it up on Zoom and Teams.)

These conversations reveal how prospects describe their problems, their objectives, and even their hesitations.

If you’re asking good discovery questions, you’ll quickly learn:

• How do they describe the core problems they’re facing?

• How do they describe the symptoms those problems create?

• What have they tried already? Did it work? How do they feel about it?

• What’s making this a problem right now instead of six months from now?

By analyzing these recordings, you’ll uncover the precise language your prospects use. This is critical for messaging and positioning.

(I’ve created custom AI prompts and tools to help me with call reviews and extract key insights. If you’d like a breakdown of how to do the same, just reply and let me know. if there’s enough interest I’ll create a step-by-step guide.)

2. Have More Conversations, Fewer Sales Pitches

Sometimes, the most valuable insights come from simple, open-ended conversations.

I’m talking about good old-fashioned introductory and networking calls with people in your ideal market.

I’ve been doing this while exploring which offers and services will resonate most in our new MSP Sales Partners business.

By reaching out to LinkedIn connections and scheduling 15-minute intro calls, I’ve learned how potential clients describe their challenges, what solutions they’ve already tried, and how they perceive the problems we specialize in solving.

The goal of the conversations is to create a mental map of how your audience thinks. Over time, clear patterns will emerge in how they describe symptoms, priorities, and frustrations—giving you invaluable insight into how to position your services.

3. Build a Custom Avatar

Creating a detailed persona—or avatar—of your ideal client as an AI agent can transform how you approach marketing and content creation.

For instance, I recently built a custom GPT-based avatar called “Mike the IT Business Owner.”

Mike represents the kind of client I want to serve: he’s a technical founder of a $10M MSP who’s scaling sales without prior sales leadership experience.

I’ve trained this avatar with real-world data, including common pain points, business goals, and growth challenges that I’ve learned from actual client conversations.

Now, when I’m brainstorming content or testing ideas, I “ask” Mike for feedback. And it’s been surprisingly helpful in providing a fresh perspective.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a helpful way to simulate how my ideal client might respond to messaging or offers.

(I built “Mike the IT Business Owner” without any knowledge of custom-GPTs. If you’d like a breakdown of how I did it, reply here and if we have enough interest I’ll share how I did it.)

4. Talk to Your Customers

Your existing customers are one of your most valuable resources. They’ve already gone through the journey from prospect to buyer, so they have insights into every stage of that process.

Ask them for time to understand:

• What problem were they trying to solve when they reached out?

• How did they describe that problem?

• What hesitations or concerns did they have before buying?

• How would they describe the value they’ve received since working with you?

Essentially, you want to know: What did they think they were buying? Why did they buy it? And how would they describe what they’ve received now that they’ve been with you for a while?

Their answers will help you refine your messaging, focusing on the outcomes they care about most. Often, your customers’ language is the key to resonating with future clients.

5. Leverage Social Selling Tools

Your prospects are already asking questions somewhere. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn or Facebook groups are gold mines for understanding how they frame their challenges.

Search for topics relevant to your industry and look for recurring patterns in the problems you read about and how people describe them.

Remember, the goal is to learn about your customers’ desires, so avoid searching for technical terms you’d use and look for the phrases your ideal client would use.

For example, if you’re an IT company, instead of searching for “ransomware” and “cybersecurity,” you may look for problems like:

• “How do I stop spam?”

• “How do I stop phishing scams in my business?”

• “How do I increase reliability of internet at my office?”

• “How do I keep employees from searching XXX sites on our computers?”

These platforms provide raw, unfiltered language directly from your audience.

By paying attention to these details, you can align your messaging with what your ideal clients are already asking, making your services feel immediately relevant.

6. Look for Clues in Their Actions

Sometimes, your prospects are telling you what they value through their actions—even if they don’t say it outright.

For instance, last week I mentioned an example of someone claiming they didn’t have the budget for IT services while spending millions on statewide billboards.

That tells you they’re prioritizing customer growth, marketing and branding, even if they haven’t articulated it directly.

Look at where your ideal customers are spending their money and time, and you’ll uncover their true priorities.

Over time, these patterns can help you refine your positioning to better align with what your audience really values.

Final Thoughts

Positioning your services as something people want—not just need—requires empathy, curiosity, and a willingness to look at the world through your clients’ eyes.

But the payoff for taking the time to do so? Massive!

If you’d like me to dive deeper into any of these strategies, just reply and let me know. I’d be happy to break any of this down step-by-step.

To making your services irresistible,

Ray