What could you tell a customer that none of your competitors could?
Hold on to your answer. Back in 1923, an advertising man called Claude Hopkins explained why it matters, in two sentences:
Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever.
Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923), Chapter 7, Being Specific
“Best service.” “Great value.” Everyone says them, so nobody hears them. A precise number or a named result sounds tested, and people believe it.
The detail only you have
So what does being specific actually look like? For me it starts with the story only you can tell, the detail only you know and the example none of your competitors have.
A statistic everyone in your industry can quote won’t do it. If it’s true for all of you, it sets none of you apart. The thing that does is uniquely yours: something you focus on that, even if others do it too, nobody else talks about. Say it out loud and you stand out in your market.
Show them the afters
The easiest place to find it is in the results your clients get. Andy Bounds calls these the “afters”: what someone has once they’ve worked with you. What’s the specific outcome a client walks away with? What are the precise numbers you could share, with that client’s consent?
The more of those you share, the more people believe you. And the more examples you have, the better the chance a reader spots one and thinks, “Ah, they’re like me.” That’s when the detail starts doing the selling for you.
The Christmas tree moment
Stories get you further than facts, because they spark someone’s imagination. They let the reader picture themselves inside the story you’re telling.
Think of an estate agent showing someone round a house. The minute the buyer starts talking about where the furniture will go, which wall the pictures will hang on and where the Christmas tree is going to stand, the agent knows. That person is mentally moving in already, and it’s highly likely they’re going to buy.
Nobody had to list the features for that to happen. The house got specific in their own head.
If you want to put your afters into words a customer cares about, I wrote about Henry Ford and the FABs of selling in Make People Feel Understood.
So what’s the equivalent of that for you? How do you help someone have the experience before they have to commit to it?
