The one thing your customers REALLY want

Know what your customers want?

(Even more than your innovative product or phenomenal service?)

Transformation.

This deep longing for change explains a lot.

It's why we attend support groups, read books, listen to podcasts, and sign up for workshops. (How else are we going to overcome problems like debt, addiction, stress, you-name-it?)

This hunger to be better is why we hire experts to help us become more fit, more confident, more organized, more this, more that.

I read this week that people are now spending more than a billion hours every DAY watching YouTube videos.

A waste of time? Not if I'm learning how to become a “dance sensation” at my upcoming wedding, or a “woodworker whiz,” or an “Excel expert!”

I believe this ache to improve is in our DNA.

And I believe something else: Good businesses can leverage this truth about human nature WITHOUT BEING MANIPULATIVE.

In your marketing, you can say to customers: "Here's how we can help you become what you aspire to become."

• If you’re a personal trainer, explain how you help clients make progress every day on their journey from “couch potato” to “local fitness legend.”

• If you’re a financial planner, encourage “young professionals with money to burn” to let you show them how they can become “happy and successful retirees.”

• If you own a landscape design service, communicate the message that you help “embarrassed homeowners” become “proud ‘dream home' owners."

Joanna Wiebe said it best, “No matter what business you’re in…you’re selling your prospects a better version of themselves.”

So, position your business as a reliable guide that can help customers reach their aspirational goals.

Here’s to good businesses that help people transform!