Multiple Confusing Choices

At first, when I visited potential clients, my idea was to offer a completely customised service according to their needs. I'd start by asking: "Tell me what you expect from an English course, and I'll very likely do it." Beautiful. Everyone one would like that, right? Not.

Let me go back in time a little. Many years ago, I was a t-shirt maniac. I used to buy all kinds of tops with different designs, messages and colours. There was a specific  site I bought from, with thousands of options to choose from, and every week they had several new releases. I was quite a regular client.

Then one day I came across the perfect online shop: they had a rather intuitive and user friendly system that allowed you create your own design. Anything and they'd get it printed. You could even choose the fabric. The result? I never bought a single t-shirt from them. It didn't take me too long to realise that I was really good in finding, judging and buying, but creating wasn't really my cup of tea. Unfortunately, the website doesn't exist anymore.

A similar phenomenon happened to me. When I asked my potential client what he wanted from my course, the automatic response was "what do you have to offer?" And I'm pretty sure they were thinking something like this: "you're the specialist here Mr, don't ask me to know what I need. You tell me!"

I immediately changed my approach. Started explaining the most popular formats and why they're good, adding to the end: "but of course we have a lot of flexibility to adapt to what you need". Then the response changed."interesting", they said.

My conclusion is that only a few people know exactly what they want (in my context, of course. Buying ketchup could be slightly simpler. Or maybe not). Most people want you to show them what they need, regardless if they know what they want or not.. They want you to be able to understand them, and provide a solution that is better than the ones they already know or have.

I'd say this is the process:

I don't want to think about English classes. My profession is a different one.

I want YOU to know what I need. Then tell me what I need.

If I believe you, then what is the solution?

And you'd better be creative. Your competitor is waiting outside.

Surprise me and I'll buy it.

Otherwise, I'll call you back. Or not.