When You Talk About Your Business, Can Your Customer See Themselves?
By Marian LaSalle | Connectors Business Network
You’re at a networking event, and someone asks, “What do you do?”
You know your business inside and out. You can explain how you started, describe your services, and share the experience you bring to the table.
But does your answer help that person recognize why they might need you?
I recently listened to Donald Miller’s StoryBrand podcast episode, “How to Tell Your Customer’s Story, Not Yours,” and his message hit home. As entrepreneurs, we put so much of ourselves into our businesses that telling our own story feels natural.
Miller encourages us to shift the focus: make the customer the central character and show how our business helps them overcome a problem.
That idea deserves a place in every small business owner’s marketing toolkit.
Your customer needs to recognize their own situation before they can appreciate your solution.
Start With What Your Customer Is Facing
Think about the last time you searched for a service. You probably had something you needed to fix, accomplish, understand, or get off your plate.
Your potential customers do, too.
A business owner looking for bookkeeping help may be worried about falling behind and making decisions without reliable numbers. An adult daughter researching services for her aging parent may feel overwhelmed by unfamiliar options. Someone hiring a website designer may be frustrated that visitors leave without contacting them.
When your message acknowledges that situation, you give people a reason to keep listening.
Your experience still matters. Put it to work explaining how you can help them move forward.
Five Questions That Can Improve Your Message
In the episode, Miller describes five elements of a customer-centered brand story: the problem, empathy, the answer, the customer’s change, and the end result.
Here is my practical interpretation for entrepreneurs and small business owners:
- What is your customer struggling with? Choose a specific problem they would recognize in their own words.
- How can you show that you understand? Acknowledge the frustration or concern without exaggerating it.
- What help do you provide? Explain your solution in plain language.
- What does that help enable them to become or do? Perhaps they become more confident, prepared, organized, or capable.
- What does a better day look like? Describe a realistic outcome they can picture.
You don’t need a dramatic story. You need a clear connection between their situation and your help.
What This Sounds Like in Everyday Business
Consider a hypothetical bookkeeper’s introduction:
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“I own a bookkeeping business and provide monthly financial reports.”
That tells us the service. Now consider this version:
“When your books fall behind, it’s hard to know where your business stands. I help small business owners organize their finances and understand their numbers so they can make decisions with more confidence.”
The second version gives the listener something to recognize: a problem, help, and a reason that help matters.
The same approach works in a networking introduction, a website headline, an email, or a social media post.
Try this starting point:
“I help [the people you serve] with [a specific problem] so they can [a meaningful outcome].”
Then say it aloud. Does it sound like something you would actually say? Would a potential customer understand it without asking you to translate?
Put Your Customer at the Center This Week
Choose one piece of your marketing and read it through your customer’s eyes.
Can they quickly see who you help, what you help with, and what they can do next?
If those answers are hard to find, rewrite the opening. Start with the situation that brought them to you. Show that you understand. Give them a clear next step.
And when you share a real customer’s experience, get permission and describe the results accurately. A modest, truthful story can be far more useful than a sweeping promise.
Your Business Deserves to Be Understood, Too
You may be excellent at what you do and still struggle to explain it, get noticed, or meet people who could become customers, collaborators, and referral partners.
Trying to figure all of that out alone can feel exhausting.
At Connectors Business Network, you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs, take part in practical business learning, and find opportunities to introduce your work and build relationships online and in person.
For $10 a month, give yourself a place to connect, learn, and practice showing people the value you bring.
Bring the introduction you’ve been struggling with. Bring your questions. Bring the business you care so much about, and start getting to know others who care about theirs.
Join us at ConnectorsBusinessNetwork.com.
Marian LaSalle
Community Connector | Publisher | By Your Side Guide
marian.lasalle@paintedpathdesigns.com
📞 713–826–4942
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Credit: This article was inspired by Donald Miller’s StoryBrand podcast episode, “How to Tell Your Customer’s Story, Not Yours.” The storytelling concepts are Miller’s; the small business examples and applications here are my own interpretation.
