Inside voice, outside voice

Don’t use your “inside voice” to promote your business.

It will bomb every time.

This is a rookie mistake when it comes to marketing. Especially if you are accustomed to being direct and plain talking. That’s the American way, right? Say what you mean, and don’t sugar coat it.

This alone will cut your income off at the ankles.

As poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant/success in circuit lies.” This is the clearest advice out there, when it comes to learning to speaking the language of your ideal clients.

Tell all the truth, but do it from an angle. Not head on. Dickinson goes on: “Too bright for our infirm Delight, the Truth’s superb surprise.”

This is marketing 101, my friends. All the secrets are there. Truth. Slant. Client delight. And surprise! (Or what I like to call the burlesque approach to selling. It’s actually more tantalizing not to give ‘em everything all at once. Flirt and reveal, my darlings. Flirt and reveal. Combined with facts, evidence, and proof, this approach will make your marketing irresistible.)

Let’s be clear: you need to tell the truth in your preview calls, blog articles, business cards, emails, and all that. Of course, of course, of course.

But you need to translate that truth. So your ideal clients can hear it.

You’ve got to take your ego out of the way you talk and write about your work. It’s all about the ego of your ideal client.

What’s in it for them. What you can help them do. What hot & itchy problem you can help them solve. What dream you can help them live.

This is your “outside voice.”

Your inside voice is all about the tools and process and training you use. Whether it’s coaching, mindset shifts, spirit, needles, lasers, spreadsheets, NLP, dancing, intuition, herbs, feng shui, whatever.

Your inside voice thinks “I want to get 10 VIP days booked this quarter.”

Your outside voice is all about the goal. The destination. The result. Not for YOU. For your client. What can a VIP day with me help my ideal client achieve in her business? What slippery eel is she wrestling with right now, that she could use some help with?

It’s not about the details. It’s all about the pleasure your ideal client desires (and is willing to invest in), or the pain she wants to get out of.

Would you like a quick, real-world example of this distinction in action?

Inside voice email subject line: September Newsletter and Success Tip

Outside voice email subject line: 4 simple ways to get 5 more hours this week

Which one would you open?

Notice how the inside voice option appears neutral, but it’s really about you sending a newsletter. And I don’t know about you, but success is one of those words that is a mediocre cover up for laziness. It doesn’t mean anything here. Just what kind of success are we talking about, here? I don’t “feel” any success—or any delight—coming from that subject line. Do you?

Now, what do you notice about the outside voice?

Do you hear a little sizzle when you read it? Does it send a little jolt of the ooh-la-la through you? How it hints at a “superb surprise” inside?

When you train yourself to take your own ego out of your language, magic happens.

Suddenly, your ideal client can hear you. They “get” what you’re offering. And, if they’re truly your ideal client, they’ll want it.

Mighty thanks to suessian for the flickr photostream megaphone photo.