Entrepreneur or Technician: How Your Business Connects to Your Prospects

Most of the time when an individual gets an idea of starting a business, they start with an urgency to sell their personal skills and be their own boss. This is the commonly accepted definition of a small business owner. Unfortunately, it’s also the reason so many businesses fail.

By definition a Technician is a person who is trained or skilled in the technicalities of a subject, an expert. On the other hand an entrepreneur is the owner or manager of a business enterprise to make profits.

So, this goes back to the why of starting your business. Did you start your business to serve people in any way possible, or to sell your particular skills? That might seem like a fine line, but it is critical to understanding your approach to your prospects.

The Technician focuses on his own Big Why: selling his skills. The Technician himself is the focal point of the business. Often if the Technician is sick or on vacation, the business languishes until his return. When he retires, the business closes down.

The Entrepreneur focuses on his prospects’ Big Why. The entrepreneur crafts his products and services to the prospects’ need, then stimulates their desires in such a way that they will buy. Great entrepreneurs such as Ray Kroc of McDonald’s are constantly on the alert for the public’s Big Why as the economy and the culture dips and sways. New opportunities open up as the needs of people change and the Entrepreneur alert to fill in the gaps.

Technicians include coaches, trainers, and service professionals offering their expertise to people who need help. Your challenge is to make that mindshift and begin thinking about your prospect’s Big Why instead of your own. Yes, we want to help more people and get our message out, but we need to think like our prospects and use words that will speak to them in their deepest soul. We need to speak to them in terms of what they will Receive instead of what we will Deliver.

Take a look at your web site, your social media, your email broadcasts and every place where you touch your prospects. Count the times you use the word ‘I’ and how many times you use the word ‘you’. Do you talk more about what you are going to give them or what they will receive?

This might seem simple, but this one concept will change your business forever. Take 10 minutes now and check it out. If you shift your focus off your skill and onto their benefit you will also see a shift in the way your prospects respond.