The other day one of our clients sent me their brochure. Whilst the features of the products they sold were described in detail, I couldn’t make out what problem they solved.

In the current economic climate where it seems to be the price of everything and the value of nothing, it’s never been more important to outline the benefits of your product or service by creating an itch that demands to be scratched. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking that I found from doing a quick web search on creating and scratching itches.

Here are a few itch-generators to get you thinking:

• Talk about the cost of the problem. (Not necessarily in dollars but the cost of lost relationships or lost time or lost happiness… whatever)
• Don’t just stop at a single mention of a cost. Name them all and revisit them over and over. You might phrase something in one way that resonates with one buyer and you might phrase the same problem in a different way that resonates with a different buyer.
• Talk about how frequent the problem is experienced.
• Don’t just mention that the problem is frequent… hammer home just how bad it is that problem is so frequent!
• Talk about how long the problem is experienced each time.
• Don’t just talk about how prolonged the problem is, put it into perspective: A problem felt once for 10 minutes isn’t a big deal but if it is felt once a week for 10 minutes each time, that’s 520 minutes — more than 8 hours — of discomfort or inconvenience or frustration or whatever.
• Talk about how important the problem is. (Even if it’s not important in the big scheme of things, it is important to the person who is experiencing the problem at the time).
• Discuss how many other people have the same problem.
• Focus on how the main problem — and all of the subordinate challenges that result — make the prospective buyer feel.
• Talk about the impact that this problem has on those around the prospect.