- Define the customer’s buying situation before changing the message.
- Choose an observable difference the customer cares about.
- Test one delivery change and check the economics.
When two proposals appear to promise the same work, price is one of the easiest differences for a buyer to understand.
That creates a problem for a service business whose explanation stops at “better service”, “more experience” or “we care about our clients”. The buyer may have heard all three from every provider on the shortlist.
The next question is what they can actually see, understand and value before they decide.
On CEO Insights, direct-response marketer Seth Greene described a dentist who built an offer around a specific customer and the experience that person wanted. The useful lesson for another business is a way to review an offer, rather than a reason to copy the dentist’s extras.
A service label gives buyers little to work with
Seth’s dentist example started with a broad answer to the question of who the practice helped: anybody with teeth.
After months of research with patients, staff and the practice’s records, Seth says his team identified a much more specific group. These customers had a shared life situation and wanted a change in how they felt about their appearance.
That gave the practice a clearer basis for deciding what to promote and how to deliver it. Seth reports improvements in revenue, working days and the waiting list. Those are his account of one client, not evidence that narrowing an audience guarantees a similar result.
For a service business, the starting point is the buying situation. What has happened that makes someone want help now? What do they need to change, and what makes that difficult?
Compare the experience around the work
The practice’s smile makeover included a Rolls-Royce pickup, bringing a friend and services around the appointment. Seth’s explanation connects those details to the customer’s wider goal.
A limousine is not a general answer to service differentiation. The broader question is which parts of the buying and delivery experience matter to your customer.
That might include understanding the scope, getting an answer during delivery, making a decision with colleagues, or using the finished work after handover. If a problem matters to the buyer and your business can address it reliably, it may give them something useful to compare beyond the headline price.
Seth discusses how a competitor could say it offers the same smile makeover for half the cost. His argument is conditional: the experience would still be different. The interview does not establish that a named competitor launched that offer or that price stopped mattering to every customer.
Review one offer from the customer’s side
The following exercise is a Do It Digital application of the discussion. It is not a framework Seth claims to have tested for every type of service business.
Describe one buying situation. Choose a customer group you already understand. Write a sentence about what has happened, what they want to change and why the work matters now. Use real enquiries, sales conversations and customer feedback to check the wording.
Map the difficult part. Look at what happens before, during and after delivery. Where do customers need an explanation, wait without knowing what happens next, or struggle to use what you give them? Separate an inconvenience you assume exists from a problem customers have actually described.
Choose one change you can keep delivering. A recruitment firm might test a clearer interview feedback process. An agency might test a handover that helps the client’s team operate the work. These are hypothetical examples, not case results from the interview.
Make the difference observable. Explain what the buyer gets, when it happens and who is responsible. If your team cannot describe or repeat the change, it will be hard for a customer to rely on it.
Test the explanation before changing everything. Use it in relevant sales conversations and ask what the buyer finds useful or unclear. Keep the existing approach while you learn. Seth explicitly recommends testing a new marketing approach before replacing one that already works.
Check the economics as well as the appeal
An extra service can make an offer more attractive and harder to deliver at the same time. Review the time, cost and capacity required before making a promise to every new customer.
Keep evidence of what the buyer values separate from what the team enjoys producing. A well-presented extra is still a cost if it does not help the customer make a decision or use the service.
The test is whether a specific customer can explain why the difference matters to them, and whether your business can deliver it consistently at a workable margin.
Make the next sales conversation clearer
Before rewriting your pricing, put two sentences next to your current proposal: “This is for a customer who…” and “The difficult part we make easier is…”.
If those answers could sit on every competitor’s proposal unchanged, gather more customer evidence. If they describe a real buying situation and something your team can reliably improve, test that explanation with the next suitable prospect.
The full CEO Insights conversation with Seth Greene also covers podcast referral relationships, AI-generated content and getting repeated processes out of the founder’s head. Those are separate levers for growth, each of which needs the same clarity about who the work is meant to help.
