The Difference Between What You Do and Why People Choose You

Most small businesses don’t struggle because they lack quality, expertise or care.

They struggle because they talk about the wrong thing.

They describe what they do, but not what it changes.

And in a busy, distracted world, that makes it harder than it needs to be for the right people to understand why they should choose you.

Features explain what you do. Communicating the impact you make helps people decide.

A feature is what you offer or deliver.
An impact is what happens because of it.

For example:

“I offer monthly mentoring calls”

“I help business owners make clearer decisions and feel more confident about their next steps”

Both are true.
But only one helps someone quickly understand the value.

People don’t buy features. They buy outcomes, clarity, reassurance, progress and sometimes simply relief.

Why we default to features

This isn’t a marketing problem, it’s a very human one.

Most small business owners:

• Want to be accurate, not exaggerated
• Don’t want to sound salesy
• Assume people will join the dots
• Are too close to their own work to see the change it creates

So we list services, processes and deliverables and hope that’s enough and often, it isn’t.

Start with what changes, not what you do

A simple shift can make a big difference.

Instead of leading with what you offer, start with what improves for the person you help.

Ask yourself:

• What problem does this genuinely solve?
• What feels clearer, calmer or easier afterwards?
• What pressure is reduced?
• What becomes possible that wasn’t before?

Then work backwards from there.

For example:

“We run wellbeing sessions for teams”
becomes
“We help teams reduce stress, improve focus and show up better at work”

The wellbeing session still exists, it’s just no longer the headline.

Speak to the person making the decision

This is especially important for small businesses.

You’re often talking to someone who is:

• Short on time
• Carrying responsibility
• Under pressure to justify any spend
• Trying to make a sensible decision, not a perfect one

If you can put yourself in their shoes, it becomes much easier to understand what they’re really thinking:

• “Why does this matter?”
• “Why should I care?”
• “What difference will this actually make?”
• “Is this worth it for us?”

Being able to clearly describe the impact you make helps answer those questions without over-explaining.

A simple test you can use today

Take one of your core offers and finish this sentence:

“I help people to X, so that Y.”

Or:

“We do X, so that Y happens.”

If you can’t finish the sentence easily, that’s usually a sign of where you need to spend a bit more time thinking or simplifying.

This isn’t about hype - it’s about clarity

Communicating impact doesn’t mean exaggerating or over-promising, and it doesn’t need to feel uncomfortable.

It means being:

• Clear
• Honest
• Human

When you lead with the impact you make, your communication starts doing more of the work for you. It becomes easier for people to choose you and your business, because:

• The right people quickly understand they’re in the right place
• Decisions and sales become easier
• You stop competing on features or price alone and stand out for the value you add

If people understand the difference your work makes, you don’t need to persuade them.
They already know why it matters and why they need your products and/or services.