And yet, as someone who's owned a company called Blue Penguin for nearly 20 years now, I can tell you that approximately 20 percent of English speakers (OK, it's always Americans) attempt to spell penguin like this: penquin.
Over the years, I've received invoices, checks, direct mail, email and any number of communications in which this error is made. My auto insurance is spelled this way, as is the lease on my office.
It's not like the word is pronounced with a q sound. Nor are the letters q and g next-door neighbors on your keyboard, something which might otherwise account for the occasional slip up.
When it comes to marketing a professional service business, I think the same logic applies: You can waste a lot of time and effort trying to convince people that they need a solution to a particular problem, droning on about how your research or your experience or logic itself suggests that they need whatever it is you're selling.
But you're not going to convince many people. Because until they decide they have a problem that needs fixing, they'll never hire you. It doesn't matter how right you are. Trying to create demand for a fix to an unrecognized problem is an uphill slog.
So here's what I recommend instead: Adjust your communications to match up with what they already believe. In other words, don't tell them they should need what you sell; sell them what they already believe they need.
Start by finding five people who look like the kind of people you want to work with and ask them what their business problems are.
It need not be fancy or complicated. Just ask some specifics: What keeps them up at night? What do they believe is getting in the way of their success? What areas cause them the most frustration and pain in the daily aspects of running their business?
Then find five more people and ask again. As you hear the same kinds of problems raised (and you will), you can fine-tune your questions further, digging in deeper into what's really at the heart of the challenge.
Finally, line up what you offer—and the words you use to describe it—with where your prospects need help.
Here's the bottom line: Being right and getting hired are not always the same thing. Spending time proving your point to prospective clients can be tremendously exhausting and, in the end, not very productive.
You'll find selling to be both easier and more efficient when the services you offer and the words you use to talk about them line up with the way your prospects already view the world.
Michael Katz is founder and chief penguin of Blue Penguin Development. He specializes in helping service professionals stay top-of-mind by positioning themselves as "likeable experts." Sign up for his free newsletter, The Likeable Expert Gazette, here.