what-do-you-do Archives - Successful Blog

The Recipe for a Product Offering that Will Sell

August 27, 2007 by Liz

SIMPLE SALES SERIES

It’s No Good if It Doesn’t Sell

We don’t decide what is a great product or service. Customers and clients do. If we what we do well is what our customers value, it will sell. In my publishing job, I said this over and over . . .

It’s not a good book, if it doesn’t sell — at a profit.

Customers decide whether our offer is better than any alternative. They let us know by how they vote with their money. Our job is to make an offer they find attractive, knowing full well that we cannot coax or coerce them to behave.

The Recipe for a Product Offering that Sells

While I was publishing, I spent a great deal of time talking to customers who used my products and to customers who did not.

Most marketers would recommend that you find out how folks are using your “stuff,” what they like, what they don’t, what they wish for, and what other “stuff” they like just as much or better. They would suggest that you especially find out why folks who aren’t using your “stuff,” aren’t using it. I did all that — but only about 10% of the time.

The other 90% of the time we talked about THEM, not about my “stuff.”

That’s how I got to my recipe for a product that sells. It’s the recipe I used when driving the strategy of the company we turned around.

Talk to your ideal customers about
- what wish they had more time to do.
- what they wish they could learn.
- what they wish someone would invent.
- what problem they would love to get off their mind or off their desks.
Listen actively to understand the outcome they prize. Find the patterns in what they say.

Build a product or service that does one thing well — in less time. If you bundle more than one need, do it carefully. Less is more. Simple is elegant.

Design the product or service to match customers’ sensibilities. Make it beautiful and functional, and a reflection of what they value. Adding “quality” they can’t see or don’t want is adding cost they don’t want.

Price the offer at what the work is worth — what you need to make a profit and what it saves the customer.

Test what you plan by asking customers who know you, who don’t know you, and who are notoriously on the opposite side of the fence.

Every bit of the development is about how the features of the product or service benefits the customer. Add to “How are WE doing?” the additional question “What drives YOU crazy?”

How do you find customer needs customers that aren’t being met? Are you your own customer? How might you use that in your favor?

I’m really interested in informal ways we get customers to talk about their experiences.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

1 Word, 1 Sentence, As Many Words as You Need Test

August 21, 2007 by Liz

SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Still The Decision Model

Chris Garrett and I had a conversation yesterday morning. We discussed the difference between the way we see our blogs and the way our readers see them. That got us talking about testimonials.

Testimonials are more than meet the eye. They tell us what customers value . . . what we do for them.

Chris and I talked about using surveys to focus a businesses. We agreed that the key is to listen carefully. Read every word that is said. Look deep in the text for the hidden testimonials.

One goal of great survey is to gather what customers say and use it to promote our businesses.

But don’t stop there.

Look closely at what the testimonials say — testimonials often reveal what we don’t know about ourselves and how people see our work.

That’s what Chris and I were talking about . . .

The 1 Word, 1 Sentence, As Many Words as You Need Test

Other people see what we do in ways that often surprise us. Try this test about your own work then pass it on to a friend. Here’s how it works.

Do a favor. Write a testimonial for someone’s blog — in this case would you do mine, please? (Write your answers in the comment box.)

1. Describe my blog in one word. _______.

2. Describe my blog in one sentence. _______________________________. < 3. Describe my blog in as many words as you need. _____________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Now write a testimonial for your business or blog. Write your answers in the comment box too, if you are ready to. 1. Describe your blog or business in one word. _______. 2. Describe your blog or business in one sentence. _____________________. 3. Describe your blog or business in as many words as you need. _________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ What do you think other people will see in you? Make a prediction. Now print out this page and do it a few more times. Each time as another friend to do it with you. Compare each new person's testimonial to the one that you wrote. Write a new each time, you'll find you'll get closer to your message if you do. Pay attention to what bits your friend calls out. When you have finished the exercise, check to see how close your prediction was. You might be surprised what you learn about yourself. --ME "Liz" Strauss Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

How to Answer the Only Customer Questions that Count

August 20, 2007 by Liz

Still The Decision Model

Used well, this four-point definition/decision model can make your business thinking solid, swifter, and more customer-centered.

An explicit description of our customer and the niche market he or she represents
A company name and identity that fits and appeals to that ideal customer
A tagline that states what we promise and deliver
A “do line” that answers “What do you do?” in a few words

The goal of the four-part definition is the deep thinking. That’s the only way to stand on solid ground when the tough questions come. By thinking through and answering the four parts of the decision model, we’re writing the unique and compelling story of the business. .

How to Answer the Only Customer Questions that Count

The compelling story — the four-point definition — is important because it answers the only two questions customers care about when choose who to hire.

Key Question 1: What problem do you solve? (Can you, will you, do the job?)

Key Question 2: What is your unique value? (What do you cost? What are your benefits per buck?)

The two key questions are it. This is just one way the fou-point definition/decision model streamlines our business thinking. More on that laters . . .

Use the Two Key Questions

Now picture me back at that party where someone has asked, “What do you do?” I might answer this way, using the two key questions to guide my reply.

Answer to Key Question 1: I help businesses turn strangers into customer-friends who are fiercely loyal.
Answer to Key Question 2: I have a knack at seeing what businesses do in the way a naive, intelligent customer does. I show clients how they might fix any disconnects in their strategy and relationships.

When it’s you, be sure to answer the two key questions. Then STOP.

Let your audience have a chance to take in what you said. You’ll most likely hear your audience say it back to you in some way. Of course, it’s more meaningful when they talk about it themselves. Even their questions work in your favor.

Explian the problem you solve. Tell why you’re uniquely qualified. Then listen. When I do that I often hear someone tell me why I’m the right person to solve a problem.

Can you stand to hear a potential customer thinking, then talking, about how you might be the right person for a job?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Three Steps to an Intriguing Answer to “What Do You Do?”

August 14, 2007 by Liz

SIMPLE SALES SERIES

Still The Decision Model

You’re at a party, a social. Someone walks up. You introduce yourselves. She offers her card and asks, “What do you do?”

The rest of the conversation and possible future business hinges on how you answer that question. Before you start consider the outcome you’re going for.

Many folks would tell you this is the time for your “elevator pitch.” I suggest that term might not be the best way to look at a relationship. Why don’t we say that an authentic conversation is our goal? After all, if you’re looking for potential clients, we want to know them well and for them to know us too.

Let’s look at how we might talk about ourselves without getting caught in that self-promotional loop.

Three Steps to an Intriguing Answer to “What Do You Do?”

Marketing and self-promotion are only difficult when we’re not inside what we’re talking about. When we’re fully-expressed in what we’re saying, the words come out as if we’re talking over a kitchen table to a close friend. So how do we get to the answer that is ourselves fully expressed, that says what we do?

It takes these three steps.

First Define It. Pull all of the ideas your message needs to communicate into a one sentence. Your ideas should include: your customer, the problem you solve, your unique approach or service, and should reflect your most powerful skill. Let that sentence sit for a few days.
My first try was something like this: I spark discussions that get thinking businesses to engage their customers in beneficial conversation. (I know. I know.)
Then Refine It. Return to the sentence edit it down to shortest most conversational form. Consider the sound and meaning of each individual word. Use the simpler words when you can. Avoid buzz words and don’t try to say everything that you do — leave a little room for your listener’s imagination. When you’re happy with it, let the sentence rest again. If you get frustrated, leave the task and go back later. Take your time.
I refined it to: I teach businesses how to turn strangers into fiercely loyal customer-friends.

Hint: You’ll know that you’re at a good one when you can hear someone replying, “How do you do that?” After all the goal we established was to get a conversation started.
Then Make It Part of You. When you’re sure it’s done, practice saying the sentence until it rolls off your tongue. Keep practicing your answer until it becomes as easy as saying your name.

Everytime you say the sentence in answer to the question “What do you do?” listen and watch the response. Use that feedback to adapt it even more.

The idea is to have the answer inside and thought through before the question comes up. Then the self-conscious blues won’t get in the way of you being able to show your best thinking and skills to someone new.

Try on a few answers, if you’re not sure. Having a handful is better than being caught out without one.

What do you say when someone asks you, “What do you do?”

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.