One of the biggest mistakes of failed entrepreneurs is coming up with a product/service that THEY BELIEVE is in demand, which is based on perception or personal influence. Time and money are spent working to produce a product offering and when brought to market, they find out that their prospective customers really don’t care for the idea. So how do you avoid this without putting too much capital at risk? The answer is to test your idea by pre-marketing to your perspective customer.
There are many ways to test your idea to understand if it is not only sell-able but also sustainable. Even if your strategy is to ride a trend with an exit strategy to sell your company in a short time, you need to test market your idea and then take the feedback to either redevelop your idea or throw it in the trash and start again.
In our first of seven “Lean Startup” series, where we focus on how to come up with your business idea and how to test its attraction to your intended customer. We focusing on using technology to gain insight and to test market an idea. This session will help you take an existing or new idea and creating a model that is sustainable for long term growth.
1) Coming up with an idea (Brainstorming and attracting your most valuable skills) Note: Ideas generating worksheet provided
2) Researching your idea (Using the internet(social media channels, forums, blogs etc to gain intimate knowledge of what your competition is doing and improve your offering.)
3) Testing to see if your idea sells (What is your idea worth and can it sustain. How can you pre-sell your idea as if it’s already ready to market.)
Your call to action is to take your idea and further test market it to your prospective customer. Based on the research and feedback provided, you would be much better positioned to create something that has more value than where you started.
5. Idea generation
Write down all of your ideas, no matter how
ridiculous
Clever ideas are not the only ones that work, boring
ideas are just as good
Should match what you are willing to do over what
you can do
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6. Stealing ideas
Large % of successful businesses have taken idea
and improved upon it
Don’t worry about people stealing your idea
Most people are all talk
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7. Is this you?
"I don't know what to do"
"I don't have any ideas"
"I have no skills"
"I want to quit my job, but I don't have enough
experience to do what I love"
"Why would anyone pay for my service?”
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8. Skills into service
What are you good at? What motivates you?
Review current skills set, passions
Define how much money you need to make
Rule of thumb: 2x’s salary
Low risk
Start part-time/freelance
Common issue that bugs you?
You have a solution?
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10. No one care what you do
Where businesses fail
Don’t connect with prospect
No differentiation in competitive market
I’m a financial planner
I’m a life coach
I sell digital solutions
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11. What do people care about
Only focused on own problems
Always looking for WII-FM
Don’t give a crap about what you can do: How can
you help me?
Testimonials: feel better that you’ve done it before
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12. Bottom line
People buy benefits, not features
Highlight what they get
Focus what is delivered, not what you do
What it the outcome/output from doing business
with you
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13. What are your benefits
What I/we do is…
Your answer
What this means is…
Your answer
What this really means is…
Your answer
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14. My example
“I’m a digital marketer”
VS.
“I help companies create marketing strategies online
and for mobile devices that reach their target customer
and increase sales leads.”
15.
Does your idea sell?
Find out answers to these core questions
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23. To the streets!
Don’t invest anything just yet…..see what people think
Talk to people who you anticipate will buy service/product
Don’t hard sell your service yet – your goal is to get
information, not to sell.
Most people are happy to discuss their wants, needs, and
thoughts with you.
Ask:
Is this something they are willing to pay for?
Have they bought something like this before?
Look at similar businesses, see how they position themselves.
Are they doing well?
25. Example:Test before building
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Landing pages of product information marketers
Build marketing copy
Promote SEM/SEO/Social Media
Gauge excitement/interest
Lead generation activities to market new ideas
Build Product!
file:///Users/artglee/Desktop/LeanStartup/A%20Compelling%20Headline%20Is
%20Crucial%20for%20a%20Sales%20Page.html
27. What are your targets
Set quantifiable goals (i.e. make $X in X time)
Full-time job? set low-level, small, daily goals taking
<1 hour). Consistency is more important than big
leaps
Talk to 3 people and get their feedback on whether
your idea works