We're on a mission to democratize entrepreneurial education.
This the foundr culture deck where we showcase what we believe at foundr and the values that are important to us.
For more information about us go to foundr.com
We're on a mission to democratize entrepreneurial education.
This the foundr culture deck where we showcase what we believe at foundr and the values that are important to us.
For more information about us go to foundr.com
Authentic Brands, Design Thinking and Wicked ProblemsOpus Creative
What is an authentic brand? How can Design Thinking help your organization tackle wicked problems ? This brief presentation is from a talk Keith Gerr gave at the University of Oregon's Digital Arts and Product Design Program. The class is taught by Zara Logue, Adj Asst Professor/Design Community Liaison
We believe the only way to scale out Percolate is to distribute decision making out to the edges. That means we ask each and every person in the company to make decisions on behalf of the organization on a regular basis, without necessarily going to their manager to get advice or approval. Their guide instead must be the company’s culture. This values document is an attempt to officially record the values that we believe make Percolate great. Each value is paired with a question that anyone within Percolate could ask themselves to help them understand whether the decision they’re making is aligned with the company.
The rubric we used to write and judge these values is:
1) Enables someone actually make a decision in the moment: a question to ask yourself to know whether you’re living up to that value. An algorithm for making decisions.
2) Aimed at our constituents: employees, customers, and partners.
3) Something that someone can disagree with: generic values don’t help anyone understand anything.
4) Something that can fit in a picture frame or is tweetable: the goal is for these values to sit on a wall in every office around the world.
With that, here are the Percolate Values:
GROWING:
Startup = Growth. A startup isn’t determined by size; it’s a company fueled for growth. We must keep this spirit alive.
THOUGHTFUL BY DESIGN:
We aim for thoughtfulness in everything we do. This should be felt by colleagues, clients, and competition.
JUDGE PERCOLATE AGAINST PERCOLATE:
Know that everyone else has a lower bar than we do, never compromise.
SHIPPING > NOT SHIPPING:
Our orientation should always be towards delivery. Shipping, no matter how small, is always better than not.
OWNERSHIP:
You own this company. As we grow, it is your responsibility to ensure that we’re awesome. If it sucks, make it better.
CONSTANT QUESTIONING:
Asking ‘why?’ isn’t just for children. Being curious will make you and this company great.
FOCUSED ON SCALE, BUT WILLING TO DO THINGS THAT DON’T:
Sometimes the best way to reach scale in the long term is to do things that don’t in the short term.
LED BY PRODUCT:
Product is not just what we build, it’s the way we are. Everyone in the company should be thinking in, and building, products.
NOT JUST A JOB:
We want you to look back and feel that Percolate put your career on a new trajectory. You are proud, and you wouldn’t change a thing.
JUST:
At Percolate you are encouraged to run fast, be fearless, and work hard. If you make a mistake, let’s all learn from it.
What do you think? If you believe in our values and would like to come work with us, please get in touch.
percolate.com/jobs
AES helps you believe in better. This presentation is part manifesto and part employee handbook. It’s about who we are, and what we aspire to become (and we continue to work hard to get there).
The skills that got you to become a creative director are not the skills you need to be a creative director. Me and Xanthe Wells, CCO of Pitch, gave this presentation at the 3% Conference in 2014. Still holds up. (It's just missing a video we shared.)
UX Camp 2016 Copenhagen - Friction In DesignMikkel Køster
Presentation on "Friction In Design" with heavy inspiration from Steve Selzer's (Experience Design Manager at Airbnb) talk at SXSW 2016 on "Human Centred-Design: Why Empathy Isn't Enough"
So thank you very much Steve Selzer - I hope you endorse me spreading your wise words and observations :)
The Great eBook of Employee Questions Part 2: Return of the Question MasterShane Metcalf
The original Great eBook of Employee Questions was so popular that we created this outstanding sequel. In The Return of the Question Master, you’ll find over 60 new questions along with detailed information about why they are valuable and when they should be asked. Topics include: culture building, employee development, productivity, and collaboration.
The seed of question mastery is within us all, but it must be nurtured like any other skill. We hope that by asking these powerful questions you will receive insightful answers to help you and your team gain a better understanding of yourselves, your workplace culture, and the product or service you are bringing into the world.
• Who is an Entrepreneur ?
• The reality of a making money
• What kind of business should I start?
• What are the biggest challenges to starting a business?
• Where can I get money for my business?
• The 4 Crucial Aspects of a business
Go Where the Fish Are: Simple Ways to Write Copy as Your CustomerHien Lam
Capturing your customer voice is vital no matter your business. But how do you capture their voice?
Our strategy is to go where the fish are.
In this presentation, we share 4 potential fishing holes your customer could be hanging out.
Startup 101 for students and aspiring entrepreneursRakesh Soni
Are curious about entrepreneurship and startup? Want to learn more about it? I created this 74 slide presentation to sum up entrepreneurship and startups for university students and aspiring entrepreneurs.
For more awesome content, follow me here, and:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyesoni/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OyeSoni
Marketing a Channel Business in TransformationMojenta
Delivered at Channel Partners Conference & Expo in March 2013, this presentation educated telecom agents on brand building, strategic positioning, building trust, niche marketing, messaging and more.
@bibakis goes through the secrets of landing a great job on the development or sysadmin sector. Learn why CVs are "a platform for lying" and how to create the perfect cover letter.
Authentic Brands, Design Thinking and Wicked ProblemsOpus Creative
What is an authentic brand? How can Design Thinking help your organization tackle wicked problems ? This brief presentation is from a talk Keith Gerr gave at the University of Oregon's Digital Arts and Product Design Program. The class is taught by Zara Logue, Adj Asst Professor/Design Community Liaison
We believe the only way to scale out Percolate is to distribute decision making out to the edges. That means we ask each and every person in the company to make decisions on behalf of the organization on a regular basis, without necessarily going to their manager to get advice or approval. Their guide instead must be the company’s culture. This values document is an attempt to officially record the values that we believe make Percolate great. Each value is paired with a question that anyone within Percolate could ask themselves to help them understand whether the decision they’re making is aligned with the company.
The rubric we used to write and judge these values is:
1) Enables someone actually make a decision in the moment: a question to ask yourself to know whether you’re living up to that value. An algorithm for making decisions.
2) Aimed at our constituents: employees, customers, and partners.
3) Something that someone can disagree with: generic values don’t help anyone understand anything.
4) Something that can fit in a picture frame or is tweetable: the goal is for these values to sit on a wall in every office around the world.
With that, here are the Percolate Values:
GROWING:
Startup = Growth. A startup isn’t determined by size; it’s a company fueled for growth. We must keep this spirit alive.
THOUGHTFUL BY DESIGN:
We aim for thoughtfulness in everything we do. This should be felt by colleagues, clients, and competition.
JUDGE PERCOLATE AGAINST PERCOLATE:
Know that everyone else has a lower bar than we do, never compromise.
SHIPPING > NOT SHIPPING:
Our orientation should always be towards delivery. Shipping, no matter how small, is always better than not.
OWNERSHIP:
You own this company. As we grow, it is your responsibility to ensure that we’re awesome. If it sucks, make it better.
CONSTANT QUESTIONING:
Asking ‘why?’ isn’t just for children. Being curious will make you and this company great.
FOCUSED ON SCALE, BUT WILLING TO DO THINGS THAT DON’T:
Sometimes the best way to reach scale in the long term is to do things that don’t in the short term.
LED BY PRODUCT:
Product is not just what we build, it’s the way we are. Everyone in the company should be thinking in, and building, products.
NOT JUST A JOB:
We want you to look back and feel that Percolate put your career on a new trajectory. You are proud, and you wouldn’t change a thing.
JUST:
At Percolate you are encouraged to run fast, be fearless, and work hard. If you make a mistake, let’s all learn from it.
What do you think? If you believe in our values and would like to come work with us, please get in touch.
percolate.com/jobs
AES helps you believe in better. This presentation is part manifesto and part employee handbook. It’s about who we are, and what we aspire to become (and we continue to work hard to get there).
The skills that got you to become a creative director are not the skills you need to be a creative director. Me and Xanthe Wells, CCO of Pitch, gave this presentation at the 3% Conference in 2014. Still holds up. (It's just missing a video we shared.)
UX Camp 2016 Copenhagen - Friction In DesignMikkel Køster
Presentation on "Friction In Design" with heavy inspiration from Steve Selzer's (Experience Design Manager at Airbnb) talk at SXSW 2016 on "Human Centred-Design: Why Empathy Isn't Enough"
So thank you very much Steve Selzer - I hope you endorse me spreading your wise words and observations :)
The Great eBook of Employee Questions Part 2: Return of the Question MasterShane Metcalf
The original Great eBook of Employee Questions was so popular that we created this outstanding sequel. In The Return of the Question Master, you’ll find over 60 new questions along with detailed information about why they are valuable and when they should be asked. Topics include: culture building, employee development, productivity, and collaboration.
The seed of question mastery is within us all, but it must be nurtured like any other skill. We hope that by asking these powerful questions you will receive insightful answers to help you and your team gain a better understanding of yourselves, your workplace culture, and the product or service you are bringing into the world.
• Who is an Entrepreneur ?
• The reality of a making money
• What kind of business should I start?
• What are the biggest challenges to starting a business?
• Where can I get money for my business?
• The 4 Crucial Aspects of a business
Go Where the Fish Are: Simple Ways to Write Copy as Your CustomerHien Lam
Capturing your customer voice is vital no matter your business. But how do you capture their voice?
Our strategy is to go where the fish are.
In this presentation, we share 4 potential fishing holes your customer could be hanging out.
Startup 101 for students and aspiring entrepreneursRakesh Soni
Are curious about entrepreneurship and startup? Want to learn more about it? I created this 74 slide presentation to sum up entrepreneurship and startups for university students and aspiring entrepreneurs.
For more awesome content, follow me here, and:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyesoni/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OyeSoni
Marketing a Channel Business in TransformationMojenta
Delivered at Channel Partners Conference & Expo in March 2013, this presentation educated telecom agents on brand building, strategic positioning, building trust, niche marketing, messaging and more.
@bibakis goes through the secrets of landing a great job on the development or sysadmin sector. Learn why CVs are "a platform for lying" and how to create the perfect cover letter.
Scott Bishop Omaha Advertising Expo Slides - OAX Scott Bishop
Slides from my Omaha Advertising Expo presentation.
How to Sell to the Right People, the Right Product, at the Right Time.
With the always-expanding fragmentation and personalization of media and audiences, businesses are increasingly losing the power to dictate their communications messaging. In today's uphill marketing battle the best way to maximize marketing ROI is to increase relevancy to your audience. In this session you'll learn what makes audiences click, share, and consume content. You'll learn how to make your business relevant to the right audience. And you'll learn how to maximize engagement with your current audience and how to go after the audience you want.
Ringling College of Art & Design: Content and Social MediaAutumn Sullivan
Had a wonderful conversation with students from Ringling College of Art & Design. What is, and what isn't, content, tips on strategy and creation, and how social media marketing works (and how it doesn't).
This presentation helps us to look at professional networking from a more friendly and informal perspective. What works when you're looking for a job? What doesn't work?
The presentation starts off with a set of premises such as 'a friend is more likely to help you than a non-friend when looking at your resume' - a set of facts/assumptions that help drive the argument of corporate pick-up lines forward. We then discuss a set of lines that were used successfully to start a normal conversation, and we look at the common elements that help us start conversation with complete strangers. This can, in essence, be used to create new friendships (note 'friendships' rather than 'professional connections') which lead to new and exciting opportunities.
After almost a decade in marketing, I realized what made the difference between thriving clients and struggling clients. If you're having a hard time scale your small service business, this is for you.
Digital Strategy Executive Boardroom Strategy Session With Doyle Buehler Doyle Buehler
Digital Strategy And Marketing Executive Boardroom Strategy Session With Doyle Buehler
We often focus on the wrong things, at the wrong time, and leave too much up to chance or hope. Build it and they will come doesn’t work in the digital space. Content is king doesn’t work either. Automation is not a full solution either. There are sometimes too many factors to try to consider all at once. We fundamentally are missing some of the key ingredients to be able to build a clear and compelling marketing message, without the fluff.
Here's some of what we're going to be covering...
How to build a persuasive digital platform that speaks to your target audience
How to create a strategy and execute tactics so you can surround your buyers with a complete and experiential journey
How to position yourself in the top 3% of online businesses
How to create, drive and schedule your content that reflects your audience and their buying journey
How to maximise your content’s reach with a strategic alignment
How to generate more warm referrals and attract more prospects, and the underlying process that allows you to sell more
Your digital toolkit that will save you time and make you more productive
How to understand, develop and enhance the way that you manage your digital assets and ecosystem, through your DigitalGenius
The Career Engineer shares proven career winning tips in a "One Stop Job Shop" fashion. You will walk away with techniques and solutions to make Monday mornings...better!
Kevin Dewalt's Helpful Marketing Webinar at University of OmahaKevin Dewalt
The #1 challenge faced by entrepreneurs is finding more customers and building closer relationships with them. I'm solving this challenge with what I call "Helpful Marketing(TM)".
These slides are part of a Webinar I'm doing with the University of Omaha on January 30, 2014. You can watch it live (or a recording) at https://plus.google.com/events/cvmj3dibuh34qso71530klrf9sc
Learn more by ....
Having a free call with me, http://sohelpful.me/kevindewalt
Taking a free course on Helpful Marketing, https://convertkit.com/app/kevindewalt/helpful-marketing-101
Reading what I write about Helpful Marketing, http://kevindewalt.com/category/helpful-marketing/
or...better still...get started doing Helpful Marketing yourself at http://try.sohelpful.me
This is AND CO's Employee Handbook. We update this book every couple month to reflect our latest updates in learning and beliefs.
A company's product and reputation is a direct outcome of a company's culture. And a strong culture is created by common beliefs, not Ping Pong tables.
For startups, storytelling is an important way for them to connect with target audiences. This presentation talks about why storytelling is important and the step involved to develop good stories.
Top 10 Reasons You Should Consider Promotional Marketing As Your Next Career....Edwin J. Goitia
Have you ever heard of promotional marketing? Well, it is definitely one of those recession-proof, life-changing jobs/gigs you may have heard of before but never really knew much about. Check out this presentation on why this may be your next best move in your career track!
Join our thriving community to get started: http://www.promorockstar.com/group
Get started on the right foot today http://www.promorockstar.com/7steps
Similar to Selling Value to Different Customers (20)
Fast: How Purpose Helps You Maintain Your Brand Identity in a Disruptive WorldHien Lam
Tthe world is constantly changing. It always has been, but it is undeniable that changes are taking place more quickly than ever before.
This speed of change creates complexity and uncertainty for even the savviest brands. So much so that you’re all at here today trying to figure out how to stay ahead of the game and not get left in the dust.
There’s good news. We believe each and every business has a secret weapon to create an adaptable culture.
Though the world around us is VUCA, we can combat it by relying on something that’s constant.
Something that if prioritized, generates a lasting positive impact no matter what happens around us.
And that thing is your BRAND PURPOSE.
By tapping into the power of your brand purpose, you'll be able to:
1. Attract Talent
2. Seduce Customers
3. Fuel Growth
4. Create Impact
JOYRIDES | The Lean Startup-Inspired Tool to 10x Your BusinessHien Lam
While most agencies are willing to gamble on the traditional sales approach of wasting countless hours in writing and revising proposals, Hien Lam, co-founder of Ohm Works, believes there’s a better way. He calls his lean-inspired concept “Joyrides,” which involves short-term, lower-cost workshop experiments with clients that validate ideas before anyone writes a line of code or crafts a page of marketing material. He’ll share how anyone, regardless of industry, can put this concept to use to de-risk projects, validate customer vision, and build trust with clients.
How John Wick Can Help You Create a Blockbuster BrandHien Lam
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that if you want a successful brand you have to have a clear brand message that will compel your audience to take action. However, you’re probably struggling to clarify your message to ensure your audience hangs on to every word you have to say.
In this talk, you’ll learn to do exactly that.
Through an in-depth analysis of what made John Wick a hit movie, you’ll learn the formula you need to transform the way you talk about who your brand is, what your brand does, and your brand’s unique value proposition. (At the very least, you’ll hear a lot of John Wick references.)
Stress Free Living - Making Stress Your FriendHien Lam
Stress isn't your enemy - it's your friend. Instead of trying to reduce or manage stress, you should be harnessing the power of stress.
In this presentation, I show you the 3 simple steps to take advantage of the power of stress.
You weren't put on this earth to work a job you hate until the day you die. Learn to turn your life into an experiment to discover your ultimate purpose.
Do you have goals that seem outside your reach?
Do you find yourself stretched too thin?
Are you overwhelmed, stressed, and burnt out?
If you answer yes to any of these, then Chillpill is coming to the rescue! (You’re welcome)
This presentation shows you EXACTLY how to reclaim your precious time and energy.
During this presentation, we show you:
HOW to get focused on achieving your goals.
WHY time management is not the answer.
WHAT you can do to boost your focus, attention and productivity.
Start taking steps towards shaving wasted hours off your life - hours you can spend on things that matter like your relationships, your health, your goals - your life!
STOP WASTING YOUR LIFE, START ACHIEVING MORE
ABOUT Hien Lam & Matthew Hansen
Hien and Matthew started ChillPill to help you create an extraordinary life for yourself. (Yes, even you, dear reader!) They research and write about habits, routine, and performance that allow people to be their best self.
Learn more at www.chillpill.io
Best Crypto Marketing Ideas to Lead Your Project to SuccessIntelisync
In this comprehensive slideshow presentation, we delve into the intricacies of crypto marketing, offering invaluable insights and strategies to propel your project to success in the dynamic cryptocurrency landscape. From understanding market trends to building a robust brand identity, engaging with influencers, and analyzing performance metrics, we cover all aspects essential for effective marketing in the crypto space.
Also Intelisync, our cutting-edge service designed to streamline and optimize your marketing efforts, leveraging data-driven insights and innovative strategies to drive growth and visibility for your project.
With a data-driven approach, transparent communication, and a commitment to excellence, InteliSync is your trusted partner for driving meaningful impact in the fast-paced world of Web3. Contact us today to learn more and embark on a journey to crypto marketing mastery!
Ready to elevate your Web3 project to new heights? Contact InteliSync now and unleash the full potential of your crypto venture!
Explore Sarasota Collection's exquisite and long-lasting dining table sets and chairs in Sarasota. Elevate your dining experience with our high-quality collection!
Salma Karina Hayat is Conscious Digital Transformation Leader at Kudos | Empowering SMEs via CRM & Digital Automation | Award-Winning Entrepreneur & Philanthropist | Education & Homelessness Advocate
What You're Going to Learn
- How These 4 Leaks Force You To Work Longer And Harder in order to grow your income… improve just one of these and the impact could be life changing.
- How to SHUT DOWN the revolving door of Income Stagnation… you know, where new sales come into your magazine while at the same time existing sponsors exit.
- How to transform your magazine business by fixing the 4 “DON’Ts”...
#1 LEADS Don’t Book
#2 PROSPECTS Don’t Show
#3 PROSPECTS Don’t Buy
#4 CLIENTS Don’t Stay
- How to identify which leak to fix first so you get the biggest bang for your income.
- Get actionable strategies you can use right away to improve your bookings, sales and retention.
Textile Chemical Brochure - Tradeasia (1).pdfjeffmilton96
Explore Tradeasia’s brochure for eco-friendly textile chemicals. Enhance your textile production with high-quality, sustainable solutions for superior fabric quality.
When listening about building new Ventures, Marketplaces ideas are something very frequent. On this session we will discuss reasons why you should stay away from it :P , by sharing real stories and misconceptions around them. If you still insist to go for it however, you will at least get an idea of the important and critical strategies to optimize for success like Product, Business Development & Marketing, Operations :)
Reflect Festival Limassol May 2024.
Michael Economou is an Entrepreneur, with Business & Technology foundations and a passion for Innovation. He is working with his team to launch a new venture – Exyde, an AI powered booking platform for Activities & Experiences, aspiring to revolutionize the way we travel and experience the world. Michael has extensive entrepreneurial experience as the co-founder of Ideas2life, AtYourService as well as Foody, an online delivery platform and one of the most prominent ventures in Cyprus’ digital landscape, acquired by Delivery Hero group in 2019. This journey & experience marks a vast expertise in building and scaling marketplaces, enhancing everyday life through technology and making meaningful impact on local communities, which is what Michael and his team are pursuing doing once more with Exyde www.goExyde.com
How to Build a Diversified Investment Portfolio.pdfTrims Creators
Building a diversified investment portfolio is a fundamental strategy to manage risk and optimize returns. For both novice and experienced investors, diversification offers a pathway to a more stable and resilient financial future. Here’s an in-depth guide on how to create and maintain a well-diversified investment portfolio.
15. Exercise: Potential Customers
15
1. Social Skills is a problem and you want to do
something about it. But who are your
potential customers?
● Introverts
● Men who want to get
better with women
● Shy people
● Small talk haters
● Employees “move up
the ladder”
● Job hunters
16. 1. Think about
2.What are some possible target customers?
Exercise: 99 Problems, but
a room ain’t one
16
25. Social Skills Pains
25
▪ “How do I stop being so shy?”
▪ “What do I do when I run out of things to say? The
awkward pause is the worst coz I know it’s all
downhill from there.”
▪ “Ugh I think I just let the girl of my dreams just walk
out of my life without me even saying hi to her…”
26. Pick 2 possible target customers:
1. What are their burning pains?
2.What are the pain themes?
Exercise: My Prediction?
26
29. Winner, winner...
End The Headache of Constantly Emailing Files & Appointment
Requests Back-and-Forth
Our business suite is the no-hassle way to quickly create a secure space for sharing files, calendar
events, and more.
The Only Business Collaboration Suite That Anticipates Your
Every Move
Customize your calendar, file folders, and to-do lists in ways that other business software can’t even
dream to do.
Eliminate Up to 99% of Your Paper Files
Store files securely online. Access them easily. And collaborate in a single, private location.
33. 1. Problem: Identify your customer’s pain point.
2. Agitate: Stir it up so it hurts to the point of
discomfort.
3. Solve: Deliver a solution.
4. Action: Call to action.
The 4 Parts of PASA
34. You know what doesn’t just fall into your lap? Your dream job.
There’s nothing more frustrating, embarrassing, and an absolute waste of your time than applying for
jobs that are perfect for you, but all you get are crickets after you submit your application and
perfectly crafted cover letter. Who are these jobs going to anyways?
What’s worse...the BEST jobs aren’t ever posted on job boards or Monster.com! So good luck finding
them. It all kinda feels like these age old job hunting techniques are around just to keep you stuck in
a rut, doesn’t it?.
You weren’t put on this Earth to work a job you hate until the day you die. Our “Screw the Cubicle”
workshop will show you how to take your career into your hands with a proven system to:
▪ Stand out from the sea of faceless applications
▪ Network like you’re the most interesting man in the world
▪ Crush interviews and negotiate like a boss
Sign up to make your dream job come true!
Example: Dream Job PASA
35. 1. Pick one of the problems
2.How can you agitate it?
3.What’s the solution?
4.What’s the action?
Exercise:
PASA
35
39. For more, you can find us
@thechillpillist or
info@chillpill.io
FIST BUMPS!!!
Editor's Notes
MH
Let’s give a quick round for everyone involved with organizing and running this Meetup. Angela, Brian, Michael, Mallory, and the people from Nutshell for the space. It takes a ton of time and effort to make this happen, so let’s show our appreciation.
Thanks for having us talk tonight and it’s something we’re both fascinated with and encounter every day with our work - communicating value to different audiences
We both believe in providing value and it’s hard to do that when you don’t know what your customers find important. What makes it harder is that you have a lot of different types of customers. So how do you communicate value that meets all of their needs?
Tonight is all about getting in your customer's mind and pulling out the words that convert sales and get your customers to say “oh man, where has this been all my life?!”
We won’t cover anything about product development or testing like A/B testing, ads, etc.
MH
We all know the typical stories of starting a business or creating a product. Someone has a gamechanger idea, immediately creates the thing, and then doesn’t know what to do with it?
Why isn’t anyone buying it? What’s going on? Is there something wrong with my product, my sales copy, my marketing, my pricing, etc. etc. etc.
And maybe rather than trying to figure out what the problem is, they look at all the variables, throw up their hands, and chalk it all up as a loss
The “field of dream killer” approach to product and business - “if you build it, they’ll come.”
This of course has never happened to anyone in this room, right?
MH
So we’re obviously preaching to the choir about how NOT to create a product or start a business. It’s widely known now that this the wrong approach, and there are tons of systems out there like Lean Startup to reduce risk and increase success.
What we’ve done with our work is adapt principles across different systems that work and simplified them into our own framework. We don’t have time to cover every aspect of it let alone cover everything around capturing customer voice and writing for different customer segments.
(Btw - this gif honestly doesn't really have anything to with this slide - just love it and needed some way to work it in)
MH
Us as Storytellers
Before we go any further, it makes sense to talk a little bit about ourselves. Coz who doesn’t like talking about themselves.
We run a personal development coaching business plus a design, branding, and marketing business
Customer segmentation is vital to both of our businesses and the products/ services we sell.
Marketing a dental office is different than marketing a BBQ joint.
Even though the value is potentially the same for these markets, it needs to tailored to fit the right market. Because every customer type views value differently.
So tonight we’ll show you some techniques we use to craft
HL
It's 7pm on a Tuesday - prime party time!
No matter what business we run, having fun is a key ingredient, so let’s have fun tonight and kick up the jams with...
HL
Who doesn’t love a good quiz?
The good news is there’s only 1 question and no bomb on a bus or anything, but it’s a hard question...
HL
So you may already know the answer to this question. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you have an idea. OR maybe your target market is too broad or too narrow.
Extra credit: Think about your customer and how this may apply to your customer
Again, this is a hard question but it’s the first one we have to ask ourselves if we want to figure out how we communicate value.
Without an answer to this question, we won’t be able to achieve product/ market fit
HL
Marc Andreesen came up with this term and it’s one of the buzziest term in business. And the reason we bring this up is because without communicating value of your product, you have no market.
As Marc Andreesen puts it:
"How great can a product be if nobody wants it?"
But if you can’t clearly articulate your market, it’s nearly impossible to communicate the value.
HL
And this lack of focus on the target customer is a huge issue we run into with our work. People think that craft the value proposition is the same as focusing on your target audience, but it’s actually still part of the Product.
Before you can even create a value prop, you need to truly understand your customer and their needs. And this research will lead to that elusive product-market fit.
We won’t lie - this is a time-consuming process. But all we’re doing is front-loading the work. It becomes way easier to write copy, set pricing, market, etc. when you know who your actual customers are.
This is the part that separate good products from great products.
Like Abe Lincoln said, “give me 6 hours to cut down a tree...”
Just to reiterate - everything we talk about tonight stops at Value Prop. We’re not going to touch on anything about feature sets or UX.
HL
This quote by Theodore Levitt, legendary marketer from Harvard, captures the essence of understanding customer needs.
The idea of selling benefit, not feature.
Again, not earth shattering from those in the room. But it was quite eye-opening when we discovered this concept.
HL
This image is one of our favorite in terms of driving home the importance of selling benefits and not features. So if you’re having trouble selling your product or are trying to come up with ways to sell it, always think of Mario shooting fireballs from his hand instead of the flower.
Another great example is to sell a good night’s sleep - not the mattress. People have little interest in purchasing a bed. What they want is a good night's sleep.
If you sell features, then you won’t answer the question of “What’s in it for me?”
As Seth Godin puts it, “My favorite person is me”
MH
As a part of product/ market fit, your product needs to add value
One of the greatest examples of this is the the marketing for the ipod when it came out. While other mp3 players were selling the tech, Apple sold the benefit. 1,000 songs in your pocket? You could barely get 10 songs on a cd when this thing came out.
Bass boost! Anti-skip!
It sounds so simple but...
MH
But how do you answer the question of “what’s in it for me?”
We think of it as going to the gym. You may be able to walk in and jump on a machine and know what you’re doing. OR…you could be like this guy
Crafting value around benefits is harder than it sounds because not every customer is the same.
Not everyone wants to shoot fireballs from their hands. Or some people already are getting a good night’s sleep. Or they don’t want 1,000 songs in their pocket.
To say that every customer is the same and has the same needs for your product is naive. So you need a process to identify their needs and craft your message to address it.
And that process starts with answering the question of “Who is my target market?”
MH
And you have to go beyond surface level. If you make cars, your customer is anyone who wants a car. Is your customer Batman or Uncle Rico? You have to answer this question because depending on your answer, you’ll have different needs to serve.
For example:
Batman’s car needs to shoot missiles and turn into a motorcycle.
And it can only come in black.
Is this your market? Or is it Uncle Rico?
Uncle Rico, on the other hand, needs something to carry his video camera and tupperware
Can you see a scenario where both Batman and Uncle Rico would want the same car?
Both need a car, but once you get deeper than the surface, you’ll start to see different needs - one to fight crime and the other to relive his glory years
Because of how important this is, we want to do a quick exercise with everyone...
MH - Animation
Who are some potential customers who are suffering from social skill issues?
Note the language: Potential audiences. Not who you want to work with, but “Who would be interested in this?”
Go beyond demographics, think about mindset
This was a hypothetical scenario and we picked it because we doubt there’s anyone out there right now in the audience trying to address this, so we wanted you to get out of your comfort zone.
Now let’s look at an actual company and figure out who their target audience is...
MH
Want everyone to break up into small groups and spend 5 minutes thinking about these 2 things. Then we’ll get back together and talk about it.
We want to use airbnb because their customer base is huge
Target customer: price, cheap place to stay, person that own properties, and the users, experiences, pet component, kitchen, cook for themselves, you’re getting a unique local experience, unique local experiences, lists property - well esablished, conference goers, location, timing,
HL
So now we’ve identified so potential customers. How do you find out what their Underserved Needs?
To do that, we have to go fishing...
HL
To figure out needs, we have to immerse ourselves in the customer’s mind. It’s what in Design is known as Empathy Mapping.
And the best way to do this is going to where the fish are. The best fishers know the best fishing holes. You can’t just cast your line into the water and hope you get a bite.
Turn the ocean into a bucket.
The key to fishing is finding the right fishing spot, so...
HL
Reddit, amazon reviews, youtube videos, Facebook, etc.
But go deeper - which youtube channels, which Facebook pages?
What about Google searches?
Even if you already know your customers and you have an existing product, we’d recommend doing this exercise.
Once you find out where your potential target customers hang out, you can start to discover their underserved needs. Which we like to call...
HL
Aka “pain in the ass” (in this case, pain in the knee)
You may also hear this being called “burning pains”
What is your market saying? This is the voice of the customer that you can use in your sales copy to sell your product.
Let’s look at a real life example of Peters or burning pain
HL
Since it’s tax season, let’s talk about turbotax. (Also, side note, tax day is 4/18 so get your taxes in)
So, if we think about TT’s customers, we can come up with some of their pains or underserved needs.
We can then come up with themes for these needs. This helps us craft our copy and message. We’ll get to these more later
TurboTax has solutions for each of these problems
Wizard to guide you through your taxes so they’re less confusing
Audit analyzer to see your risk
Direct deposit, electronic submission to IRS
Tax deduction calculators
But again, these problems may not be problems every customer has. TurboTax has to craft their sales copy to each target customer type based on their need.
So once you find the fishing holes, ask yourself these questions….
MH
Go beyond demographics because they don’t sell. For example, you don’t buy the Wall Street Journal because you’re 55, you’re male, you’ve got 2 kids and you bring in between $125 – $250K a year. There’s something more about the person who buys the WSJ that leads them to buy it. That’s what you’re trying to find.
This also helps you set the tone for your copy as well (which is another talk we could give).
Once you figure this out, ask yourself...
MH
What are they complaining about? What words are they using? Phrases? Key in on language that’s repeated over and over and over. There’s a reason why they’re using it.
We were going to create a Better Sleep course (that we put on the backburner), and we went through this process. Were we to create the product, one of the comments we were going to use in our copy was “To wake up in the morning, I tie a 5-hour energy from the ceiling over my head and set System of a Down’s Chop Suey as my alarm. When the song goes off, I stand up and pound the 5-hour energy.”
You hear that and you immediately can understand the pain this person goes through to wake in the morning
Now you know what they’re suffering from, the last question you want to ask is...
MH
What do they want? Mr. 5-hour energy guy is hoping for a system that will get rid of his absurd hack. You’ll find people write things like “all I want is to wake up with energy and without having to hit the snooze button.”
Another benefit of asking this question is you get to find out what solutions your customer is using today to achieve their goals. These are your competitors.
MH
To show what can come out of a deep dive into Fishing Holes and doing Empathy Maps, we did some quick research and went to some social anxiety fishing holes and found a couple of great nuggets.
“How do I stop being so shy?” - imagine being someone who’s shy and seeing this across your screen in a Facebook ad. Wouldn’t you at least stop to look at it?
“What do I do when I run out of things to say? I can’t stand the awkward pause coz it’s all downhill from there.” - another great example of the pain your potential customer is suffering through. And if your product is targeting people who can’t small talk, they’d read that and say “yes...that’s me!” I know coz that’s me.
3rd comment “Ugh”
Raise your hand if at least one of these resonated with you?
Each also is copy for 3 different customer segments:
Shyness
Small talk
Smooth operators
You read these and you think “...yeah, I know the feeling. That sucks.”
MH
Spend 10 minutes thinking about these 2 questions with your group. Then we’ll get back together and talk about it.
[Just for our own reference]
Potential pains:
Accommodation while traveling
Rooms not being used
Variety of choices of rooms
Cheaper price
Transparency and review
Meeting people, local culture
HL
Now that you’ve gone fishing, you’ve just created a customer voice swipe file. Do it in a spreadsheet, it doesn’t have to be fancy.
All that time and effort was spent to capture the customer’s voice. To put in their own words what benefit they’re going to get from your product/ solution.
Our job is to use real people’s words to express what they want, what they like, what they need.
Our job is to empathize with our customers. And when we can do that, we’ll see marked improvements.
HL
To show the power of the customer voice, we want to go through a quick case study of how simply using the customer voice increased conversion for this client by 100%
In this case, conversion = clicks from a landing page to a pricing page.
So, here’s the original copy from the client. We took their name out.
So that’s the baseline. We’re going to show 3 variations of of a headline and subtitles, and we want you to tell us which led to the increased conversion.
HL
So, here we go.
Which one do you think increased conversion? As a matter of fact, 2 out of the 3 lost to the original copy. That’s just embarrassing.
Alright, so the winner is….A!
….
Just kidding! It’s C
It’s simple to see why right? And the beauty is, the only Copy is the subheader. The headline was all customer voice that came from fishing.
HL
So at this point, you’ve identified your possible target customers with their burning needs...You’ve captured the Customer’s Voice.
Time to add value like a boss and solve some problemos.
This is where your product and MVPs come in. You’ll define your feature sets and UX, etc. Iterate...
So now you have a product and you’re going to market it.
How do we take the burning points and market them?
HL
Your differentiation and what you use in your sales copy and marketing for your target markets will be the performance benefit and delighter you focus on with your service or product that makes you different than your competitors. These are the things that you MVP and create under the Product part of the PMF triangle.
And these things may be for different target niches - the person who wants high MPG may not be the one who gives a damn about wireless charging or a panoramic sunroof
We’re not going to cover Feature Sets and UX, but we want to touch on Value Prop and how everything we’ve done so goes into it.
So we’ve identified the value prop and the target customers who’d benefit most from it - now we need to write copy for them.
Remember that swipe file we came up with earlier? Now it comes in handy.
But you don’t want to just write. To express value to different customers, you want to use a proven copywriting formula known as...
MH
The formula we like to use is PASA (and we say PAHSA not PAYSA coz it just sounds classier). We took a copying writing formula known as PAS and added a missing one critical ingredient. So we remixed it like R.Kelly remixed Ignition to come up with PASA.
There are other copywriting formulas out there like AIDA, SLAP, etc. but we’re fans of this formula because it’s simple to apply. And it works within the framework we’ve been through go through really well.
MH
A simple way to think about this is having an itch in the middle of your back that you just can’t scratch. You want to point that itch out using the research you did, and make the itch unbearable. Do this by calling attention to it. Use the burning points you found as your agitation.
And just sell them the back scratcher using benefits language.
MH - Read off slide
We’re working on a dream job workshop for our subscribers and this is a quick draft of some copy. Wanted to share it so you can see PAS in action.
MH
Alright, one last group exercise:
Suggestions
Accommodation while traveling
Rooms not being used
Variety of choices of rooms
Cheaper price
Transparency and review
Meeting people, local culture
So conclude...
HL
If you’ve seen Wolf of Wall Street, you may be familiar with this theme that came up throughout the movie. And you may have even thought about your answer to the question - How would I sell this pen to Leo’s character? Or to anyone?
They don’t really answer the question in the movie. But the answer is everything we’ve talked about today. Is understanding your audience. To get in their mind and figure out why they’d need a pen.
It’s not things like, “This pen writes upside down in zero gravity.” Because that’s a feature. Not a benefit.
And you can only figure out the benefits by understanding your customer. So rather than trying to sell the pen, ask Leo, “how long have you been in the market for a pen?”
Armed with this info, you can tell him why he and the pen are a match made in heaven.
If you can remember this, then...
HL
You’ll be happy and make it rain. Thanks everyone for having us, and thanks again to Angela, Brian, and Nutshell for hosting us.
MH
MH
Did anyone try to apply this to a real product they’re working on tonight? We’d love to chat about how it went.
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