Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business by Kevin Ready Page B
Book: Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business by Kevin Ready
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Authors: Kevin Ready
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your sales team is trained to tell customers
What your employees in a retail store are trained to say
How signs are constructed inside and outside of your retail location
Every possible variation of every message you put in front of a customer will have an effect. It is incumbent upon you to reach out and try to get a handle on what that effect is, and to find the most effective, informative, and value-creating message to use when you get that precious slice of your customer’s attention.
More than anything, avoid saying too much or assuming your marketing targets know anything about you. The tendency I have seen is to try to impart all of the great stuff you have built into your product in one avalanche of details: “We do this and we do that and you save money and it slices, and dices, and wow—can you believe version 2.0 has the new doodlydad with print capability and … and … and …”
Pick the most compelling part of your story and share a simplified, distilled version of it when you get that precious slice of customer attention. Use it as a hook to get to the next step of the conversation. Then provide more details as the customer comes in for a closer look. Your critical messaging will often be at least in part, and answer to the question asked in the next section.
_________________
Why You?
This is a question that you will need to answer. It is a question that every potential customer has in store for you, and something that you should be prepared to answer early on. A good friend of mine has been working on a micropayment platform for online commerce for the past couple of years. Early on he asked me for some input on his project, and one of the first things I asked him was rather blunt but meant to provoke thought: “Why you? Why not Google? Why not Amazon? If you want to be a platform for companies and individuals to use across the Web, how will you explain why it needs to be you, why it must be you? Why not the other really large (and well-known) players in the market?” It may be worthwhile to note that he could not convincingly answer that question, and has made a pivot or two since that time.
The “why you?” question is intimately related to the fact that most products and services can begin to fall into the parity product category if you let them. With most business models, there are multiple other options in the marketthat you will need to compete against to earn a customer. Take a look at pizza. How many different pizza options do you have within 10 minutes of where you are right now? Pizza is available via home delivery, Internet delivery, local restaurants, and chains such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s. A customer could even decide to head to the kitchen and make one from scratch. How many pizza brands can you find in your local store? Your grocery store probably has 30 different options for frozen pizza. Any which way you turn—pizza is everywhere.
Take a moment to think about all of the messaging you get for this one product on TV and the radio, in the newspaper and junk mail coupons, and from signs at the grocery store. All of this messaging is aimed at differentiating products from one another on some facet of the pizza experience:
Taste
Price
Convenience
Emotions (e.g., fun)
Quality
Local exclusivity
Just as with the pizza industry, you will have to differentiate yourself in some way to stand out, to get customers, and to grow a defensible position from which to operate.
_________________
The Internet Is Not Magic
Don’t believe that the Internet is a magic solution to any business problem. It is much like any normal marketplace, but with a lower barrier to entry and potential global reach. If you look at your laptop computer, plugged into the World Wide Web, and feel electrified by the possibilities represented by that connection with so many other people, then we both have something in common. I feel it too.
Even though the Internet is a miracle of
What your employees in a retail store are trained to say
How signs are constructed inside and outside of your retail location
Every possible variation of every message you put in front of a customer will have an effect. It is incumbent upon you to reach out and try to get a handle on what that effect is, and to find the most effective, informative, and value-creating message to use when you get that precious slice of your customer’s attention.
More than anything, avoid saying too much or assuming your marketing targets know anything about you. The tendency I have seen is to try to impart all of the great stuff you have built into your product in one avalanche of details: “We do this and we do that and you save money and it slices, and dices, and wow—can you believe version 2.0 has the new doodlydad with print capability and … and … and …”
Pick the most compelling part of your story and share a simplified, distilled version of it when you get that precious slice of customer attention. Use it as a hook to get to the next step of the conversation. Then provide more details as the customer comes in for a closer look. Your critical messaging will often be at least in part, and answer to the question asked in the next section.
_________________
Why You?
This is a question that you will need to answer. It is a question that every potential customer has in store for you, and something that you should be prepared to answer early on. A good friend of mine has been working on a micropayment platform for online commerce for the past couple of years. Early on he asked me for some input on his project, and one of the first things I asked him was rather blunt but meant to provoke thought: “Why you? Why not Google? Why not Amazon? If you want to be a platform for companies and individuals to use across the Web, how will you explain why it needs to be you, why it must be you? Why not the other really large (and well-known) players in the market?” It may be worthwhile to note that he could not convincingly answer that question, and has made a pivot or two since that time.
The “why you?” question is intimately related to the fact that most products and services can begin to fall into the parity product category if you let them. With most business models, there are multiple other options in the marketthat you will need to compete against to earn a customer. Take a look at pizza. How many different pizza options do you have within 10 minutes of where you are right now? Pizza is available via home delivery, Internet delivery, local restaurants, and chains such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s. A customer could even decide to head to the kitchen and make one from scratch. How many pizza brands can you find in your local store? Your grocery store probably has 30 different options for frozen pizza. Any which way you turn—pizza is everywhere.
Take a moment to think about all of the messaging you get for this one product on TV and the radio, in the newspaper and junk mail coupons, and from signs at the grocery store. All of this messaging is aimed at differentiating products from one another on some facet of the pizza experience:
Taste
Price
Convenience
Emotions (e.g., fun)
Quality
Local exclusivity
Just as with the pizza industry, you will have to differentiate yourself in some way to stand out, to get customers, and to grow a defensible position from which to operate.
_________________
The Internet Is Not Magic
Don’t believe that the Internet is a magic solution to any business problem. It is much like any normal marketplace, but with a lower barrier to entry and potential global reach. If you look at your laptop computer, plugged into the World Wide Web, and feel electrified by the possibilities represented by that connection with so many other people, then we both have something in common. I feel it too.
Even though the Internet is a miracle of
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